Once again we find ourselves in ‘You can’t make this up” territory. If not for the pollster involved I’d have brushed this off but Frank Luntz is a familiar name to political junkies. Even those who aren’t probably recognize him from those couple of months before general elections when they pay attention to political news since he’s a guest pundit on lots of shows. Luntz has decided to go public with GOP voters he polls and does all those focus groups with are “tired” of being called, or regarded as racist. Or sexist. Seriously. I’ll give you a moment to gather yourself…
Again, this is not some tweet but an article from The Hill in which Luntz expresses what he’s hearing. It describes a panel discussion about Trump’s linking DEI to the plane crash near National Airport this past week. Luntz indicated Trump’s views expressed a broader concern among his GOP voters:
“I surveyed these people. I focus-grouped them, and they are really, really tired of being accused of either racism or sexism because they voted for Donald Trump, and it’s one of the reasons why so many of them did,” Luntz said in a panel discussion on CNN’s “NewsNight” with Abby Phillip.
Give me a f**king break you a-holes! That Trump is a racist, raised by a racist father is well-documented. He’s got a long and sordid history of racist and sexists actions. He was openly so with all the “birther crap” regarding Obama, and we all know how in 2015 he rode down his fake gold escalator to deliver an obscenely racist screed to announce his run for the Presidency. The rhetoric didn’t let up either. But people made excuses to vote for him anyway. Even many of those who claimed it was pure economic stuff like tax cuts or cutting government regulation sometimes admitted that on some issues like “immigration” or government assistance going to “certain people” Trump ‘sort of made sense.’ So when they say they aren’t racist and are tired of being called that for supporting Trump I call bullshit.
I’m reminded of an old Dave Chappell routine where he talked about “wearing the uniform” and that applies here. These voters can claim they aren’t racist and maybe some of them even truly believe they aren’t. However, they “wear the uniform” because the blatant racism and sexism of Trump doesn’t bother them despite the wreckage his policies inflict on non-white people! Or women. People who’s fee fees are worn out and even offended by being called racist for supporting Trump can take said feelings and kiss his fat orange ass. Then crawl up inside where they belong.
Looking back it’s clear this country and the world were BADLY mistaken when it came to the election of Barack Obama, our first non-white President. It was thought that this country had turned a proverbial corner on racism, especially given the margin of his victory both in the popular vote and the electoral college. In retrospect it exposed an ugly fact. Racism wasn’t on the decline at all. And Trump, who got so publicly roasted by Obama at that WH correspondent’s dinner recognized it AND exploited it.
Like I said, many who have voted for Trump make excuses for him, or claims of his racism and sexism being bad things. Just not bad enough to refuse to vote for HIM instead of some other Republican who is an actual conservative. You know, the old-school low taxes and government regulation along with strong national defense kind. During his first term an awful lot of Americans felt free to truly let loose their pent up frustrations over “those people”. And women in the workforce too. Joe Biden whipped Trump’s butt in 2020 but what made my heart sink regardless was that over ten million MORE people voted for him in 2020 than 2016! The fact it wasn’t ten million LESS proves what he unleashed.
Again, it’s not like the GOP didn’t have a chance to rid themselves of Trump once and for all. GOP Senators had two chances to do so but declined to vote in two impeachments to convict Trump. Not even inciting a riot that literally endangered their lives and even that of loved ones they had in the gallery on Jan. 6 was enough. I’m sure many rationalized that the voters would take care of Trump for them. However they thought the same thing early in the 2016 primaries – that all the regular folks out there would take care of their Trump problem for them. He laid waste to the field. And to so much more once he got into Office. Just what the hell made them think voters would ‘fix the Trump problem’ when 2024 rolled around?
No, there IS still a deep and widespread racism and sexism in this country. One that has been emboldened by Donald Trump. He’s sure as hell no Christian but he IS a White Nationalist/Supremacist and we’ve got years of statements and actions to prove it. For rank and file voters to tell pollsters like Frank Luntz they are “tired” of being called racist (or sexist) really, REALLY pisses me off. In that panel discussion he also said:
“I sat on this stage with you and got chewed out when I suggested there’s a better language to reach out to voters, that there’s, that the Harris campaign is missing what they’re looking for,” Luntz continued.
“I say the same thing here. Americans just want to be Americans, not hyphenated Americans, not female Americans, Black Americans, Jewish Americans. They just want to be Americans.
