Bill Waller, described by the proprietors of SWGAPolitics as the resident neo-con, although given his stances and
reading list, paleo-con may be more apt, at least
calls the recent effigy of President Obama found in Plains,Ga insenstive, but then goes on to spin a wild hypothetical of a Obama supporter planting the heinous item in order to "silence the good and decent people that have also exercised their political free speech rights with signs and tea bags". It really is all Obama's fault.
Fellow SWGAPolitics writer Tom follows with the usual whine about any criticism of Obama being labelled racism, then follows with a
rather incomplete history lesson.
I guess it never dawned on you, with your Phd. in history, that effigies are an age old tool of political criticism. They were hung for many American Presidents. Not just the black ones. No, they were hung and often burned for all kinds of reasons. So why is it now that it’s suddenly racist?
Oh, I don't know Tom. Maybe because suddenly we have a black President? It's this little thing called context. Tom points out one side of history - true, effigies have always been political tools of the small minded - but conveniently ignores the other half - that this particular effigy was of a black man in an area of the country with a history of hanging black men for no better reason than looking at a person the wrong way.
Finally, the cherry is placed on the "just doesn't get it" sundae by the
Americus Times-Recorder who proposes it may have been done by foreigners.
Is it to much to expect people of intelligence to understand why the image of hanging the first black President showing up in a small southern time might have a message that reaches deeper than the surface? We can work on them actually acknowledging it later.
