So, what the hell is North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones doing on a white supremacist radio show?
A North Carolina Republican congressman appeared on a notorious white nationalist radio program on Saturday to talk up legislation he co-authored accusing President Barack Obama of committing impeachable offenses. Rep. Walter Jones, a fiercely anti-war congressman who often breaks with his party on key votes, appeared on the “Political Cesspool,” a Memphis-based program hosted by ardent white nationalists James Edwards and Eddie Miller. The show has been condemned by groups like the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center for promoting racist, homophobic, and anti-semitic beliefs. Jones is the first member of Congress to appear on the program.
An avowed white nationalist who says David Duke is “above reproach,” Edwards has referred to African-Americans as “heathen savages” and “subhuman” and suggested that slavery was “the greatest thing that ever happened” to blacks. The show’s mission statement is blunt: “We represent a philosophy that is pro-White and are against political centralization,” it declares. It then outlines a series of issues the show exists to promote. “We wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races,” reads one plank. Another bullet-point endorses the Confederacy: “Secession is a right of all people and individuals. It was successful in 1776 and this show honors those who tried to make it successful in 1865.”
Yeah, so please explain to me how Freedom Fries Walter here is, as a sitting member of Congress up for re-election, allowed to do this without a national outcry, when he’s on a white supremacist radio show with the express purpose of pushing his bill to impeach our first black President.
Go ahead, I’d love to hear the explanations of how I’m the awful racist in this scenario for pointing this out.
Surreal American
Because shut up, that’s why.
Politically Lost
Yeah, you are the awful racist…oh, wait you wanted an explanation as to why you are the awful racist.
Sorry, can’t help you there.
Silver
So, what the hell is North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter Jones doing on a white supremacist radio show?
Because he’s a North Carolina Republican.
Bokonon
Because … because … people are beyond outrage, I guess.
That and the fact stories like this never become national news, unless the media decides to cover them (instead of spiking them as somehow unimportant).
J.D. Rhoades
DAMN it, Walter! Every time I think this guy shows signs of having a brain, he does something like this.
Matthew Reid Krell
Because the election of Barack Obama proves that there’s no more racism. And therefore anything that you think you might see is just your liberal racist blinders demonizing perfectly acceptable speech.
And because Jesse Jackson.
JPL
Walter has black friends so be nice to him.
Ruckus
Go ahead, I’d love to hear the explanations of how I’m the awful racist in this scenario for pointing this out
You are not.
I would remember that many times people vote for the person who best represents their views.
North Carolina was the state in which I saw a real, had been worn in anger, pointed white hood and robe. In the early 90s. Hanging in someones bathroom.
There are many people in the south who abhor such things and are in no way racist. I don’t believe they are in the majority. I would love to be proven emphatically wrong before I die.
SatanicPanic
He didn’t say the N-Word. And that’s the only way to be sure.
srv
You people just don’t understand that being Pro-white does not make you a racist, unless you think the NAACP is racist also too.
Surreal American
Because Robert Byrd?
Southern Beale
Heh. Wonder if Jones will participate in the “informal nature walk” through the Smokies David Duke is leading at next week’s international white supremacist’s conference?
Southern Beale
Or maybe I meant Edwards … ?
Brachiator
Remember, for some people it’s not racism unless someone utters the N word.
Otherwise, it’s … (they’re never quite clear on this point).
Bubblegum Tate
Well, I’ve seen wingnuts do this twist enough before that I think I can manage it. OK, here goes:
Why is it that black people can have their own organizations of pride but white people can’t? This country was founded on freedom of speech, and Walter Jones is entitled to that freedom of speech, even if you want to shut him down! Your race-baiting is just a distraction tactic–conservatives are beyond issues of race! And what about [non-racist, but implied to be racist thing] that [possible liberal] did?
Zandar
You guys are getting the hang of it.
Schlemizel
Well, see, its not that he is a racist or that he holds any racist beliefs at all. I’m sure he is just doing this as an outreach thing.
If that doesn’t work you are persecuting him in violation of the first amendment and and and playing the race card!!!
Violet
The article says this:
What’s his district like? Anyone know anything about it?
Steve
Walter Jones is kind of a paleocon in a world that has largely forgotten about the paleocons. You know, like Pat Buchanan. This development is not altogether surprising!
Surreal American
@JPL:
To Walter Jones or the black friend?
Marmot
That amazes me. Not only because he’s on a racist show, but also that there’s a full-on racist radio show at all! As mentioned above, it should be national news.
