September 13, 2010

The Vile Newt Gingrich

The bar for disgusting statements about the president from top Republicans has been cleared once again, with Newt Gingrich over the weekend saying that Obama sees the world as a "Kenyan anti-colonialist."

I mean- let's count the things wrong- Obama's not Kenyan. He's not any more anti-colonialist than, I don't know- George Washington? John Adams? Nelson Mandela? Gandhi? Is colonialism, on the right, now seen as a virtue? It's also a bit inaccurate; I can't imagine anyone whose worldview is shaped by anti-colonialism choosing to triple the amount of troops in Afghanistan.

Of course, the whole thing is one big racist dog-whistle, with a little bit of red-baiting thrown in for good measure (the far right in America also saw African anti-colonial movements as fronts for communism.) All this, of course, can't do anything but help Gingrich in the Republican primaries.

And what's sad is, Sarah Palin is a blithering idiot. She doesn't know any better. Gingrich does- he's got a PhD in history. He's just choosing to embrace pure, hateful bullshit when he DOES know better.

Of course, all Newt was doing was quoting that lunatic Dinish D'Souza, whose article originally making the point has already been thoroughly dismantled. I saw D'Souza speak once in college and he seemed like an intelligent, reasonable conservative. Then, he wrote a book that argued that due to liberal excesses, America had 9/11 coming.

Posted by Stephen Silver at September 13, 2010 11:13 PM
Comments

I wish he'd go back to writing alternate history novels. He's really good at that.

Posted by: Bill McCabe at September 14, 2010 09:21 PM

I, too, recall that D'Souza event... I thought he was pretty persuasive. Was it sponsored by Freedom Magazine?

Posted by: jabbett at September 16, 2010 12:16 AM
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