Fox News is already getting its money’s worth by re-hiring Sarah Palin. When the need came for an imbecile to provide an incoherent rhetorical jumble of nonsense in response to President’s Obama’s remarks about NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Fox was fortunate enough to have Palin back on the payroll. Who else could deliver a level of idiocy that so perfectly meshes with the bigoted leanings of the Fox audience?
President Obama was asked Thursday about his involvement in efforts to bring Snowden back to the United States. His answer was measured and appropriate: “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” Obama said. Indeed, there is no justification for engaging in acts of war over one guy who has had a negligible impact on foreign relations. Whatever one thinks of Snowden, his apprehension certainly has no discernible impact on international relations and doesn’t require the attention of the President.
That, however, is not the way Sarah Palin sees it. She appeared on Fox News with her predictable objection to whatever Obama might have done. But in this case she revealed an ugliness that is known to many, but which she tries to disguise.
Palin: “With Obama deciding to just, oh I guess, lead from behind on this issue too, that’s the community organizer in our president. That’s a little bit of that lackadaisical, eh you know, don’t have to take responsibility. And his resume proves he hasn’t had to take responsibility for much in all these years. This is just another issue, another example that falls in line with a community organizer.”
“Lackadaisical?” Surely Palin is aware that this word is associated with derogatory racial stereotypes that have persisted for decades. African-Americans have long been portrayed in the media and popular culture as lazy and shiftless. It’s an enduring insult that is kept in circulation by racists like Palin. And this isn’t the first time she has resurrected a classic vulgarity to attack the President. Last October she reached into her bag of verbal bigotry to say that “President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end.”
Even from a substantive perspective, there is no logic in her repulsive condemnation of Obama. If she ever met a community organizer she would know that they are the hardest working people in politics. There is no activity in public life that requires more commitment and devotion to mission than pounding the pavement and securing the support of diverse constituencies in pursuit of a political goal.
But how would Palin know these things when she didn’t even have the fortitude to complete the one term as governor to which she had been elected and for which she had begged the people of Alaska for their support? For someone with such a lazy approach to duty, Palin has a lot of nerve to invoke a repugnant reference to the work habits of others. She doesn’t even have the good sense to educate herself on the issues on which she pontificates in order to avoid appearing the fool that she is. Now that’s lackadaisical.
This is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern for Palin and most of her conservative cohorts. It is repeated frequently on a daily basis. Both racism and lethargy (especially with regard to obtaining and reporting facts), are hallmarks of the Palin wing of the right. They are emblematic of the Tea Party’s absence of moral integrity and commitment to anything other than their narrow self interests. And they are also characteristics that fit squarely into the editorial philosophy of Fox News.
[Note: To those who argue that marking Palin as a racist because she used the word “lackadaisical” is too far a reach, please understand that it is not the word by itself, it is the context and the history. Maligning African-Americans as lazy goes back for decades. Disparaging representations abound, from Stepin Fetchit to “welfare queens.” Like the rest of the kneejerk Obama-haters, Palin has often characterized the President as a determined socialist bent on destroying America. Well, she can’t have it both ways. If Obama is a hard-working tyrant, he can’t also be sluggish lout. And for Palin to portray him as such can only be interpreted as an effort to associate him with the old and offensive stereotype.]
For obvious reasons, the American conservative movement has long been dogged by accusations of racism and racial insensitivity. From their famed Southern strategy to their determined efforts to suppress minority voting via phony voter ID initiatives to their race-baiting Obama attacks, conservatives have made clear their opposition to a tolerant, multicultural America. In fact, much of their electoral strategy relies on scaring older, white voters about blacks and Hispanics taking over “their” country.
