CPAC: Crude, Rude and Unglued

By (O)CT(O)PUS

If Mitt Romney’s 47% comment taught us anything, it taught us to beware the public face of the candidate, to ascertain his true intentions - not merely from pious words calculated to charm money from the pockets of plutocrats and votes from country bumpkins - but from evidence that reveals the hidden agenda. If government connotes control over territory and over the population, pay attention to comments - both past and present - that reveal what their true vision of governance will mean to you:

On Friday, this story in ThinkProgress revealed the real extent to which bigotry and racism runs rampant within Republican ranks:

ThinkProgress spoke with Terry [referring to Scott Terry, a 30-year old delegate from North Carolina], who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation. 

When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

Not merely blatant racism, how about brazen and shameless sexism:

At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”

How about resurgent McCarthyism from the newest and crudest Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz:

“There were fewer declared Republicans in the faculty when we were there than Communists! There was one Republican. But there were twelve who would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government.

How about this anti-gay screed from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli:

"My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law-based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. They don’t comport with natural law."

How about the gratuitous stereotyping of Hispanic Americans whom House Republican Steve King regards as a lazy and unworthy underclass:

“You want a good bird dog? You want one that’s going to be aggressive? Pick the one that’s the friskiest … not the one that’s over there sleeping in the corner.”

“You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we’ve got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet,” King said.

Here is a Trivia question for you: What is the difference between an illegal brown immigrant from Latin America versus a legal white immigrant from Europe? Ask Donald Trump:

“When it comes to immigration, you know that the 11 million illegals … will be voting Democratic,” said Trump. “You could say … that you’re on a suicide mission. You’re just not going to get those votes.”

Bingo for bigots.  If CPAC reveals anything, it reveals the resentment of a reactionary fringe hell bent on maintaining the power and supremacy of “the male, the pale and the stale” in the face of changing demographics. Forget “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Their goal is to keep the “wretched refuse” wretched and disenfranchised; and their hit list includes Black Americans, Women, Gay Americans, Hispanic Americans, and the late great American Middle Class.

Deceit, deception, bigotry, and classism are akin to The Twelve Days of Christmas for CPAC Republicans. To read between the lines, here is The GOP's Real Agenda.