Funny how he is doing exactly what he told people NOT to do in reference to the Tea Baggers that have repeatedly been caught using racial divisiveness and blatant and unblushing racist language.
And while the reactionary Right in America are falling over themselves trying to show that it's really the Left that are the racists, there is one thing that separates what happened at the Koch's event and what happens each and every time a Tea Bagger is highlighted for their racial animus - the Left actually holds people accountable while clearly admitting that not everyone in attendance at any event is going to be a "perfect" person.
Common Cause, the group hosting the Florida even where Breitbart and his crew shot the video in question, has released this statement:
Common Cause condemns bigotry, hateful statements caught on film at rally
Common Cause’s 40 year history of holding power accountable has been marked by a commitment to decency and civility – in public and private. So we are of course outraged to find that a few of those attending the events around a gathering Common Cause helped to organize Sunday near Palm Springs voiced hateful, narrow-minded sentiments to an interviewer in the crowd.
We condemn bigotry and hate speech in every form, even when it comes from those who fancy themselves as our friends.
Anyone who has attended a public event has encountered people whose ideas or acts misrepresented, even embarrassed, the gathering. Every sporting event has its share of “fans” whose boorish behavior on the sidelines makes a mockery of good sportsmanship; every political gathering has a crude sign-painter or epithet-spewing heckler.
We organized the “Uncloak the Kochs” panel discussion and took part in the rally afterwards to call public attention to the political power of Koch Industries and other corporations, their focus on expanding that power, and the dangers it presents to our democracy.
We’re committed to staging other forums and public events in the coming months to continue that effort. We urge all Americans of good will to join us.
Those on tape who made these pointless and ridiculous statements are just as bad as the Tea Baggers that make equal claims against their opponents. They are both a pox on their respective movements and should be pointed out as such. However, the modern American Right are more intent on framing this as a failure of American popular media as well as a way to white-wash their own failures.
Once the initial claim broke that ALL within the Tea Bagger caliphate were racists, I knew that this would spell trouble for the Left in America - as it wasn't true. Certainly, there are more than enough racists in the modern American Right to have to deal with at any given "party gathering", but to paint the entire group with the same brush is dishonest. I think there are even some I would regard as my political opposition that just might be able to exercise the intellectual honesty to admit even as much.
The only problem is that a majority of Tea Bagger allies are more content to point the finger in the opposite direction - or even reinforce the Left's claims by trying to be clever - and cast aside accountability ( allegedly a cornerstone of conservative ideology ) in total.
The Left in this country would do well to speak out about this clip, but do so in an honest fashion that not only points out that racial animus can cross party lines but showcase how the modern American Right are continuing with the same debunked narrative - that it's not them.
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