To my fellow Brothers and Sisters, who happen to be Republicans...
Check out this video on YouTube:
vhttp://www.youtube.com/...
This scene I believe reflects the state of African American Republicans during this election and in the recent past. The clip shows Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington in a death-match for control of a nuclear sub. According to the plot the sub was given an order to fire nuclear weapons at Russia in retaliation for or in anticipation of a strike against the US. The crew was divided between those who supported the captain (Hackman), who wanted to launch nuclear weapons immediately according to the last message from the Pentagon against those who supported the XO (Washington). Washington's group wanted to wait until the radio was repaired so that an incomplete message could be received, just in case the message was for them to abort the launch.
The movie climaxed with Hackman and Washington in a final standoff waiting for the message from the soon-to-be repaired radio before Hackman launched the missiles. Hackman twice struck Washington in the face, bloodying his nose, and demanding the key to unlock the missile systems. Washington refused, and in the midst of the stand-off they were informed the message might soon be received. Hackman gave radio repairman three minutes to get the message or he would proceed.
While they waited the 3 minutes, with both sides' weapons trained on each other, the pair sat down on the bridge. Hackman, after lighting a cigar and crossing his legs begin to taunt and insult Washington with a thinly veiled racial insult visa vi an anecdote about the Lipizzaner Stallions about their color and the fact that you could "stick a cattle prod up their a// and they'll do just about anything." The purpose of the exchange was to demean Washington and any accomplishments he had achieved up to an including any that gave him the audacity to confront the captain over the control of the sub and the defense of the country. It was clearly a racial insult on top of striking him, bloodying his nose and bruising his cheek.
My issue was with LT Darick Westergaurd an African American played by Rocky Carroll. He had allied himself with the captain and therefore was armed and against Washington. Both men were black, but were on different sides of this stand-off. In my view, Hackman represented the Republican Party, while LT Westergaurd represented Black members of the GOP standing by in defense of a captain I'm sure he respected and allied himself with for good reason, but what must he have thought as a fellow black man as he listened to the captain bait Washington using racial innuendo. He supported him, but here he is, listening to the "real" captain. Must he have thought he had his weapon trained on the wrong person? Certainly if the captain had no respect for this respectable black man, how much less much he have for the man who helped him subdue him?
As black Republicans defend their party, training their rhetorical, financial and creative weapons on their fellow African Americans in general and President Obama in particular, how must they feel when Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum et al light their cigars and discuss the welfare and food stamp receiving Lipizzaner Stallions? And the biggest stallion of them all--President Obama? And what must the mitt group think of them?