Frightened white people in Congress who won't accept a black President are what's causing the deadlock
Even on Columbus Day extremist Republicans are stopping progress
Comments (491)NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, October 14, 2013, 10:38 PM
Michael Reynolds/EPA
The sun sets on the Capitol in Washington on Monday after another day of inaction.
When I was a kid in Brooklyn there was a mock nursery rhyme: “In 1492/Columbus had nuthin’ to do/ So he sat on the grass/ And scratched his ass/ In 1492 . . .”
And 521 years after Columbus “discovered” America, on the holiday celebrating the noted explorer, America was still closed for business. And in 2013 Congress had nothing to do, so it sat on a hill of grass scratching its collective ass.
Even on Columbus Day.
Columbus and his band of European Christian white guys had sloshed ashore to civilize the “savage” red man. And half a millennium later words like “deadlocked,” “debt ceiling,” “fiscal cliff,” “sequester,” “continuing resolution” and “default” clogged the headlines and airwaves like a logjam of political inertia that has made us the laughingstock of the world.
But this isn’t about money, debt or deficit. It’s about race.
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Five centuries after Columbus and his nervous white crew arrived, there is still a small crew of frightened white people in Congress who refuse to accept an America with a black man in charge.
These extremists have not yet been able to accept, even after two decisive national elections, that a black man occupies the White House.
For some of them, their single goal as members of Congress is to make this first African-American President fail.
President Obama has failed at many things all on his own, disappointing many in his own Democratic Party. He failed to close Guantanamo Bay, as he promised. He failed to bring a swift end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He failed to curtail the government’s invasion of our privacy. Obama has failed to remove the cop-of-the-world badge from Uncle Sam’s top hat after 12 years of awful, bloody, deadly war.
Obama and Secretary of State Kerry were itching to go to war with Syria until our old warmongering nemesis Russia persuaded Syria to agree to start dismantling its chemical weapon stockpile.
PHOTOS: NEW YORK CITY COLUMBUS DAY PARADE 2013
Not everyone who opposes Obama is a racist.
Nor did most opponents of his Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, vote against it for racial reasons. Most Republicans voted against it for legitimate political and ideological reasons.
They are conservatives. Not racists. But this bill passed both houses of Congress, was signed by the President and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court. It’s the law of the land in a nation of laws. If you are a patriotic American, you will respect the law.
And 521 years after Columbus “discovered” America, on the holiday celebrating the noted explorer, America was still closed for business. And in 2013 Congress had nothing to do, so it sat on a hill of grass scratching its collective ass.
Even on Columbus Day.
Columbus and his band of European Christian white guys had sloshed ashore to civilize the “savage” red man. And half a millennium later words like “deadlocked,” “debt ceiling,” “fiscal cliff,” “sequester,” “continuing resolution” and “default” clogged the headlines and airwaves like a logjam of political inertia that has made us the laughingstock of the world.
But this isn’t about money, debt or deficit. It’s about race.
Five centuries after Columbus and his nervous white crew arrived, there is still a small crew of frightened white people in Congress who refuse to accept an America with a black man in charge.
These extremists have not yet been able to accept, even after two decisive national elections, that a black man occupies the White House.
For some of them, their single goal as members of Congress is to make this first African-American President fail.
President Obama has failed at many things all on his own, disappointing many in his own Democratic Party. He failed to close Guantanamo Bay, as he promised. He failed to bring a swift end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He failed to curtail the government’s invasion of our privacy. Obama has failed to remove the cop-of-the-world badge from Uncle Sam’s top hat after 12 years of awful, bloody, deadly war.
Obama and Secretary of State Kerry were itching to go to war with Syria until our old warmongering nemesis Russia persuaded Syria to agree to start dismantling its chemical weapon stockpile.
PHOTOS: NEW YORK CITY COLUMBUS DAY PARADE 2013
Not everyone who opposes Obama is a racist.
Nor did most opponents of his Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, vote against it for racial reasons. Most Republicans voted against it for legitimate political and ideological reasons.
They are conservatives. Not racists. But this bill passed both houses of Congress, was signed by the President and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court. It’s the law of the land in a nation of laws. If you are a patriotic American, you will respect the law.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/scared-whites-causing-shutdown-article-1.1485722#ixzz2hpMs8eXD
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