Rush Plays the Race Card Against Sotomayor
26 May 2009 5:37 pm by Taylor Marsh
–updated–
Sotomayor as a child.
Rush Limbaugh went on quite a tirade today. I heard it. Here’s part of it:
So, here you have a racist. You might want to soften that and you might wanna say a reverse racist. And the libs, of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don’t have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist and now he’s appointed one — getting this, AP? — Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court …
So she’s not the brain that they’re portraying her to be, she’s not a constitutional jurist. She is an affirmative action case extraordinaire and she has put down white men in favor of Latina women. She has claimed that the court is all about making policy. So yes, there’s a golden opportunity. Take this to the mat. Take it to the wall. The people need to know what Obama really believes in and this is how it could happen. Now will the Republicans do it? That’s another question.
A racist is a racist, reverse has nothing to do with it.
But juxtaposed against Judge Sotomayor’s humble nomination acceptance speech today (see video), I don’t think there’s any doubt what Rush is really trying to do. Raise the issue that the white guy has been overlooked because of affirmative action; pit one person against another because in his judgment all things are now equal.
Hannity did the same thing on his show today. The world should be color and gender blind, because all things are equal, even if they’re not.
As an aside, people are doing the same thing with women too, saying sexism doesn’t exist because women are succeeding in greater numbers, even if we’re paid less and have fewer chances to rise to the top.
One African American president doesn’t make the playing field even for all.
Lily Ledbetter Act doesn’t dissolve the sexism that is real.
Judge Sotomayor making the case that a Latina woman has different experiences that make her judgment richer in some cases doesn’t make her a racist.
Sotomayor and her baby brother.
I’m a little surprised that Rush didn’t come right out to squeal the opening lines to the wingnut anthem: Rise up. Hispanics are taking our jobs!
But “reverse racism” is nothing less than a desperate man’s argument. Desperate because the blue collar white guy is leaving the Republican Party in droves. I won’t say that they’ve finally learned the American Dream can never be captured through Republican policies, but instead keep them in a constant state of wanting, while feeding the guys at the top like Rush. But after 8 years of George W. Bush they can look at their paycheck to see it’s not going as far as it used to. If they have a paycheck at all. And they can’t blame Obama because he just arrived.
Rush’s “reverse racism” rallying cry is pathetic. From a rich Republican male who has been so long at the game that he’s beginning to sound like a Dixiecrat. Strom Thurmond would be proud.
