The Race Card

It’s been a rough couple of days for the Republican’s race narrative.

First, you had the whole concern about the impending arrival of Hurricane Isaac and what it could do to New Orleans (and take away coverage from them). It was topped off with Rush Limbaugh suggesting that instead of sand bags, that bags of money should be sent to New Orleans, which would help “get rid of even more Democrats” who would apparently drown trying to recover the money.

Then, a new Internet meme made its way into my social media feed: The Obama “parody” poster titled “Rope,” showing the president lynched.

Excuse me while I don’t laugh at the alleged joke.

Lynchings, as a rule, not funny. I don’t remember, did the conservatives think it was funny when President George W. Bush was hung and burned in effigy during his tenure? No? Oh, and hey, those happened in other countries. This was a home-grown attack. Weren't people in the US who did that called un-American? Sorry for not having a sense of humor about it.

And finally, Tuesday night, the final indignity – an attendee at the Republican National Convention was tossed for allegedly throwing peanuts at a black camerawoman and saying “This is how we feed animals.”

That’s three strikes. You’re out.

Now, I can hear you all getting ready to fire back in the comments “I’m Republican, and I’m not racist! How dare you liberal (fill-in your favorite insult)?!?”

You’re right. You’re not a racist. (At least, I hope not). And I’d bet that a majority of registered Republicans are not. Condi Rice spoke at the convention Wednesday night. Herman Cain was considered a frontrunner at one point.

But, what’s the saying: It only takes one bad apple. And that’s at least three in the last three days. And those three are enough to cause enough distrust and anger toward the GOP.

No matter how far along we come as a society, race is still a pressing issue in this country. And argue about it all you want, but deep down, it’s still there.

There are plenty of people who are upset that there’s a black man in the White House, just because of the color of his skin (well, and his – and the rest of the government’s – job performance hasn’t done any more to change any minds). Just the same as the to a company that will turn it into a tutoring center led to racist attacks so vile they had to be removed from the story.

Race is a big deal in my household. My in-laws were both born in Central America and came here, legally, and became citizens (thanks to amnesty provided by that noted lefty Ronald Reagan). That means that my son is half Latino. He doesn’t look it. He got his daddy’s traits – so much so that people stared at my wife and son together, with one young girl asking my wife if she was the babysitter.

From the mouths of babes.

OK, I hear you again, commenters. This is just another smoke screen taking away from the real issues. The real things that need to get done in this election season.

To which I say, again: You’re right.

This hasn’t been the best four years. But to blame the entire mess on President Obama is shortsighted. This has been a long building mess that has been exacerbated by partisan politics in Washington.

Does there need to be cuts in the budget? Yes. Do we need to live within our means? Yes. Do we need to make cuts from projects across the board – including military spending? Yes. Is there a need for taxes to be raised in certain cases? Probably.

Think of it this way: If the 3.1 million millionaires in the US contributed just .5 percent of a $1 million, that’s $15.5 trillion. Yes, a drop in the bucket when it comes to the national budget. But asking a millionaire to pay an extra $5,000 doesn’t seem like it should be the backbreaker it’s being made out to be.

But, what do I know? I’m not an economist. I’m just a guy who’s tired of both sides of this mess unable to get anything done because of a territorial pissing match.

And because we’re stuck having to worry about a few bad apples that can’t or won’t join the 21^st Century and recognize that it’s OK for a black person to be in the White House.