Dr. Ben Carson and Alaska's Rep. Don Young are two examples of how out of touch the GOP is with a country that has moved well beyond the casual acceptance of bigotry, Jonathan Capehart writes in a blog post at the Washington Post.
The Republican Party and some of its acolytes on the right have a really big problem. I mean, we know Twhat it is. They are out of step with the country, both with its people and the issues they care about. The GOP will continue to have horrible weeks like the one they had last week as long as last century's bigoted attitudes flow with the ease of water from a hose. And as bad as that is, the apologies after such offenses only make matters worse.
The Post's Aaron Blake and Juliet Eilperin got to the heart of the GOP's attitude problem when they wrote about "Don Young and the GOP's Archie Bunker problem." Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), 79, used a racial slur ("wet backs," to be specific) to describe the Hispanic migrant workers his father hired to pick tomatoes on their California ranch when he was a kid. I would add Dr. Ben Carson to the mix. The Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and new GOP darling waxed offensive on Fox News last week when he linked gays to the pedophiles of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and "people who believe in bestiality."
Sean Hannity: All right, last question, we have the issue of the Supreme Court dealing with two issues involving gay marriage. I've asked you a lot of questions. I've never asked you that, what are your thoughts?
Carson: Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It's a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality. It doesn't matter what they are. They don't get to change the definition. So he, it's not something that is against gays, it's against anybody who wants to come along and change the fundamental definitions of pillars of society. It has significant ramifications.
NAMBLA? Wet backs? Add Wayne LaPierre's nostalgic reference to the 1994 movie "Natural Born Killers" to pushback against warranted criticism of the National Rifle Association in the wake of the 2012 slaughter at Newtown, Conn., and you have a vocal segment of the right that is stuck in time. While LaPierre refuses to apologize for anything, Young and Carson tried their best to do so — and botched it big time by digging their holes deeper.
Read Jonathan Capehart's entire piece at the Washington Post.
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