Here is quote from Newt Gingrich shortly after health care reform had passed:
If Democrats pass health reform, “They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” by passing civil rights legislation.
I had read this as the cynical analysis of a cynical pol who cares nothing about doing the right thing, but only about winning. But in a conversation with Connie Willis she made the point that it might have been more than that. Perhaps it was code to those angry white screamers outside and inside the Capitol this past weekend.
A message to tell them –“we feel your pain. Look what happens when you let _those people_ get the vote, participate in the political process. You end up with one of them in the White House.”
I know Gingrich has been walking back this remark for the past couple of days, and maybe he is sincere in his corrections. I hope so. I’d hate to think he was sending a racist message to the angry whites involved in the Tea Party movement. But it makes you wonder when Republican lawmakers are addressing these people and cheering them on. They ought to be disavowing them in the strongest way possible.
And there was one more lovely action taken by the Tea Party people on Saturday and Sunday. Someone shouted at a Hispanic congressman that he should “go back to Mexico”.
They reason I said in my post yesterday it was a stark choice between Democrats and Republicans it’s because of the past few days. President Obama is trying to appeal to our better angels. The Republicans are encouraging the worst of our natures. Which side of history do we want to be on?
