Justin's Political Corner

Then they claimed Obama was fomenting racial hate by complaining about the federal government’s response to Katrina – which plenty of white people complained about, too. They took particular issue with his claim that federal Stafford Act funding in Louisiana was less liberal than it had been with New Yorkers after 9/11 and Florida residents after Hurricane Andrew.  But it took a quick Google search to find a white Louisiana politician, Sean Reilly of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, making the exact same complaint to PBS’s Frontline.

They absolutely ignore his suggestion that churches and families have to take more of a role in uplifting the black community. One solution to poverty, he told the preachers, is “to take individual responsibility for our families.” He suggests poor people need to “turn off the TV and read a book” to their children, and stop feeding them “Jay’s Potato Chips.” He tells young people to put down their video games and get to work.

I really don’t know how anyone could watch the whole speech and not come away at least a little moved. Carlson must have had interns watch it and pick out the parts that served right-wing prejudices, because all of that God talk, and all the talk about the responsibility of churches, and families, and individuals, sounded almost … Republican. Or “Republican” before we had a black president, and the party’s appeal began to rely so heavily on racism.