David Duke is planning a 26-state “listening tour” to test out the waters for a Presidential bid. I can’t wait to add him to the 2012 GOP Clown Car.

This shows you how the Republicans have brought this outright racism and bigotry to the fore, and they have to answer to cultivating it. Now you conservatives own it – shoulder to shoulder with the xenophobes/”racial realists.”

The current field of 2012 GOP presidential candidates is pretty boring. You’ve got several grouchy old men, a pizza magnate, and a walking anal sex joke. So why not a white supremacist? Sure, the GOP has noted xenophobes like Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, but they lack the panache of an openly racist candidate. But that could soon change, as 1990s throwback David Duke prepares to embark on a tour of 26 states to feel out his chances of putting the “white” back in the White House.

Besides Duke, several other “racial realists” – among them Neo-Confederates, Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and other assorted “white nationalists” – have their eyes on government offices across the country. Don Black, who runs the Stormfront white power message board, told The Daily Beast that he likes the Tea Party, but bemoans the fact that they’re little bitches when it comes to being tagged as racists:

Black says the Tea Party’s influence spurred hopes among his ideological soulmates-but that the initial excitement has given way to a realpolitik sense that the Stormfront crowd will have to go it alone. “Many of our people are involved in the Tea Party,” says Black. “But much of their leadership is skittish when it comes to talking about racial realities. The Tea Party is a healthy movement but many are too conditioned to run like scared rabbits when called racists.”

Do you think anyone of note in the GOP will publicly denounce any of this garbage once and for all? I’m not holding my breath. It’s sad that the party counts on the ignorant, low-info voter base that responds to the most base dog-whistle commercials and the bible-beaters who turn out to vote on their fears. Note this screengrab from Duke’s site, portraying the President as a pimp:

UPDATE: While we’re on this topic, Right Wing Watch has a nice piece that dovetails with this — Tea Party Nation Condemns “Non-European” Immigration. It’s completely unhinged, unvarnished racism by Eliana Benador, a neocon who wrote for Tea Party Nation…

In her column for the tea party group that once lamented that America is facing white “extinction,” Benador blames immigrants from “non-European nations” for much of the country’s social ills. She claims that such non-European immigration was responsible for President Obama’s election and claims that the U.S. should consider revoking First Amendment protections for religions (most likely Islam) that she deems inherently violent:

Some may agree that we have forgotten the lessons taught by slavery -and may be prone to not identify it even if it knocks at our doors, when we see a silent invader roaming our streets and we don’t dare call it as it is:

The invasion of America is taking place as we speak, but if we remove those blinders, we can still stop it.