The Republican Committee of Loudoun County, Virginia, labeled a picture of President Obama with a bullet through his head as "light-hearted" fun, that injected "satire humor into the Halloween holiday."
I've posted it here because I want to continue to document the many, many racist images and emails of President and Mrs. Obama that various local Republican committees around the country have generated since Mr. Obama became president.
When the GOP whines about people calling them racist when they criticize the president's policies, they obscure the fact that people label the GOP racist because of these kinds of sordid and vicious images of the president that they giddily pass around to their fellow racists.
Most decent people have condemned the image, but the fact remains that this is still a part of what the GOP is and whom they tolerate in their party.
"A Halloween-themed email from the Loudoun County, Va., Republican Committee was swiftly condemned by conservative and liberal groups today for featuring an image of a ghoulish-looking President Obama with a bullet hole through his head.
The message, with the subject line “Halloween 2011,” invites supporters to a community parade where “we are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy.” It also features a caricature of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a jack-o-lantern, and cartoons of zombies.
The email was first reported by the blog Too Conservative, which said the group had gone “way too far” and should be reported to the U.S. Secret Service.
Mark Sell, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, explained that the email was a “light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday.”
9 comments:
Auntie Shaw,
What is your situation? Do have electricity? I am receiving reports of widespread outages.
I'm on Cape Cod where we had only rain and wind. No outages here or in area of Boston where I live.
Shaw and Octo...
I too saw this... and I even saw some fairly conservative blogs criticizing it.
But almost in the same breath, many of those same blogs that rightfully were critical of this, did so in a congratulatory method.
They seemed to believe that their criticism of this was proof that they were more high minded than us more liberal leaning folks.
Let me explain.
As I perused the sites, I was frequently reminded of the response by liberals on the Huffington Post when Tony Snow passed away. Conservatives were rightfully upset at many of the comments that seemed to have a good riddance quality to them.
This, and the general tenor of liberal critiques over the last few years of conservatives as unthinking, racist, poor hating bigots has only served to further poison the formerly bi-partisan well that sustained our political system.
However, let’s not be so quick in our understanding.
As mean spirited as the attacks and comments were towards Tony Snow, a man I had always respected, they were from individuals.
As wrong, broad brushed, and stereotypical as many comments are towards conservatives, they have been from individuals.
Not all conservatives are racist bigots anymore than all liberals are pure at heart. All conservatives are not unthinking dolts anymore than all liberals are pointy headed intellectuals.
All of that being said, there is still a difference in the types of mockery that we have seen from the conservative side of the ledger, and this mailer is a good example.
Like the watermelon patch e-mail, this latest affront has come from a GOP official. A bona fide representative of his or her party. The simple fact that an elected official, and make no mistake, leaders of state and local political parties are elected, has been the genesis of a large number of these hideous expressions, is much different, and in my opinion worse than individual democrats making equally horrible comments.
As leaders, people are held to a higher standard.
It is not unreasonable to extrapolate that absent a public rebuke from GOP leadership, their party approves of this type of material.
After all, when speaking of Islam, we frequently hear the GOP say the absence of official condemnation proves the entire religion is evil.
There most certainly is a difference, whether or not people choose to see or acknowledge it, is another question.
Thanks for posting on this!
That final paragraph should read
After all, when speaking of Islam, we frequently hear the GOP say the absence of official condemnation of terrorism proves the entire religion is evil.
Well said, Dave. Thank you.
I will add that I have yet to receive any blast emails about Herman Cain depicting him with a bone through his nose or eating a watermelon.
What I've read and seen concerning Cain is criticism and mockery, yes mockery, about his unpreparedness to participate in presidential politics.
And I've read absolutely nothing nasty about Mrs. Cain.
Speaking of which, a certain malcontented conservative blogger has seen fit to post a complete lie about Mrs. Obama--again.
This blogger is obsessed with Mrs. Obama, and not in a healthy way.
Dave, I'm not uncomfortable at all with the fact that not all conservatives are racist bigots, but I have no hesitation in saying thatwisted most of the Tea Party is racist and the TP has pretty much taken over the Republican party.
Shaw: I went by Malcontent's blog and think it's very obvious why he has such a small following. The guy is truly twisted - even for most right-wingers - and just as despicable as the person or persons who produced this so-called "Halloween Joke."
Shaw, I wasn't even aware Cain was married. guess i hadn't really thought about it.
Leslie, I hear you on the TP, but I am not ready to paint them as racist. Racially insensitive maybe. Racially uneducated, possibly. Scared? For sure. And fear has a way of causing people to act at times irrational.
Doesn't remove responsibility, just sayin...
“The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever,’’ said Pat Mullins, chairman of the state party. “The Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms.”
Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) said through a spokesman that the e-mail is “shameful and offensive.’’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/va-republicans-condemn-loudoun-gop-e-mail-with-image-of-obama-shot-in-the-head/2011/10/31/gIQA66DIaM_story.html
Leslie, about time... now can we expect the rest of what is needed and to see the national party step up and condemn these actions as racist and hateful, and then state that there is no place in the GOP for these actions?
After all, that is what was expected from Obama on Rev. Wright and the Democratic Party on a host of issues.
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