The other night (2/26/13) Fox host Bill O’Reilly tried to explain why Barack Obama keeps spending all that money. He came up with a theory: People of color want handouts from the government, and Obama is happy to oblige.
As he told viewers:
So why are we spending all the money? For what reason? I’ll tell you why. Take a look at this chart put out by the Pew Research Center. It says 48 percent of Americans want smaller government and fewer services. But among Hispanics, only 19 percent want smaller government and fewer services. A whopping 75 percent of Latinos surveyed approve of bigger government and more entitlements. That’s why President Obama is spending the money, because he knows that a coalition of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, organized labor and committed liberals will overwhelm the Republican Party.
So in essence, the president is putting party politics above the good of the nation.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because O’Reilly said something very similar on election night. As reported by Politico (11/6/12):
“The white establishment is now the minority,” O’Reilly said. “And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?”
“The demographics are changing,” he said. “It’s not a traditional America anymore.”
O’Reilly said 50 percent of the voting public are people who “want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it, and he ran on it.”
Coincidentally or not, that was very similar to Mitt Romney’s explanation for his loss–Obama had promised “gifts” to people of color.
Of course, there are plenty of people who think the government should do more to battle poverty or invest in schools–for the “good of the nation.” But O’Reilly tacks on a reference to “committed liberals” and unions to gloss over what is obviously his real concern–that people of color are “overwhelming” what he calls “traditional America.”
The fact that O’Reilly has such a racialized view of all of this is what makes it especially interesting (or disturbing, perhaps). And it turns out he’s not alone; in fact, many Republicans apparently see the world this way, according to a recent Washington Post poll (8/29/12):
A new Post poll put the difference between the two parties’ perception of minority voters on stark display. Respondents were asked an open-ended question: Why do most black voters so consistently support Democrats?
Though “don’t know” was the top answer for members of both parties, a close second among Republicans was that black voters are dependent on government or seeking a government handout. Democrats more often said that their party addresses issues of poverty.
It’s not as if Bill O’Reilly has never uttered things reasonable people might consider racist: He wondered when African-Americans would “reject immorality,” compared Al Sharpton to David Duke, used the term “wetbacks” on his show, explained that Africa and “fundamental Islam” were antithetical to “Western reasoning,” joked that “the most unattractive women in the world are probably in the Muslim countries.”
But the fact that he seems to believe that the White House is destroying the economy in order to provide free stuff to people of color is taking things to an entirely different level.
You can imagine the apoplexy if Dear Misleader were in reality not a stalking horse for austerity
Or if Dems actually did “address issues of poverty”.
But the rage red visage of O’Reilly is as much a facade as Obama’s inaugural speech “liberalism”, isn’t it?
One’s job is to rile up the fools who can’t see their own best interests for the fear and hatred he pimps
And the other’s is to calm the fears of those who are the objects of that bile
While diligently doing the bidding of those they should be most fearful of
And who laugh themselves sick at how many of us are taken in by it all.
I think many people are secretly prejudiced against other races, religions, ethnic groups etc. It just seems to be the human nature for people to categorize and generalize others.
Not only that, but if something unfortunate happens to someone, we tend to blame them for their misfortune because we implicitly think that the world is fair and that people with misfortune somehow deserved it.
Bill O’Reilly has never let facts stand in the way of good Racist Rant; if only 48% of the Americans want a smaller government, does it not stand that then the majority of Americans do not want that? And that regardless of their view point, the Latinos would still be a minority?
On the other hand, the smallest minority in America (White, male, Rich, Republican, Christian) are the ones stopping the majority (the rest of us) from achieving parity.
I am sure Bill never a met a Rich, white, Christian male that he didn’t like: or anyone else that he did.
O’Reilly conveniently mentions that 48% of Americans wants smaller government, but fails to note 52% want a larger government, which makes sense, since 49% of all Americans including the 2% rich receive some type of government entitlement program; whether unemployment, foodstamps, social security (yes, its considered an entitlement program). These entitlement programs for the poor don’t exist for “Blacks”. Why should.they? They represent 12% of the population. It’s the “whites” who are the majority that they fear will revolt if they are hungry & why are they hungry? No jobs!!! If our big corporations don’t outsource abroad to China & India, then they just give out H1B visas & allowed these foreigners to work here to take good jobs. There are more people on work visas then illegal aliens & unlike those poor migrants, corporations are giving them jobs Americans want. It’s interesting there’s always $ to subsidize huge corporations like Monsanto, Exxon, nuclear, & coal industries that poison our food, pollute our air, & contaminate our waters, but never for the workers, who today are even being denied jobs & a decent wage to support their families.
How many people who are not white work for FAIR?
If you want to see racism, look at tye ABC World News Tonight team. They make the Republican party look like a NAACP conference.
When he says that 48% of Americans want a smaller government, another way of saying this is that these people want free stuff from government in the form of government employees (compensated less for doing the same job on average than private sector workers) working for less or losing their jobs, lower taxes, lower benefits to people not like them, etc. It is always the other person who wants free stuff…
You say: “It’s not as if Bill O’Reilly has never uttered things reasonable people might consider racist”
You left out the time he said he’d been at a restaurant in Harlem and was amazed no one was shouting things like “hey, where’s my em-effing iced tea.”
@jessica
Actually, it’s 41% who wanted “bigger government” in that Pew survey.
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/v-politics-values-and-religion/
But the point I really wanted to make with regard to the survey is that O’Reilly implies (probably accurately) that a majority of whites expressed the desire for “smaller government.” (The figures are only broken down as “All Hispanics” and “General Populaton.”) He then says that Obama “is putting party politics above the good of the nation.”
Which means, if it means anything, that the man with the world’s most perfect initials holds that what white people want defines “the good of the nation.”
I love the president but even he has to admit that the country is going broke. When I first came to this country, I learned English, lived with relatives, and worked two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet and attend community college, Imagine if all the people like me didn’t do that after the second World War? We would be like Greece today. Immigrants must be like my brother who said it takes great sacrifice to earn your place in the world. Yes, he and I faced prejudice but we are respected business leaders today in our community and I am proud to have never have taken from America. Those who take should be ashamed or not stay here.
I have always said that most people are racist and they don’t even know it. They think racism means you hate another race. They don’t hate them; they just stereotype them. So maybe not racists but definitely bigots, though they won’t admit that either.
And, as someone said previously, if they took a good, long look at this president, they wouldn’t see a liberal but yet another moderate who talks a good liberal game.