Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [62]
Thus, the message that many constituents hear when Republican politicians claim to be “troubled” by Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comment or by Obama’s associations with a fiery black minister or by policies that give “special privileges” to minorities is the same as Limbaugh’s less guarded rhetoric. It is the message of persecution politics, the message that those constituents seem to want to hear—“They hate us because we’re white.”
So it should not have been terribly surprising when on the eve of the final health care vote in the House of Representatives, angry protesters spat on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and screamed, “Nigger!” at Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), both African American congressmen. In response, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) dismissed the behavior—“I don’t think it’s anything,” while Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) blamed it on the Democrats—“When you use totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy.”114 But these are cynical and disingenuous evasions. Conservatives have been exploiting racial animosity for political gain since 1964. They have been softly whispering that blacks and Latinos are taking advantage of white people and that liberal policies are designed to help the black and brown teams at the expense of the white team. So there is little wonder that some of their fervent supporters savagely shout what these leaders have been tenderly crooning.
As usual, Rush Limbaugh sings it best. After President Obama criticized Arizona’s harsh immigration law in 2010, Limbaugh defiantly delivered one of the finest examples of racist projection in recent memory—proudly ringing the bell of persecution politics for all to hear. In a radio segment called “A Message to the President: Freedom Knows No Race, Sir,” Limbaugh once again accused Obama of racism. This time, he explicitly warned of an Obama-led alliance between blacks and Latinos to fight against white Americans:
Obama says he’s going to reconnect via the immigration bill, young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women for 2010 to help stem the tide of Democrat losses in November. He did not say he was going to reach out to white people . . . This is the regime at its racist best. What’s the regime doing? Asking blacks and Latinos to join him in a fight. What is a campaign if not a fight? He’s asking young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women to reconnect, to fight who? Who’s this fight against?115
A black man comes to power in America. He hates white people. He gives their jobs to unqualified minorities. He redistributes their income to lazy, scheming minorities. He gives their health care to illegal immigrants. He lets their children get assaulted on buses. He is one of them, and he hates you. Welcome to Obama’s America.
7
THE SWEETEST OF DRUGS
Deep Thoughts about Cognitive Dissonance
and the Appeal of Persecution Fantasies
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.
—George Elliot
IN 1954, a team of undercover psychologists infiltrated a UFO cult led by a Dorothy Martin, a Michigan housewife who claimed to be able to communicate with aliens from the planet Clarion.bf The aliens warned her that a massive flood would submerge much of the continental United States on December 21, 1954. One of the psychologists, Leon Festinger, had a theory about what would happen to that cult if the prophesied flood failed to materialize. You might expect disappointed disciples to face the fact that their mistaken prophet was a charlatan, but Festinger had observed that when the doomsday predictions of historical religious cults proved mistaken, the opposite often occurred. The fervor of the members dramatically increased, and they began proselytizing aggressively, leading to rapid growth of the movement. “The individual will frequently emerge,