Racism & Rectitude

By Sniffles

So, somebody named "SavedGirl" has posted a comment over at The Washington Post regarding President Obama's extension of some benefits to gay federal employees.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS NEGRO PRESIDENT AND HIS ANTI-CHRISTIAN AGENDA!!!!!" she screams.

Goodness gracious. You always know that the nuts are posting when they use all caps.

While we cats were mildly relieved that not all the posters were gay people mad at Obama — something that we'd understand, although we're not ready to give up on the Administration quite yet — this comment disturbs us. How many times have we written recently about the increasingly bold racism of the other side?

After all, what does President Obama's skin color have to do with this particular policy? Why go out of the way to use a word — "Negro" — that is now generally used only ironically? (And of course, why would we want a President's agenda to hew to any particular religion? — but, we digress.)

"SavedGirl," in short, is just another bigoted case in point.

But wait, there's more.

We cats have been ruminating on right-wing Christians' seemingly never-ending thirst for judging people. Take Republican Senator John Ensign's latest little domestic mess. Folks in the media have had a swell time recalling Senator Ensign's condemnation of Bill Clinton's personal behavior back in 1998. And they've noted that Senator Ensign is an active, dedicated member of that vaunted Christian organization, Promise Keepers. (Hm. A lot of good that did.)

Talk about irony. Isn't it Christ who said, "Judge not, lest ye be judged"?