Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 01:32 pm
Today while GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum was at a campaign stop in West Monroe, Louisiana target shooting, one of his female supporters yelled out, “Pretend it’s Obama!”
Talk about tone deaf.
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This kind of rhetoric coming on the heels of the Trayvon Martin shooting and the conviction of a teenager in Mississippi for murdering a black male by driving over him with his truck after beating him up for sport is more than out of touch.
The Secret Service is going to investigate, but the point is larger than whether this particular person poses a threat to the President. The focus should be on the obvious fact that Republicans feel this sort of thing is appropriate for public dialogue, during a campaign stop no less.
Santorum didn’t hear the remark, but he later commented to the National Journal, “It’s absurd. No we’re not pretending it’s anybody but shooting pistols. It’s a very terrible and horrible remark and I’m glad I didn’t hear it.”
More Republican leaders need to make their voices heard on this matter. They need to forcefully denounce calls for violence and assassination of this President.
We need only look to the events of this past week to realize that this is no laughing matter, and it impacts average citizens as well as the President.
Republicans need to stop vilifying this President and race baiting. They need to respect the office of the Presidency and respect Obama as a human being. When they stir up hatred and fear of the President, it permeates the culture and gives us, “Pretend it’s Obama!”
Ironically, this happened today, on the same day that the President urged Americans to do some soul searching about the Trayvon Martin case.
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