CPAC Participant Defends Slavery At Minority Outreach Panel

From Think Progress courtesy of Daily Kos:

The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. 

And

When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

More here.

I'm convinced, of course, and have been for years, that the racist strain among conservatives accounts for all manner of vile position-taking on their side.  So it's virtually impossible to see stuff like Republican promoted restrictive voter ID laws, or harsh attitudes about immigration, as being anything BUT racist.  That is, I can imagine some non-racist conservative rationales for such ideas, but as long as conservatives tolerate the massive racist presence in their midst, those rationales can't be taken as much more than rationalizations.

In short, conservatives have an enormous problem.  Conservatism is the American go-to ideology for racists.  No, not all conservatives are racist.  But all racists ARE conservative.  And it doesn't really seem to trouble conservatives who aren't racist.  If right-wingers were serious about removing this disgusting taint from their brand, a stain which alters in subtle and nuanced ways the ideology itself, people like the one quoted in the article linked above would be picked up by the scruff of the neck and literally thrown out of any and all conservative events.  But that's not what happens.  Instead, the racists are welcomed with open arms, and their ideas are given a full hearing.  And other conservatives cheer for these ideas.  And then conservatives turn around and insist to the rest of the country that they're not racist, and get pissed off when the rest of the country is skeptical.  It's a pathetic sight.  It is important to note that liberals do NOT welcome racists at their events.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Justice Scalia says that voting is a "racial entitlement."  It is as though conservatives are daring each other to take it even further.

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