GOP Candidates: Preaching Hate and Division in South Carolina

Some things don't seem to really change in parts of the South and they certainly haven't changed with some of the would be GOP presidential nominees. Hatred of others and racism (some not even that subtle) are alive and well and most of the GOP presidential nominee contenders are only too willing to jump on the bandwagon slandering other citizens in the hopes of pandering to the lowest elements of the Christianist and Tea Party base of the Republican Party. How any of the candidates would unify the nation to deal with its very real problems is hard to envision. Especially when the politics of division and scorn for others seems to be the main mantra being heard. Today's New York Times editorial looks at the toxicity of the lead up to the South Carolina primary vote. It's not pretty. Here are some highlights:

By mixing falsehoods with racial condescension, Newt Gingrich brought a raucous presidential debate crowd to its feet on Monday night in South Carolina, further cheapening his reputation and that of the state Republican Party.

For months, Mr. Gingrich has made racial resentment an integral part of his platform as a conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. He has traversed the country calling President Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history” and presenting African-Americans with the great revelation that they should prefer paychecks to federal handouts. When he was called on it at the debate by Juan Williams of Fox News, he took the measure of the crowd and doubled down.

The fact is that Mr. Obama has “put” no one on food stamps. People apply for food assistance, known officially as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, because they’re poor or out of work and their families are hungry. The number of people using the program, which is now at a peak, began rising with the recession, in 2007, and continued through four of the toughest years ever faced by the poor and near-poor in modern history.

Non-Hispanic whites also far outnumber blacks receiving SNAP benefits. As for the notion that these are people who somehow like their dependency, 30 percent of SNAP households have income from work — a reminder of the brutal impact of the recession on wages. But these are inconvenient details to Mr. Gingrich, who implied that the rise in federal aid was a sad indication of the insufficient work ethic of black Americans.

This trumpet was sounded to feed the prejudice of people who already believe that blacks and other poor people don’t really like to work and to deflect the growing public awareness that the Republican Party’s highest priority is protecting the rich from higher taxes.

For these divisive thoughts, Mr. Gingrich earned his ovation and Mr. Williams won a round of boos. Rick Santorum also got in on the game, responding to a question about high rates of black poverty with a lecture on the importance of work, high school graduation and marriage. Unfortunately, he said, the Obama administration refuses to encourage those kinds of good choices.

In South Carolina, where a Confederate flag still waves on the front lawn of the State Capitol largely because of the efforts of the state Republican Party, it remains good primary politics to stir up racial animosity and then link it to President Obama. Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and the crowd that cheered them are following in a long and tawdry tradition, singling out a minority group for lectures while refusing to support policies that help all Americans.

Once again, why would I want to be a Republican when this is in fact what the party has fallen to?