Tipsheet

Obama: Let's Face It, Republicans Who Oppose Illegal Immigration Are Racists

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  September 29, 2022 10:05 AM

Ah yes, there it is -- Barack Obama's inner race-baiting demagogue that's never lurking too far beneath the veneer.  Mr. Hope and Change, who shot to stardom decrying the binary and polarized notion of blue vs. red states, was more than willing to take cheap shots at his opposition throughout his time on the national stage.  Some of his loudest defenders were even worse, conflating opposition to Obama's policies to hatred of the man due to his skin color.  Far from adopting a statesmanlike, above-the-partisan-fray approach to his post-presidency, Obama has waded back into the mix with some regularity.  One of his more egregious recent episodes was his highly partisan jeremiad at the 2020 funeral of the late Rep. John Lewis, in which Obama used the occasion to call for various left-wing power grabs, including eliminating the filibuster, which he condemned as a 'Jim Crow relic.'  He didn't mention, of course, his enthusiastic participation in filibusters as a Democratic Senator.  I wrote this at the time:

Here we have classic Obama. Brass-knuckles partisanship dressed up as high-minded virtue, which only cretins could oppose. Of course, he employed a similar approach in defending the filibuster while he was briefly a member of the Senate. Here's what he said at the time, when keeping that particular tool in place was widely embraced by the Left based on the relevant power dynamics: "What [the American people] don't expect is for one party - be it Republican or Democrat - to change the rules in the middle of the game so that they can make all the decisions while the other party is told to sit down and keep quiet. The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster - if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate - then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse..."

"...If the right of free and open debate is taken away from the minority party and the millions of Americans who asked us to be their voice, I fear that the already partisan atmosphere of Washington will be poisoned to the point where no one will be able to agree on anything. That doesn't serve anyone's best interests, and it certainly isn't what the patriots who founded this democracy had in mind."  A high-minded, virtuous defense of the filibuster that only power-hungry cretins could oppose.  Indeed, Obama himself participated in filibusters -- including, famously, a failed attempt to block the Supreme Court nomination of Justice Samuel Alito. But he later claimed to regret that action when the political moment required him to disavow his previous stance. It's never about principle or good governance, you see; it's about power. Pure and simple. 

If Democrats are returned to the Senate minority by voters in November, I suspect all the huffing and puffing about the supposedly racist filibuster will evaporate on the Left -- as it briefly did when Senate Democrats used the tool themselves during their current majority -- only to return to 'Jim Crow' status whenever it suits their interests. That's how they roll. Pure power politics, period.  Back to Obama, who had this ugly thing to say at a conference in California this week:


He called GOP rhetoric on immigration "dangerous" for the country, to boot.  Really?  More or less dangerous than the drownings and other deaths this Democrat-incentivized crisis is causing?  More or less dangerous than the convicted felons and suspected terrorists filtering into the homeland through the porous and overwhelmed border.  More or less dangerous than the deluge of drugs entering the country, especially alarming quantities of fentanyl, which is now the leading cause of death of young Americans?  Are we allowed to ask such questions, or is that also racist, or whatever.  Obama's quote above is not subtle.  He says the main driver of the Republican agenda is fear of dark people taking over the country, hence all the immigration talk.  What garbage.  There have been two million encounters at the border this year alone, and counting.  Two million.  We know of approximately one million people who've entered the country illegally and gotten away.  It is a crisis of historic proportions, and Obama's deep thought about it...is how bigoted the people worried about it must be.

Are there some people motivated by racial animus?  Yes, sadly.  Racists exist.  Do they represent anywhere close to the majority of the majority of Americans who are deeply concerned about the crisis?  Absolutely not.  It's disgraceful to suggest otherwise.  Also, has Obama been asleep for the last few years?  Did he miss the part where Donald Trump improved Republicans' vote share and margins among certain demographic groups Democrats believed to be locked into their column forever?  Has he missed all the big flapping red flags about the Hispanic vote?  The shift in Virginia and New Jersey among that group last year, for instance?  The major movement along the Texas border among Latinos who are, among other reasons, offended by the chaos and dysfunction failing policies have caused in their communities?  Are they also part of this alleged racist cabal freaking about darker skinned people?  It seems Barack Obama would prefer to pat 'Latinx' voters on the head, tell them to be Democrats, then return to his tired trope about angry, scared white people.  I'll leave you with more 'racist' 'dogwhistles' afoot: