Rep. Mo “war on whites” Brooks (R-AL) is blaming Democrats for Republican racism by claiming that Democrats are using racism to divide the country and drive up minority voting turnout.
Rep. Brooks (R-AL) doubled down on his war on whites comments in an interview with USA Today:
“It is repugnant for Democrats time after time after time to resort to cries of racism to divide Americans and drive up voter turn out,” Brooks said. “That is exactly what they are doing in order to drive up their vote and they are doing it when there is no racial discrimination involved.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
In fact, Brooks added, “if you look at current federal law, there is only one skin color that you can lawfully discriminate against. That’s Caucasians — whites.”
Brooks said he stands by his language accusing Democrats of a ‘war on whites’ because “I want Democrats held accountable . . . if Americans want a political party that regularly stokes unfounded racial fears, well then vote Democrat.”
Brooks is spinning a new version of the tired excuse that President Obama only won election and reelection because he is black. Republicans, like Brooks, believe in their hearts that Democrats used racism to get President Obama elected. What the Republicans who subscribe to this belief never admit is that they have used racism to try to defeat the nation’s first African-American president at every turn.
The Republican campaign of racial division began with their questions about President Obama’s birth certificate. They followed up by wanted to see his college transcripts. Barely six months into his presidency, Fox News’s Glenn Beck claimed that Obama was a racist who hated white people. Republicans launched several race based scandals that were designed to scare with conservatives with things like Acorn and the New Black Panthers. The race-based politics against President Obama hasn’t stopped. The majority of Republicans are calling for his impeachment despite the fact that this president has committed no crime.
Rep. Brooks has given Republican strategists heartburn with their general point being, “There’s no part of what he said that was helpful.” (That might be the understatement of the decade.) The Republicans are worried that Democrats will use his comments to paint them as intolerant of minorities, as if the House vote to deport 550,000 kids who have lived in the United States for most of their lives didn’t already make that message loud and clear.
The comments of Rep. Brooks provide more evidence that Republicans are living in a different world than the rest of us. The fact the Rep. Brooks sees the Republican Party as the protectors of whites is, in fact, pretty damn racist. Don’t expect Republicans to catch on to this irony anytime soon.
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
