GOP racism

Barbara Lee has been one of the most consistent, courageous and articulate voices in Congress on behalf of ordinary working families. Corporations and the one percent do not finance her career. She doesn't represent them. She's one of the handful of progressives who represent just plain folks who never even thought about going out and hiring a lobbyist. Needless to say, when Congresswoman Lee speaks out, the might of the plutocrats is arrayed against her.

Lancaster's multimillionaire right-wing mayor, Rex Parris, hasn't been a big Blue America cause célèbre despite a record that has painted him as one of California's more unsavory and fringy mayors.

Phil Jensen, vicious Kansas GOP racist, brings the hate to South DakotaSouth Dakota Republican Phil Jensen is proud to be widely considered the furthest right member of the state legislature and never tires of calling other Republicans in the state Senate RINOs.

That Bill Maher video above is one of the best explanations-- especially for young people who didn't live through it-- of the RRR-- the Real Ronald Reagan. We sure don't hear it from Obama… and never will. Tonight, Bill Moyers will tackle the same subject from a more… genteel, less vituperative perspective.

Since 2007, Democrats have been predicting that demographics, coupled with Republican knee-jerk bigotry and xenophobia, will turn Texas blue within a decade. When Texas-born Rand Paul confirmed this yesterday, he neglected to mention that Georgia is turning blue just as quickly.

Matt Hildreth works for America's Voice and his tweet (above) about the GOP immigration dilemma went right to the point: are they the Party of Abe Lincoln, the Great Emancipator or the Party of Jeff Sessions, a KKK sympathizer. Yesterday, Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned House Republicans not to support the Republican leadership's plan for comprehensive immigration reform.

I suspect Sammy Alito, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy don't read The Nation.

Another poll came out yesterday, this one from the Public Religion Research Institute, showing overwhelming support by Americans for comprehensive immigration reform. Bottom line: 63% of Americans favor a path to citizenship-- including 60% of grassroots Republicans! Opposition comes from two places: overt racists and the Republican House leadership.

Thursday Rachel Maddow focussed on the Daily Show to make the same point Alan Grayson made when he pointed out that teabaggers are basically a modern-day version of the KKK. I wonder if Claire McCaskill, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Joe Crowley will condemn Rachel the way they condemned Grayson. In any case, you need to watch this segment.

The other day we looked at how the Republicans Party has-- since Nixon launched the Southern Strategy-- been taken over by southern conservatives. More than a few of the southern racists we wrote about are unaware that their politics (and emotions) are motivated by uncontrollable racism. Don't scoff.