Eye Recommend -- Their Reaction to Charleston Shooting Disqualifies the GOP from American Politics

THEIR REACTION TO CHARLESTON SHOOTING DISQUALIFIES THE GOP FROM AMERICAN POLITICS, by Hrafnkell Haraldsson -- http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/20/charleston-shooting-disqualifies-gop-american-politics.html

what eye thynk:   So many wrong words have come from the right--from presidential candidates, from maybe presidential candidates, from Republican leadership, from Fox, from other right-wing pundits--that my head has been spinning.  Mr. Haraldsson puts them all together in one scathing editorial.

"The Republican reaction to the church massacre in South Carolina has been beyond belief.  I feel almost more shell-shocked by the conservative reaction than by the shootings themselves.  I feel bad saying that, but it's true."

I know what he means.  I have found myself embarrassed to look some of my fellow minority actors and friends in the eye when the subject came up.  Apologizing for the right's reaction seems so empty.  Denouncing the right seems so inadequate.   

Mine is a white face.  I am physically indistinguishable from members of the political right.  I look like part of the problem, or at least like someone who should take the responsibility for solving it.

"The murders say a lot about one man.  The reaction indicts the entire Republican apparatus, from voters to elected officials.  I have been unable to find a single sane Republican reaction,

A case in point is Rick Perry's claim that it was an 'accident.'  Forget for a moment how somebody accidentally shoots nine people to death.  Rick Perry is a man who wants to be president.  But he can come out with something like this...

...Perry went on to say, 'This is the MO of this administration, any time there is an accident like this--the president is clear, he doesn't like for Americans to have guns and so he uses every opportunity, this being another one, to basically go parrot that message.  Also, I think there is a real issue to be talked about.  It seems to me, again without having all the details about this, that these individuals have been medicated and there may be a real issue in this country from the standpoint of these drugs and how they're used.'"

What the President actually did was point out that this type of violence does not happen in any other developed country on earth.  It is a uniquely American phenomenon and the majority of Americans want to find a way to stop it.  But leave it to a Republican to turn it into another "Obama is coming to take your guns" moment.  And, of course, lets ignore the opportunity to condemn the shooter and the "real issue" of questioning how the shooter learned this degree of racial hatred and instead blame it on drugs and mental health issues.

"Dylann Roof didn't kill those people by overdosing them.  He SHOT them.  With a GUN.  Think rather about Rick Perry's own state of mind, and that of the demographic he is appealing to...

...We know that the shooting was racially motivated because the guy they arrested for murdering those people says so.

As Richard Cohen, President of the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) said in a statement, 'A white man who admires apartheid walks into a black church and kills nine people.  According to an eyewitness, he says that he has "has to do it" because black people "rape our women" and are "taking over our country."  It's an obvious hate crime by someone who feels threatened by our country's changing demographics and the increasing prominence of African Americans in public life.'"

I have to agree with Mr. Cohen.  The election of a black man to the office of President of the United States, rather than ushering in the hoped-for post-racial era, has instead incited racists who have held their hatred close for over 50 years to explode on the public scene in a way I naively hoped never to see again in my country.

"Where is the accident here?  Where is Fox News' evidence that this was an anti-Christian shooting?  Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch wrote yesterday, "The pundits at Fox News, where many of the GOP leaders get their talking points, were in agreement.  Steve Doocy said it's "extraordinary" that the police called the attack a hate crime since it "was a white guy apparently and a black church." positing that the attack was the result of the shooter's "hostility towards Christians."  Brian Kilmeade said the shooter "hates Christian churches" and Elisabeth Hasselbeck called it an "attack on faith," all the while ignoring the shooter's explicit mentions of race.'

Such willful ignorance is criminal.  And that's just scratching the surface.

How about Fox News' token black man, antigay (sic) hater E.W. Jackson.  Where is his evidence when he claims the shooting was caused by 'growing hostility and antipathy to Christianity and what this stands for, the biblical worldview about sexual morality and other things.'"

I would call that taking the "It's all about me" meme to a whole new level of self-absorption.  That right-wing politicians and pundits are willing to turn another senseless, hate-fueled tragedy into one more opportunity to flaunt the GOP's blind dedication to feeding far-right Christian paranoia is disgusting in the extreme.

"Or Rick Santorum's 'assault on religious liberty' and Lindsey Graham's 'There are people out there, looking for Christians to kill them'?

No.  There are people out there looking for black people to kill them.  All the time.  Every day,  How do you miss that?

The killer didn't say he was going after Christians.  He said he was going after blacks. And he said why.

Facts, folks.  Facts.  Even bigots should be able to read and understand facts. Far from even admitting black people were killed because they were black, conservatives didn't even want to admit the killer was white.

'But this guy doesn't look white!' exclaimed the blonde, white-skinned columnist AJ Delgado of the Miami Herald.

In what world does he NOT look white?

The response by 'Gary' is almost worse than her original comment. 'I agree he looks light skinned black or some type of mixed.  Plus he set (sic) in the church meeting for almost an hr.'

Oh, because white guys can't sit in a black church with black folks.  Dylann Roof actually said he 'almost didn't go through with it because everyone was so nice to him,' reported NBC News--before deciding to 'go through with his mission.'

How does any of this leave Jeb Bush in any doubt that the killings were racially motivated?  Yet he won't say so.  Even the guy who they say pulled the trigger says so. But Jeb can't.  He can't because his supporters--the racist Republican base--won't hear of it.

Or Red State's Eric Erickson saying it is transgenderism that is to blame. Really?  How do you figure that?  Where, anywhere near that shooting, were transgenders involved?...

...Republicans won't...admit the racist nature of the Charleston shootings, let alone that it was an act of terrorism.  White people don't do terrorism.  White people are mentally ill.  It's not their fault.  It's drugs.  It's an accident.  It's liberalism's fault.  It's Obama's fault.

The Republican Party needs a time out.  The GOP is a hate group, not a political party.  They have disqualified themselves from the American political scene.  This latest act of violence and their reaction to it, is just the latest piece of evidence.

Terrifyingly, it won't be the last."

The Republican Party likes to talk a lot about personal responsibility.  It's about time they took heed of their own advice.

Addendum:

More tasteless and callous ridiculousness:  NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed Pastor Clementa Pinckney, one of the Charleston victims, for his own death and for the other eight deaths saying Pastor Pinckney opposed a bill that would have allowed parishioners to carry concealed weapons in his church. "Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."

A mirror, Mr. Cotton, please look into a mirror.