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And he’s putting the blame on bigots like Rush Limbaugh, who fanned the flames all during the campaign.
KING: You wrote in your book some time ago about this issue, about serving in administrations. You wrote: “Never in the two years I worked with Ronald Reagan and George Bush did I detect the slightest trace of racial prejudice in their behavior. They led a party, however, whose principal message to black Americans seemed to be, lift yourself up by your bootstraps. Some did not have boots. I wish that Reagan and Bush had shown more sensitivity on this point.”
Let’s fast forward to where we are today. Does the Republican Party have that sensitivity now? You just mentioned the divergence of opinion when this nomination first came up. Are you confident those in, let’s say, elected leadership positions have that sensitivity now?
POWELL: Well, if you look at the results of the election last fall and make a judgment on the basis of how the party did with respect to the Hispanic vote and the African-American vote, realizing that President Obama — candidate Obama had a significant advantage with those constituencies, we haven’t done well enough.
And when you have non-elected officials such as we have in our party who immediately shout racism or somebody who is quite prominent in the media says that the only basis upon which I could possibly have supported Obama was because he was black and I was black, even though I laid out my judgment on the candidates, then we still have a problem.
Here’s a bonus clip of Rush on the hate crimes bill: Everybody but “blacks and homosexuals” “can get to the back of the bus”:
21 Comments
Sorry, POWELL has always struck me……as the grandfather of all Uncle Tom's / and/or House Blacks. Without any understanding or ties to middle class or inner city blacks.
Not exactlyFor one, Powell is of Jamaican descent and born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. He understands pretty well the plight of middle class and inner city blacks. That’s probably why he went into the military. So has every other man in my family with the exception of myself.
“the GOP still has a race problem”This surprises…………..who?
Just posted this, but it doesn’t show. I think it should be here, too.This is from Michael Bedwell's comment under the MULLEN blog. I vaguely remember this from that time, but I was not really a gay activist then. If you were you should remember it well and be extremely unforgiving of this man.
Two brass asshats for the price of one…
First, I hope everyone understands that Colin Powell should have been tarred and feathered out of public life long ago for myriad reasons having nothing to do with DADT but his continuing homophobic lies and distortions about DADT would be reason enough. NO OTHER PERSON is more responsible for forcing Clinton to abandon his promise of issuing an executive order gay integrating the military than Powell. In March 1992, even before Clinton got the Party’s nomination, in response to efforts in Congress then to end the ban, Powell’s testimony framed the narrative that would end more than a year later in turning a policy into a law.
That spring he told Congress that letting people of “the homosexual lifestyle” into the military “with heterosexuals who would prefer not to have somebody of the same sex find them sexually attractive” would be “prejudicial to good order and discipline.”
Two months later, the contents of his letter to Cong. Pat Schroeder were made public in which he declared that while race was a “benign” characteristic homosexuality “goes to one of the most fundamental aspects of human behavior”…translation: “people choose to be gay and it’s an evil choice.”
Clinton was elected despite being seen as a “draft dodger” liberal, but the Chair of his Joint Chiefs of Staff was Powell, the [pseudo] hero of Desert Storm. He and other Chiefs threatened to resign even before Clinton was sworn in. Two weeks before the Inaugural, Powell publicly torpedoed Clinton’s plan when he told graduates of Annapolis that being gay was “a choice they have made, or it may have been made for them, I don’t know; that he “couldn’t make a moral judgment as to whether that is a correct lifestyle or not [but] if you find [gays in the military] completely unacceptable and it strikes to the heart of your moral beliefs, then I think you have to resign.” Clinton, like Truman an insubordinate Gen. MacArthur, should have fired him the next day. But he was not the last President elected on promises of “Change” and “Hope” to have undescended testicles.
Thus, Powell became the couldn’t-be-a-bigot-because-he’s-black, military “hero” on which Nunn [who, ironically, had once supported arch racist George Wallace for President] launched his successful nuclear attack on Clinton’s effort to end the ban. And his repeating his dishonest claptrap about a “review” of DADT, weeks after outright lying to Rachel Maddow about his starring role in institutionalizing government homohatred, is just more of the slime trail snakes always leave.
My betthe first thing Limbaugh is going to come back with is something like:
Powell should stop being so measured and name names and be done with it.
And doesn’t give a flying fuck about …
….”the plight of middle class and inner city blacks.”
Shouldn’t any quote by homohating, lying, warmongering, blood soaked Gen. Rectum Powell be filed under the special category: “Even a broken clock is right twice a day”?
But don’t take my word for it:
“… being drenched with praise and being immune from criticism are not quite the same thing. And the failure even to consider the case against Colin Powell is not just the sign of an unwillingness to ask questions. It is the sign of a failure of memory. It’s not as if we have not met this man before, as national security advisor and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and had a chance to gauge his form. Some examples:
In 1968, as a staff army major in Vietnam, Colin Powell played a direct role in suppressing the inquiry into the My Lai massacre, and into related atrocities against civilians.
