REMINDER: You can meet with the Soviet Union and sell arms to Iran. But you can't shake hands with Cuba. http://t.co/UKD2a0Kw2J
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) December 11, 2013
Astonishing, isn’t it? Barack Obama shakes the hand of Raul Castro, a simple human gesture apropos of not much at all…and the Right goes full-on ape-shit. Donald Rumsfeld met with Saddam Hussein, and nary a Conservative voice was raised in dismay. Richard Nixon shook hands with Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro, and the Right remained dead silent, because…well, statesmanship, don’tchaknow?
The Black Guy in the White House © extends a hand to the leader of Cuba…and judging by the weeping and gnashing of teeth emanating from the Right, you’d think he’d been caught buggering goats in the Rose Garden. If you don’t see this as the worst sort of corrupt hypocrisy, you’re a Republican, and you hate The Black Guy in the White House Just. That. Much.
I get that Republicans have nothing of value to offer, and so all they have to work with is generalized rage, thinly-veiled racism, and character assassination. If they can gin up enough false outrage directed at The Black Guy in the White House ©, they’ll deflect attention from their moral and ideological bankruptcy. If we’re distracted and conned into thinking the President is hobnobbing with communists and those who hate America, perhaps we won’t notice that all the Right really has to offer is propaganda, talking points, disinformation, religious bigotry, and racism.
I’d offer something about how it would be nice if the denizens of the right side of the political spectrum could offer something positive and concrete…but I don’t think anything of us have time to wait for that. We’d be waiting for a VERY long time.
