I have not perused the blogs of the far-right in weeks. What I found today was disturbing. A wizbang post headline parrots a Telegraph (U.K.) editorial by Gerald Warner and proclaims, "President Pantywaist is a Surrender Monkey."
The first person who responded to the post attempted to inoculate the poster and similar thinking folks by remarking, "the clock is ticking on when the trolls will call you a racist for saying monkey." Let me be the first "troll" to say that Gerald Warner and his followers are indeed racist.
Yeah, I know that groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons uttered the phrase when he taught a French class and greeted students by saying, ""Bonjourrrrrrrrr, yah cheese-eatin' surrender monkeys!" However, there is nothing innocuous or humorous about calling an African American a monkey. Period. It is wrong, regardless of any sub-text or obscure reference. And I suppose that "pantywaist" has nothing to do with being effeminate.
Joseph Welch unmasked the cruel hatred of Senator McCarthy nearly 55 years ago by asking,"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" Today we are left to ponder the decency of Gerald Warner and those who endorse his racist comments, either by parroting his sentiments or by staying silent.
I see that Powerline links to Warner’s column, too. Folks there also claim there is nothing racist in Warner’s comments. As one person commented, "Nothing racist there, at least not anything related to blacks." I would not be surprised if other right-wing media link to the Warner column and make the same weak argument.