And Ruckus, that doesn’t mean the majority of people south of an arbitrary geographical line are themselves racist, silly goose.
Rathskeller
@SatanicPanic: Unless a person of color uses the word “white” in a sentence. That’s the real racism.
? Martin
Look, the guy isn’t out there calling for the lynching of blacks. He’s merely pointing out that lazy people shouldn’t get welfare from hardworking taxpayers and they shouldn’t lie to banks in order to get mortgages and then destroy the economy. If you infer that those lazy welfare queens are black and those hardworking, god-fearing taxpayers are white, well, that’s where your racial biases show. Walter said nothing of the sort.
Bokonon
Or do like Limbaugh, and claim that liberals have lousy senses of humor.
I mean … hey! Walter is just asking some legitimate political questions, and in between he is just kidding around with the guys! They are a bunch of cut ups, those fellows. A laugh a minute. The whole thing was really fun (unless you are a humorless liberal). C’mon!
Heliopause
Because you’re made out of wood.
The foxtrot.
Sincerely,
The Universe
Bubblegum Tate
Oh, wait, I almost forgot: SPLC is just a bunch of anti-conservative bigots. They call anybody with strong conservative values a racist, so the charge is meaningless.
There…I feel like I stuck the landing there.
MikeJ
@Violet:
Do they not even have copy editors at MoJo?
“Shoo in” I would guess is correct.
Dennis SGMM
Because he saw all of the publicity that Todd Akin received for openly stating another Republican theme and decided to do the same?
Argive
It’s OK because Robert Byrd said the n-word on the radio that one time.
longtime lurk
obviously I don’t support this guy in general, or his appearance on this racist program, or probably much else he’s ever done in his career… but if you haven’t already, you should read that bill. I agree with it 100%.
It actually says nothing about impeaching Obama, it simply says that deploying the military in an offensive capacity without an act of Congress is an impeachable offense (with exceptions to respond to actual or imminent attacks).
As I recall, this idea was uncontroversial for most of the history of the country, and until very recently was definitely a position held by most liberals.
Snarkworth
“This show honors those who tried to make it [secession] successful in 1865.”
Apparently dates don’t have to mean anything for this crowd. They just have to sound kind of historicalish.
Zandar
@Violet:
NC-3?
Outer Banks north of Wilmington.
Only more blood red district in the state is where I grew up, NC-10 (Home of the Odious Patrick McHenry).
Jerzy Russian
So Zander, how is the battle against the Stupid going? It seem like there is a long way to go still.
dogwood
Is Jones really the first member of Congress to appear on this program? I think I remember reading that Ron Paul has appeared as well? Not sure tho.
Heliopause
I forgot to add, you’re a racist for being mean to arguably the greatest left tackle of all time.
piratedan
because Virginia Foxx was busy?
JWL
I understand your point. I really do.
Still, there’s a flip side of the coin. In his critique of the two white presidential candidates in 1964, Malcolm X expressed a respect for Barry Goldwater that he did not extend to LBJ. It’s been decades since I read Malcolm’s autobiography, but the phrase “wolf in sheep’s clothing” springs to mind in that critique. He understood Goldwater’s candidly brutal race hatred, in a way he could not grasp Johnson’s legislative genius. Understandably so.
But there’s something to recommend Goldwater-style, in your face, race-based politicians speaking their little minds out loud, where everyone can listen in..
In the long run, it could even prove a short-cut to a more perfect Union.
ant
both sides do it.
Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, ACORN, Black Panthers, Michelle Obama’s big butt.
Democrat party are the REAL racists.
retr2327
And besides, Biden talked about chains, so both sides are equally guilty.
srv
The jihad against the hugger has begun:
http://www.americablog.com/2012/09/gopers-now-trying-to-destroy-small.html
ET
What is he doing on a white supremest show? Hanging with the homies. Birds of a feather and all that.
1badbaba3
Um….both sides do it?
Villago Delenda Est
@? Martin:
I just love the image of a banker as a naif who some dark skinned grifter can easily con into granting a mortgage.
The banker as the victim. Innocent, trusting, totally helpful in all cases, never bothers to check credit references because he’s so convinced of the absolute honesty of the borrower.
These guys had better share this shit they’re smoking, or I’m calling the DEA on their asses.
Culture of Truth
Because Democrats are the real racists.
Also both sides do it.
Now I’m going to go watch this tennis match. Because I’m a racist.
The Moar You Know
@Violet: Given that this…person represents the majority of the voters there, I’m guessing it resembles a cross between the section of the lab where they keep all the shit-throwing howler monkeys and Mad Max.
