Up until now I've written about this year's CPAC as a form of amusement, but yesterday it turned ugly. and turned also into a source of embarrassment.
The flash point yesterday was at a meeting described by Josh Marshall this way:
A CPAC session sponsored by Tea Party Patriots and billed as a primer on teaching activists how to court black voters devolved into a shouting match as some attendees demanded justice for white voters and others shouted down a black woman who reacted in horror.
The session was entitled “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?” and led by black conservative Carl K. Smith. Things went smoothly enough at first, with Smith regaling the audience by recycling the fascist lie about the Democratic Party being the modern version of the KKK (because the Democrats were the proslavery party 150 years ago and nothing wever changes). JM at TPM describes what happened next:
Scott Terry of North Carolina, accompanied by a Confederate-flag-clad attendee, Matthew Heimbach, rose to say he took offense to the event’s take on slavery...“It seems to be that you’re reaching out to voters at the expense of young white Southern males,” Terry said, adding he “came to love my people and culture” who were “being systematically disenfranchised.”
The session was entitled “Trump The Race Card: Are You Sick And Tired Of Being Called A Racist When You Know You’re Not One?” and led by black conservative Carl K. Smith. Things went smoothly enough at first, with Smith regaling the audience by recycling the fascist lie about the Democratic Party being the modern version of the KKK (because the Democrats were the proslavery party 150 years ago and nothing wever changes). JM at TPM describes what happened next:
Scott Terry of North Carolina, accompanied by a Confederate-flag-clad attendee, Matthew Heimbach, rose to say he took offense to the event’s take on slavery...“It seems to be that you’re reaching out to voters at the expense of young white Southern males,” Terry said, adding he “came to love my people and culture” who were “being systematically disenfranchised.”
Smith responded that (Frederick) Douglass forgave his slavemaster.
“For giving him shelter? And food?” Terry said."
Actually, no, Scott, it was more the kidnapping, genocide during the crossing, the rapes, destruction of families, and stolen lifetimes of labor that people were and are pissed about. But I digress.
I'd like to be able to report that the excitement was over at that point, but sadly, it wasn't, and you can read the whole thing at TPM, if you're able to do what I wasn't and finish this well-written and fairly brief report. I found it so embarrassing I couldn't get through it all. People like this are an embarrassment to our whole country.
As usual, I went to CPAC one more time for gaiety and amusement, and came away disgusted.
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