https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/278175998237868032
Earlier this fall, Salon writer and white guilt purveyor David Sirota flipped his lid, accusing conservatives of criticizing Obama because of white privilege. Today, he picked right up where he left off, donning his trusty race goggles and whining about the latest raaaaaaaacist ad from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads:
Did you catch that? All the white people, that is? In the few seconds featuring people who were not the president, there was not a single person of color! Thankfully, Sirota is on the case:
As you can see … Rove presents the image of an African-American man as an evildoer, referring to him as the tax-raising “he,” and pitting him against the “we” in classic demagogic “us versus them” terms.
Now before you explain that away as non-racial partisanship against a Democratic president rather than coded racial messaging, remember one additional point: In the ad, almost all of the “we” who allegedly oppose tax increases just so happen to be white people. That’s right, save for possibly one or two factory workers blurred in the background of a single shot (I say “possibly” because their ethnicity isn’t clear), all of the “we” who Rove implies are against tax increases — all who are shown while the voiceover says “we need ideas we can all support” — are white. (In all, there are 12 people representing the “we” against Obama — and at most two or three of them are people of color, and that assumes those in question aren’t white, which, again, is unclear. Bottom line: the montage of “we” in the ad is obviously designed to be a montage of White America.)
Obviously.
Sirota insisted that the ad was spawned by the same kind of racism supposedly contained in the GOP’s Southern Strategy of appealing to racist whites and purportedly cherished by former GOP strategist Lee Atwater. Lee Doren attempted to set the record straight:
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278182937894203392
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278183434520776704
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278184869723525120
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278185510801911809
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278185724342329344
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278185953867214850
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278186086965059585
https://twitter.com/LDoren/status/278206711821660161
But facts are hard when there’s a point to be made. Sirota may take issue with the truth, conservatives know better, and they called him out for his race-baiting idiocy:
@jtLOL I love being told that my opposition to Obama is based on racism. @davidsirota
— Carlton Hinds (@methuselaschild) December 10, 2012
@davidsirota You are the voice of the black community.
— China is lying (@jtLOL) December 10, 2012
Heh.
@davidsirota How about the all white cast of Obama's financial Fed, treasury and other financial advisors?
— yourenotthebossofme (@defacedwallop) December 10, 2012
https://twitter.com/katearthsis/status/278183838763585536
https://twitter.com/SmytheJon/status/278237278453768192
@davidsirota Never mind, I went to your website and watched it. If you see race in this ad you need help. Seriously dude, get help.
— Mexican by Marriage (@wsheeder) December 10, 2012
@RBPundit @davidsirota Sirota is suffering from what I call Racial obsession Syndrome! EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING is racial
— Doug Hagin (@DaleyGator) December 10, 2012
https://twitter.com/jtinfo/status/278208194717839360
You see, @DavidSirota, you can't see anything BUT race. That's makes you, by definition, a racist.
— RBe (@RBPundit) December 10, 2012
Exactly.
Even liberals couldn’t help facepalming:
https://twitter.com/kirstenpowers10/status/278181548174499841
Sirota column on Crossroads ad is the rare thing so dumb I'm afraid to make fun of it, less the dumb attach itself to me like a curse
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 10, 2012
@davidsirota David, from 1 rational guy to another, I think you're right abt GOP dog-whistle tactics. But I just don't see them in this ad.
— Kyle Farquharson (@kylefarq) December 10, 2012
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/278218790477631488
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/278219296763674625
When you’ve lost Oliver Willis …
One would hope that the criticism from both sides of the aisle might give Sirota pause about his race-baiting proclivities, but alas, no. Sirota doubled down:
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/278190350898708480
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/278197269021483008
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/278197596995072000
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/278222804091019265
Does Sirota really believe people out there take him seriously? Really? Really? Wow.
Jim Treacher graciously put the stompy-footed screamer into a nutshell:
@davidsirota You are a race-obsessed boob.
— China is lying (@jtLOL) December 10, 2012
Indeed.
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