Boehner: "GOP Isn't Racist, We Just Hate Obama And Holder . . . Benghazi!!!"

On the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, what have Republicans learned about race and American diversity?  Not much.

Two years ago,  a kangaroo court House Oversight Committee found Attorney General Eric Holder "in contempt" over the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking program.  (It was Dubya's stupid program, Holder ended it, and Holder testified about it nine times.  Frustrated that they couldn't blame Obama for it, House R's found Holder in contempt instead.  Another symbolic vote that went nowhere.  Pure political B.S. theater.)

A couple days ago, Holder testified again to the Oversight Committee on a completely different topic.  On the Committee is Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, a racist Islamaphobic Tea-Bagger.  ( A Louie sampler:  He compared civil rights to rights for bugs and lizards, said Obama has been "complicit in helping people who want to destroy our country," and claimed that Obama has "stirred up more racial tension and violence than anyone since the 1960's.")

Gohmert saw fit to remind Holder that the Committee still held him in contempt, and Holder replied, in so many words, "The feeling is mutual, ass-wipe!  Don't go there with me!"  The next day, Holder said that President Obama and he have endured "unprecedented, unwarranted adversity" that goes far beyond policy disagreements.  Unspoken but understood:  it's personal and race-based.  Any semi-objective observer of the past 6 years would have to agree.

But not John Boehner.  Asked by a reporter if GOP criticism of the administration was motivated by race, Boehner answered, "There's no issue of race here," the quickly changed the subject by reaching into the Fox News fake-scandal grab bag and pulling out some familiar shiny objects.  The real issue, said the Orange Man, was getting the truth about the IRS, and Fast and Furious, and Benghazi.  And with that, Boehner walked off.  What?  No "botched healthcare website"?  No "war on Christmas"?  Why not go all the way with the red herring distractions?

What conservatives like Boehner don't seem to grasp is that white people don't get to decide what racism is, and merely declaring you're not a racist doesn't mean you aren't one.  The overwhelming majority of racists don't believe that they are; they can't recognize it in themselves, but others do.

Make no mistake, we're getting better in this country.  Racism is no longer the horrible, blatant, violent thing it once was, but neither has it vanished.  It will never go away entirely.  Sadly, nothing did more to expose our lingering vein of American racism than the election of our first black president.

So here's a note to John Boehner, Louie Gohmert, Joe Wilson, Justice Joseph Alioto, et al:

You say it's not a racial thing thing, but . . .  when your fellow conservatives say Obama and Holder are "the real racists"; when you believe that efforts to reduce discrimination are just as bad, if not worse, than actual discrimination itself; when you're openly contemptuous and disrespectful of the black president, his black A.G., his other black cabinet members and black diplomats in ways we've never seen before, it's going to be strongly perceived to be racism by the rest of us.  And you know what?  It is.