Jack & Jill Politics

Update: this post is from both Jill (who wrote most of it) and Jack (who got the MSNBC embed working properly :))

Janeane Garofalo just laid it out. Made it plain. I totally agree with her that what’s at the heart of these protests and name-calling is fear of a black president. IMO, all this ballyhooing calling Obama “fascist” and “socialist” and “communist” adds up to a bunch of ignorant, frightened white people (and that’s all there was at these poorly attended tea parties it was plain to see) who, en masse, see a big black man who happens to be president crossing the street near their collective cars and have decided to roll up their windows and lock their doors. And call the cops. Terms like socialism and collectivism equal nothing more than a ridiculous, sad and unjustified fear that: “A black man is president and he’s going to take away my money and social privilege and give it to niggers who don’t deserve it. Eeek!”

CNN reporter Susan Roesgen has taken some flack, but she’s my hero. She bravely exposed the hypocrisy, artifice, paradox and poor logic behind what the tea party protestors were saying. She never got an answer to “why do you think Obama is a fascist”? That’s because there is no answer. These people know it’s socially unacceptable to espouse racism openly and so all of this, ALL OF THIS, is an elaborate canard intended to allow expression of fear, ignorance and hatred safely.

It’s helpful to see white people begin to acknowledge this, too. That’s ultimately what will push back the surging tide of hatred because there are still some white people in America (ahem, tea partiers) who only believe other white people when it come to labeling racism. Janeane is so worth watching. Go on girl.

From WowOWow:

Comedienne Janeane Garofalo held nothing back while discussing the “tea parties” with Keith Olbermann last night. Though the parties’ organizers claim they’re protesting taxes, Garofalo insists they’re nothing but “tea-bagging rednecks” who are simply motivated by “hating a black man in the White House.” She went on to say that participants “will believe anything you tell them, as long as it’s not the truth.” The truth, she claims, “confuses them.”

Olbermann basically agreed.

Watch — Garofalo comes on at the three-minute mark: