As many here have noted/discussed, two weeks ago, Virgil Goode a Republican Representative from Virginia [Ed Note: corrected from "Senator"] wrote a disgusting hate letter to his constituents and then yesterday, after some justified condemnations and (meager) media coverage, he bluntly refused to apologize.
Two weeks ago.
I originally started writing my own rant about this earlier today, but then saw Cenk Uygur's highly recommended diary and decided to post it as a comment instead. But I'm reposting my thoughts now as a diary because I don't want to let this die. Rather: WE shouldn't let this die... because Goode's racist idiocy is sitting right smack dab on a deep fault line in the already splintering GOP.
Care to help me hammer on it?
Background
As background, for those of you who may have missed it (something that is possible thanks to the general lack of coverage), here is the full-text of Virgil Goode's letter (with emphasis on the most egregious parts added):
Thank you for your recent communication. When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.
The Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Koran. My response was clear, "As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, The Koran is not going to be on the wall of my office." Thank you again for your email and thoughts.
First, let me be direct: Virgil Goode should be immediately censured by Congress and forced to resign amidst widespread public outcry and repudiation.
Unfortunately, that's not the America we live in right now.
Or is it?
It could be, if we do our job.
Virgil Goode is doing his part to move the Overton window (presumably in preparation for a possible Obama run). We need to put a stop to this bullshit right now! We need to demand some answers from President Bush, as (nominal) leader of the GOP.
I have been annoyed (although not surprised) at the level of coverage this is not getting in the corporate media. (Especially in contrast to the amount of uproar that Senator Kerry's botched joke created last summer -- days of headlines on CNN's web page, for example, commentary by Bush himself and in other politicians' press conferences, story lead-ins like "John Kerry still hasn't apologized for...", etc.) But, in contrast, there was apparently not one question about this in today's press conference.
However, until today, I have also been more disappointed by our response (we, on the left), particularly in the blogosphere. Prior to this, there were only a few diaries on this, and in total they got maybe 100 comments. We seem to have accepted this as just par for the course for Republicans. But we should not -- MUST NOT -- let this shit slide!
"Them! They! Those!"
Not only is this unacceptable BS, it's not unique. Goode is not just another "bad apple". This rot goes all the way to the core of the GOP.
One of the fundamental planks of the GOP platform is their xenophobia. In this case, Goode's remarks have been characterized as "islamophobic". And yet "phobia" is too weak. What we're talking about here includes aggressive hatred and dehumanization in addition to fear. Think immigration. Think gay marriage. Think the Iraq War. Think Bolton to the UN. Think Guantanamo Bay and extraordinary rendition ("these things have no human rights"). Even abortion ("somebody else's daughter", "those women"). The GOP is the party of "us" and "them".
(On the other hand, most here subscribe to a philosophy better characterized as "we're all in this together", which is why we must fight this xenophobic rhetoric... because it hurts all of us.)
As we all know, Bush is no stranger to the "us" vs. "them" ideaology. In his delusional, self-fashioned role as "God's agent on earth", he has apparently personally taken it upon himself to destroy Islam in the name of Christianity. (Recall that he claimed that God told him to attack Iraq.) He has consistently framed (via not too subtle Freudian "slips" and backhanded inferences) Muslims as "the enemy" (as have some of his underlings and even generals!), while paying lip service to political correctness.
This is why it seems so natural to Goode to lump Muslims together with Immigrants. It matters little to him that Ellison isn't an immigrant... He's an "other". One of "them". He's not a "traditional" American, nor could any of the people who voted for him be. (Notice how he implicitly assumes that the only people who could possibly want to vote for a Muslim must be Muslim immigrants.)
The Fault-line
So here's my main point: For years (decades) the GOP have been using their xenophobia and bigotry to drum up support from their (fundy) base for their policies. But at the same time, they also know that they need minorities -- including Muslims -- to vote for them too. Furthermore, they can't be too blatant about their true thoughts/plans because, like it or not, the "rest" of the world is watching and, if we proclaimed a general war on Islam, all hell will break loose. So they normally talk in codes. Ambiguities. Words like "macaca". Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Everyone knows they do it. But they can't be pinned down. To use a favorite word of mine: they're "smarmy".
So along comes Ellison and Barack "Hussein" Obama and then Virgil Goode's letter. Let's read the egregious bits again:
The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.
...
I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.
Ooops. So much for "the code". It looks like Goode let the cat out of the bag. Everybody already knew what was in the bag. But now that it's loose--out in the open--look out. This cat has claws.
Remember: Goode is a United States Congressman, not some marginalized KKK leader or even a rabid talking-head pundit scrounging for ratings, but an ELECTED Congressman!!!
And he is telling us openly that he believes it is bad for Muslims to hold office, to vote, to even be in this country.
(Notice the crucial "and" I underlined at the end of that first sentence. If that weren't there, Goode might have been able to weasel away and make this just about swearing on the Koran -- which is bad enough. But here he is also obviously talking about it being a bad thing that Muslims can get elected to office in general. No doubt about it. And he follows that up by saying not only should they not be elected, but he doesn't want them in the United States.)
This goes very deep.
The Aftershocks
What aftershocks? What fallout?
So far, there hasn't been much in the way of fallout. We haven't been doing our job.
If we had, the GOP would at this point have the strategic need to distance themselves from Goode. If we had, the story would be on the front page.... still. Two weeks later.
Throwing them an anvil
If we do our jobs, the GOP now has a choice: admit what everyone knows and try to defend it in the light of day or cut Goode loose and alienate some more of their already dwindling base and, more important, abandon their rhetorical xenophobia bellows. Note that if they don't abandon the xenophobic rhetoric, we can now attack it in the open for what it is -- even the veiled shit, because we can constantly cite Goode.
But we have to force this choice upon them. We can't let them slink back into the shadows.
I suggest the following questions for Bush and other GOP leadership (to be asked repeatedly at all press events). And they're not just rhetorical. I want answers. I really do.
- As a leader in the Republican party, do you agree with Goode's position that Muslims should not be elected to public office?
- Do you favor Goode's proposal of restricting the immigration of Muslims?
- Are we at war with Islam? Do Virgil Goode's attitudes about Muslims affect his votes about Iraq?
- Do you believe that the U.S. is a Christian nation?
- Do you believe that Muslims should be allowed in Congress, or do you think there should be a religious test for public office?
You get the idea.
I firmly believe that Bush would fall apart trying to answer these. But that's not the only reason we should be asking these questions and demanding answers. The main reason is that they've been at the heart of Bush's holy war for the past 5 years and the sooner we make this explicit the sooner we can cut through the BS and start to extract ourselves from the mess he's created for us.
We can make this happen.