Again, I call bullshit. My entire life, since I was a child I heard WHITE people all time time referring to their heritage. ‘Irish’ or Irish American. ‘Italian” or Italian-American being common. Hell, I grew up with a guy who insisted he was Italian! Knowing his family I asked him first where he was born and raised. He replied right here as in our hometown. How about your parents? Same answer? How about your GRAND parents? Again, same answer. Then I asked about before that since he’d once talked about his family on both sides having come here in the 1800s. He said his great grandparents were raised here too. So after all that I again asked him are you Italian or American? He fiercely said ITALIAN. Yet when I asked him if he even knew the language he was clueless. Not a single phrase. I’ll bet you’ve known people like this in your life too. Luntz is full of crap on this ‘people just want to be Americans’ stuff. I don’t have a problem with people knowing their roots and taking pride in their heritage but to pretend it’s a new thing is, in a word bullshit.
However I want to get back to why I started writing this. I was born into a family with the hardest core racist of grandfathers, and a father who wasn’t nearly as bad but still racist. My small hometown was full of such families and growing up in the 1960s and early 70s racial tensions boiled over at times. I’ve worked all my life to suppress racist attitudes my grandfather and to a lesser degree my father and other adults tried to instill in me. But I know it’s there. And yes, I have to still fight it sometimes even as a senior citizen. And fight it when I see others expressing it in whatever way. Like say voting for Trump!
That’s why I have such contempt for these whiny-assed ‘It’s not fair to call me racist cause I voted for Trump’ types. Given the scope of the damage he’s already done and what he’s said all along he intended to do once back in office from where I sit they sure as hell DON’T CARE about racism. Or sexism. As Bob Dylan asks “How many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” The answer my friend isn’t blowing in the wind, it’s in the over SEVENTY MILLION Americans who voted for Trump in 2020 and again last November!
Racist is as racist does and if these people don’t like being called out for what they actually are having voted for Trump they can go to hell. And if I ever got to be part of some panel discussion with Luntz I’d tell him so.
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I am Irish generic an My grandparents were first generation born here. I grew up in a culture that included the Irish part along with being an American. My bedtime stories involved creatures from Irish folklore. The stories I have had published were based in that folklore, as are the 6 I have in the pipeline. If someone has problems with that, I couldn’t care less.
Oh gee, sorry people, but if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks? So a reality check hurts their fee fees, oh too bad.
I debated with myself about including Chappele’s clip. Both because he seems to have changed into I don’t know the hell what. But also because I know I’d get flamed for being sexist myself. If you go to Youtube and type in his name and wearing the uniform you can see him talking about mixed signals and how it leads to men behaving badly.
I’ll admit to thinking it was funny the first time I saw it (during an HBO special long ago) and even now. But the point here is what you say – only I’ll make it more blunt: If it looks like a racist duck, walks like a racist duck, quacks like a racists duck and VOTES like and for a racist duck it’s fucking RACIST. Trying to justify it the way Republican voters are doing is “putting on the uniform.” If they don’t like being racist then don’t go putting on the uniform. Keep it buried and look act and VOTE like a decent human being instead of a racist or, being extremely generous someone who doesn’t give a shit about racism or sexism!
And they have the gall to call us “snowflakes.”
Yep with Hillary it was sexist and with Harris it was sexist and racist. I was talking in church to a lady friend during Hillary’s campaign and she said “I can’t vote for her because there’s just something about her”. Of course it was because she’s a woman. And just the fact that Ass-wipe won by a little more in #2 was due to her being a woman and a woman of color no less!! Everyone that voted for him this time has to be a racist, sexist, and greedy.
It’s called matching energy and responding to their hypocrisy and ignorance. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
Do they not have mirrors in their world? Or have they finally looked in the mirror and their reflections scream RACIST.
So, now they are upset with the mirror instead of fixing the reflection.
Rather ludicrous these lickspittles imagine they have the right, much less the capacity to shame anyone else.
Yeah…all true. Funny how Patton couldn’t find a card carrying nazi when he fought his way across Germany. Evil phuckers never take responsibility for their evil. He promptly marched the German citizens right into the camps TO SEE WHAT THEY HAD SUPPORTED. I realize Tarantino is known for his quirky extreme scenes, but there’s a reason he included the scene, where Brad Pitt, as the guerrilla fighter behind German lines, would ask the captured Germans, what they planned to do with their uniform after the war. They all replied they would burn it or destroy it. He replied: see we don’t like that. If it were up to me, you’d wear that goddamn uniform the rest of your life. But I guess that ain’t practical, you’ll have to take it off at some point. So I’m gonna give you something you can’t take off. He then would use a large bowie knife to carve a swastika into their forehead that healed into a permanent scar. When this all comes crashing down, AND IT WILL SOONER OR LATER, since it’s built on bullshit, watch these cowards run and hide like they had nothing to do with it. Cowards only run their mouth from safety.