I’m not impressed.
Look at this post that is currently making the rounds on conservative blogs and on Twitter, creatively titled “Russ Carnahan Dismisses Black Man at Townhall.” The video in the post shows Russ Carnahan speaking at the same health care town hall that hotflash attended earlier this week. A questioner, presumably the author of the blog Blacksphere, shouts a question in the middle of Carnahan’s presentation, at which point Carnahan proceeds to talk through the question without answering it.
Is there evidence, presented in the video or otherwise, that Russ Carnahan dismissed anyone because of the color of their skin? Or that he even dismissed someone because they did anything other than speak out of turn? Questioners were given time to speak at microphones at the town hall, and as hotflash noted, they weren’t all critics from the right – single payer advocates were able to make their voices heard forcefully and politely.
Mind you, this guy is prone to make wild parallels between the conservative Democrats of the segregated South (many of whom became Republicans after the national Democratic Party led the way on civil rights) and the Democrats of today. In the very next post, tastefully titled MO Senator McCaskill Denies Access to Certain Blacks Kevin compares an incident at McCaskill’s office in St. Louis with police sending attack dogs against defenseless protesters.
The incident hearkened me back to the ’60’s when racist Democrats controlled the police. In those days they would have turned loose the German Shepards attacking Republicans supporting the civil rights of black Americans. Likely a disappointment for McCaskill’s office that they didn’t.
What did McCaskill’s staff do to merit such a comparison? They asked police to move the rightwing protesters away the building after the protesters began beating on the doors and windows of the office building, including those of adjoining businesses unrelated to McCaskill’s Senate staff. The protesters were allowed to remain within view of McCaskill’s office. And of course, no attack dogs, batons, tear gas, fire hoses, gunfire, or other physical means were used to relocate the protesters.
If the best conservatives can do is to use Alan Keyes and Neal Boortz as standards for sober-minded discussion, they best be prepared for decades in the wilderness.
…where all the so called small government “drown it in a bathtub” conservatives were during the eight year run of the previous administration.
couldn’t have told you what race the man shouting the question was. It was a very large crowd. I never did manage to locate the specific individuals doing the shouting during that meeting. And if you will watch the video, you’ll see that Carnahan was looking down at his notes when the questioner shouted.