There are many ways of reading last night’s victory by Republicans who now control both houses of Congress. One way of looking at the election is as a repudiation of Barack Obama’s failed policies, which left the nation stagnating and divided over the past six years.
Not everyone, however, adopts that view. One person who doesn’t is himself a member of Congress. He Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), and he was a guest on Monday’s “News Nation” with Tamron Hall. The topic was the next day’s midterm election. Clyburn, the number-three Democrat in the House, said his party shouldn’t have run away from the President in the days and weeks leading up to the election but should have supported his many successes. Clyburn went on to add that regardless of what does, “he’s not going to be acceptable because of his skin color.”
Clyburn complained that there “are so many people afraid of being too closely identified with President Obama.” The reason they don’t want to be identified with his agenda is because his successful programs have been demonized by Republicans.
And the reason for that? After Hall played the controversial Mary Landrieu comments about race, Clyburn gave his answer: racism.
Hall: Our first-read team basically says the GOP said Obama stinks, that’s the quote there and the Democrats never countered that.
Clyburn: That’s correct. And that’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that the fact of the matter is we have a good record to run on. And let me say about Mary Landrieu. Mary Landrieu is from Louisiana. She snows the history of Louisiana like I know the history of South Carolina. The fact of the matter is, she reads some of the mail that she gets. And I read some of the mail I get. And for anybody to say there’s nothing that is nothing that’s racial about some of the animus being expressed by President Obama you’re not telling the truth. The fact of the matter is we know that with a lot of people, I don’t care what he does; he’s not going to be acceptable because of his skin color.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkm1cm-aRZs
Cross-posted at The Lid
