It is a given that Republicans use dog-whistle racism to appeal to their majority white supporters and, when called out, will insist that liberals call everything racist and read racism into everything.
Then there’s statements like the early morning Thursday tweet by Mike Huckabee, who didn’t bother to disguise his racism at all while insulting Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).
A racist statement like Huckabee’s would get any other news channel contributor banned from the networks, but Fox News and its viewers are thrilled to find a kindred spirit in the former GOP governor whose daughter speaks for the president and the White House every day.
There are several factual problems with Huckabee’s tweet besides the blatant racism, although inspiring the same bigotry is clearly the aim of his words. Luis Guiterrez was born an American citizen of Puerto Rican descent in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were born American citizens, as Puerto Rico is an American territory. While Huckabee’s fans cheered the bashing of undocumented immigrants, they either aren’t aware or just don’t care that Guiterrez, whose last name and brown skin triggers their deeply-held racist beliefs, is not from Mexico.
What else would one expect from the father of Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has railed at reporters for asking about her boss’s racist actions and insisted that Trump cannot possibly be a bigot because NBC gave him a television show.
‘I think that is an outrageous claim. Why did NBC give him a show for a decade on TV? Why did Chuck Schumer and all of his colleagues come and beg Donald Trump for money?…Why did they want to be with him for years and years, whether it was various activities and fundraisers, and other sorts of things?
‘I think it is just an outrageous and ludicrous excuse and they need to get on board and start doing what they were elected to do.’
What else would the daughter of Mike Huckabee, who must have grown up steeped in her father’s racist beliefs, say about a president who has called Mexican immigrants rapists and drug dealers and insisted that Haiti and some African countries are “sh*tholes” and that the United States would be better off with white immigrants from Norway?
As the president, backed by people like Mike Huckabee, told America that he wants to work toward bipartisanship for every American “of every background, color and creed,” his voters and supporters like Huckabee continue to prove that what they really want from a U.S. president is someone equally as racist as they are.
They see no problem with Trump holding the lives of 800,000 DACA recipients hostage in exchange for funding for an unnecessary border wall to keep scary brown people bent on raping and killing everyone, despite the fact that he promised his rabid fan base that Mexico would pay for that wall.
No, those supporters will see no problem with Huckabee’s tweet. Many on Twitter, however, were incensed, albeit not all that surprised.
Featured image via Getty/Spencer Platt