As a White House fellow during the Watergate years he earned a reputation — but only for keeping his mouth shut.
As a military assistant to Caspar Weinberger during the Reagan administration, he helped to deceive Congress about the trading in heavy weapons with Iran, about the exchange of those weapons for hostages, and about the diversion of the illicit proceeds to finance another illicit operation in Nicaragua.
In Panama, in 1989, he helped shape an operation that totally disregarded international law and took many civilian lives.
During the Gulf War, he strongly opposed any military help for the Kurdish and Shia rebellions against Saddam Hussein.
In the Bosnian conflict, he publicly opposed any intervention against Slobodan Milosevic and his forcible creation of a “Greater Serbia.”
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Bill Clinton, he repeatedly intervened to influence political decisions, not only about the Balkans but about the right of homosexuals to serve in the military.
It might seem at first glance that this record is contradictory; hawkish here and dovish there: cautious in some cases and bold in others. In fact, it shows a consistent adherence to the preservation of “the military” as a separate caste within American society and — more to the point — within American politics. It also shows a consistent mediocrity in judgment, and a recurring strain of moral cowardice.
This is what happens to a star-obsessed culture which judges peoples’ actions by their reputations instead of the other way around.” – Christopher Hitchens.
Mocha chocolata pond scum is STILL pond scum.
Well, clearly it’s a reference to Rushand Powell has mentioned before. And if Rush did have something to say, than Powell would retort back.
That’s not what Orion’s statement saidunderstanding who and what “inner city blacks” are and not caring about them are 2 entirely differnt things. As I said, the Army was the ticket up and the ticket out for Powell, more than likely. It was the ticket out for my cousin. It may prove to be a ticket out for my nephew.
Now whether he gives a flying fuck about the plight of inner city blacks is a different question. Hell, in some ways, I don’t either. And there are many middle class blacks that feel that way.
heh.isn’t it funny when one bigot yells that his brother bigot is worse than he is and brings shame on both their houses. love it.
Pretty muchThough I can’t help but, again, wonder:
What if Colin Powell had run for President in 1996 opposing Bill Clinton? (Powell would have beaten Dole in the primary, IMO).
We’d be no better off…
…worse? Who knows? Probably, because his record is one of following not leading.
Not in those terms, MichaelI should have explained that.
Would the GOP still have a “race problem” to the extent that it has? Because there are a lot of black people that would have voted for Powell in 1996. Unfortunately, Kemp (with his many many many many faults) was right on this subject.
Oh please…I love it when someone who never likely experienced discrimination (white/male/rich) is whining about being put upon by the gays.
Cry me a river of tears, you paragon of morality.
Dena
I actually thinkThat he understands Black Americans pretty well. While he is a Republican and served in The Administration of Doom, he has been an advocate for many in the AA community.
Shame on you!!!That’s just really sad to hear and of course is part of the problem.
Probably less of a “race problem”…
…but how much less is debatable. While David Ehrenstein might not agree, I believe Powell was our first, as he characterized Barack, “Magic Negro” to come close to major political office. Light-skinned, non-threatening, polysyllabic but nonetheless mealy-mouthed with a history of following orders…and a REPUBLICAN. Even liberal gays luved him until he betrayed us on DADT while I thought he was an empty suit from the word Go.
Whatever else their strengths or weaknesses, Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson were doomed the moment they combined dark skin with calling bullshit on the Establishment.
For all my criticism of Barack, he has real talents that Powell only pretends to have.
In “some ways” I saidBlack LGBT’s (no matter where they are from) are an exception to that; they can quite literally have the shirt off of or even a rough over their head for a night or 2 if I am !). I’ve done tutoring, etc.
And of course those of any race who decide that they at least want to try to recover from substance addiction. And many of those have other problems (i.e. one of my best friends, a black lesbian, was illiterate, for example. I helped her learn to read.)
I guess the rule for me nowadays; if someone’s hand reachies out for help, I’ll do what I can but I rarely offer the help…
So the limit of your concernfor other black Americans extends only to those who are LGBT or have a history of substance abuse? What about the other 80% that might need a helping hand.
What I shamed you for was your obvious lack of concern for the rest of black America. As I said before THAT is part of the problem. Kicking the rest of the community to the curb at the first opportunity (at the first sign of personal success) is at the very heart of the rot in Black America.
I find it sad that an otherwise intelligent person such as yourself could so socially irresponsible.
But you know whatthis is where David E. and I agree.
The community as a whole (more or less) kicked me to the curb first and very, very often. Dude, I get tired. I got to a point where I had my own problems. And sure I found help for those problems but I don’t stetch myself either. You have no idea how much time I really do devote to helping that 20%.
This is one of the problems with the Net…
… a “litmus test” culture has dug in which is constantly measuring people others have never met against some straw perfect man/woman.
Powell: the GOP still has a race problemThis has just occurred to him? He never noticed,under Dubya, the subject being changed or the “good ol’ boys” coughing and hushing up when he walked in the room? Where has the poor man been all this time?
Love,
Rick Cabral