Even though on Meet The Press yesterday, Newt Gingrich declared that he was not a racist, this is what Nicole Belle of Crooks & Liars took from the complete interview with David Gregory and Newt Gingrich:
Crooks & Liars
Wait, what’s that I hear? It’s faint, but growing louder….
Oh, that’s it. It’s the dog whistle of racial politics entering the 2012 presidential race, courtesy of Mr. White Privilege himself, Newt Gingrich.
Earlier this week, Gingrich spoke at a Georgia Republican Party convention and distinguished his potential presidency from President Obama’s thusly:
At one point during the speech, Gingrich derided progressive economic policies that value public investment and spending to get back to work, saying that “we’re at the crossroads” and that “down one road is a European centralized bureaucratic socialist welfare system” and the other road is a “proud, solid reaffirmation of American exceptionalism.” He then went on to declare Obama to be a “food stamp president”:
GINGRICH: President Obama is the most successful food stamp president in American history. [...] I would like to be the most successful paycheck president in American history.
“Food stamp president”? Nope, no loaded imagery there. Every sentient being with an IQ in the triple digits saw that statement for what it is: a racist dog whistle. Even David Gregory couldn’t ignore it and had to ask Newtster about it. Newt predictably protesteth too much and doubled down on the dog whistle by saying that we just don’t want all of America to be too much like Detroit.
Yeah, that made the racist overtones all better, didn’t it?
Related articles
- Newt Gingrich: ‘I Have Never Said Anything About President Obama Which Is Racist’ (mediaite.com)
- Gingrich Calls Obama A “Food Stamp President” But Got His District Huge Federal Dollars (alan.com)
- Gingrich Talks About Past Mistakes, Accusations of Racism, and Why He Won’t Run on the Ticket as Number Two (blogs.abcnews.com)
- Newt Gingrich and “the food stamp president” (salon.com)
- May 15: 7 Best Moments From Sunday Talk (thedailybeast.com)
- “What I said is factually true. And to hide behind the charge of racism? I have never said anything…” (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
- Gingrich For Ryan’s Budget Before Being Against It (swampland.time.com)
He’s a racist.
Enough said.
Nice work, Gingrich. Like we’re all too stupid to remember his boy, Lee Atwater:
NY Times: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
Absolutely, Writechic. Lee Atwater and his attempt to “modernize” the “southern strategy”. I believe he died of a brain tumor and sort of repented for all of his horrible deeds against minorities.
Newt Gingrich isn’t fooling anyone. He turns around and admonishes David Gregory for insinuating he’s a racist. That is a common tactic from folks like that. Gregory should have pushed Ginrich further by questioning Gingrich’s assertion that Obama is the “food stamp president” because more people use food stamps than ever before.
Gregory should have cited the economic conditions and the unemployment which is a direct result of eight years of “deficits don’t matter” stratergy by Bush and Company.
And what’s his name…Mehlman has apologized for using this tactic.
Evil. Didn’t take long for Gingrich to lose his brand new soul.
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