Dee Loralei
I live in Memphis, never heard of the show, the guys or hell even the station. Obviously, I am hanging out with the right sorts of people.
So, I got that going for me.
Hal
@JPL:
To paraphrase Seth Myers from the White House Correspondents Dinner last year, unless black friends is the name of some white guy he knows, I highly doubt it.
Seriously though, I wonder if he will use the I have black friends so I can’t be racist excuse, or go with a Newt Gingrich style I just want black people to get jobs and stuff line.
burnspbesq
@longtime lurk:
Oh, come on. It “says nothing about impeaching Obama” only if you sever it from the context that it is being introduced while Obama is president. Where was this fucking Sense-of-the-Congress resolution in 2003?
A looney-toon with a few admirable ideas is still a looney-tune, and Walter Jones is a looney-tune with a few admirable ideas.
dead existentialist
@Zandar:
Now that’s racist!
graves007
Rep. Walter Jones knows that TPC is not a racist outfit. They only “represent a philosophy that is pro-White and are against political centralization.” They also “wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races.”
This is probably what Rep. Walter Jones also believes so how can it be racist? He’s just being a good conservative.
burnspbesq
@The Moar You Know:
What my friends in North Carolina tell me is that there are two North Carolinas. The first is a 20-mile wide strip along Interstates 95 and 40/85. In that strip, North Carolinians have grudgingly jointed the 20th Century. In the remainder of the state, not so much. Walter Jones represents a district in the “not so much” part of the state.
maya
@Rathskeller:
I believe the correct term is ‘Beige Americans’.
max
Go ahead, I’d love to hear the explanations of how I’m the awful racist in this scenario for pointing this out.
You have a radio? The other person has a radio? Only racists listen to the radio!
max
[‘Rush Limbaugh listeners tune in via their fillings. HA! Take that libtard!’]
The Moar You Know
@burnspbesq: I know. Most of my family lives there. It’s the most bizarre place ever. Awesome people and places, then you drive fifteen minutes and you’re scared to get out of the car.
I did get to lead a bluegrass jam in the 19th Century part last time I was back there. Spirituals, which I am wholly unacquainted with. I was very happy to have their book of chord charts and lyrics, and I left without being strung up on the town lightpole, so I guess I did OK.
The Moar You Know
@The Moar You Know: Plus I’m white, which probably helped.
1badbaba3
When the hell is Obama opening up those FEMA prison camps? I’m sick of having to listening to these racist fucks.
Unfortunately, Hitler was a much better Hitler than Obama.
Keith G
Zandar, Walter Jones may not fit the cartoon caricature that you and some others are so quick to summon up. I would never vote for him, but he has taken important stands against Cheneyism (and Delayism). IIRC he is a lone GOP voice for minimum wage legislation in non-election years.
Patricia Kayden
I would like to hear Romneybot 2.0 explain Jones and the other racists in his party.
Schlemizel
@Jerzy Russian: I love the straight dope’s tag line
Fighting ignorance since 1973 – this is taking a lot longer than we thought
Schlemizel
@JWL: I bet Ol Detroit Red would be a lot happier with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act that LBJ pushed through than 4 years of in your face open racism of BMG.
I know I am
Schlemizel
@burnspbesq: You give him too much credit. Its not that he has an admirable idea. An admirable idea would be one if he offered it no matter who was POTUS. This jerk-off not just stood by but actually lent a huge hand to the last POTUS who wanted to get us into needless wars. His idea is to screw with the current POTUS only. If Willard won in NOV (Pasta forfend) this sense of the bullshit bill would be so much hot air drifting over the Potomac that nobody remembers.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Zandar: I lived in the Hickory area for ten years, and I can vouch for this.
Jay S
Hey, you go to impeachment with the allies you have, not the ones you wished you had.
grandpa john
@Southern Beale: Maybe they will run into some racist but hungry black bears or some of them communist Russian wild boars that were imported after the park was formed
Seth Owen
@longtime lurk: Too glib. Presidents have been using gunboat diplomacy without explicit authorization from Congress for more than 200 years. The Libyan episode seems to be the 21st Century equivilent of sitting in the harbor and shooting up the local fort. There are much more egregious cases like Panama and Grenada that Congress let pass without a whimper of protest so getting bent over Libya seems like a poor test case.
Dave S.
“He who smelt it, dealt it” is the closest thing I can think of.
gvg
“allowed to do this without a national outcry, when he’s on a white supremacist radio show….”
It’s up to us to make the national outcry. You think things like this are magically known to the public? Doug, you are starting the outcry.