POLITICO: Shutdown releases racism

POLITICO: Shutdown releases racism

POLITICO: SHUTDOWN RELEASES RACISM — “Admit it,” Wurzelbacher wrote. “You want a white Republican president again. Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist; it just makes you American.”                         

By Roger Simon  POLITICO’s chief political columnist

This weekend, racism came out of the closet. (Which assumes it has ever been in the closet?)

Protesters marched through the streets of Washington on Sunday with a Confederate flag and then a protester lounged against the White House fence with one. Displaying the Confederate flag in front of a home occupied by a Black family was meant to send a particular, and particularly repellant, message.

There were other signs of our descent. Remember Samuel Wurzelbacher? Known as “Joe the Plumber,” he was selected by John McCain as his presidential campaign mascot in 2008 with the same care McCain used to select Sarah Palin.

Over the weekend, Wurzelbacher posted an article on his blog titled: “America Needs a White Republican President.”

“Admit it,” Wurzelbacher wrote. “You want a white Republican president again. Wanting a white Republican president doesn’t make you racist, it just makes you American.”

America has come to a sorry pass. Not because there are still racists among us, but because the racists among us think they can tell us what makes an American.

These people are like the man in the cartoon: He has climbed out on a tree limb and is sawing off the limb behind him, imagining that the tree will fall and not him.

They are wrong about that. America will not fall. It will withstand this moment and these people.

I started with a joke and so I will end with one:

Question: What is the difference between the people who shut down the government and the people who have been furloughed?

Answer: The people who have been furloughed actually want to work.