Last updated on December 21st, 2013 at 08:37 am
Sarah Palin’s defense of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson’s racist and homophobic comments demonstrates that former MSNBC host Martin Bashir was right about her all along.
Robertson’s comments about gays to GQ are getting the bulk of the attention, “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”
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However, his comments about race were just as bad, “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
All of this racism and bigotry was music to Sarah Palin’s ears. She posted a message of support for Robertson on her Facebook page, “Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”
According to those of Palin’s ilk, racism and bigotry are just personal opinions that they are allowed to spew as much as they want without consequences. It doesn’t matter that the views expressed by Robertson in the GQ article are wrong. He blames African American unhappiness on welfare and entitlements, without realizing that the majority of welfare recipients are white. The majority of those who get most of the entitlements in this country are also white.
It’s interesting that Palin is so willing to defend Robertson’s “free speech,” when she threw a fit and made sure that Martin Bashir was denied his right of free speech. If free speech means that Phil Robertson gets to insult gays and African African Americans, it must also mean that Martin Bashir has a right to use insulting language towards Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is trying to claim free speech rights only for views that she agrees with. Ironically, the hundreds of thousands of evangelical conservatives who are running to Phil Robertson’s defense are confirming their bigotry and racism to the rest of the country.
Bashir lost his job, because he was right about Palin. He was right about the ugliness that she thrives and feeds off of. Her comments defending Phil Robertson confirm that Bashir was unjustly pushed out the door at MSNBC. The fate of Martin Bashir delivered a powerful message. The media will never stand up to right wing racism and bigotry, and they will remove anyone from their ranks who do.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
