Well, the GOP’s strategy, for the past decade, has been (1) appeal to the base and (2) repeat ad infinitum. That’s all they have now—appeals to the worst part of the Republican base. They can’t stop—they don’t know how. If they change strategies, it’s the same as admitting that they were wrong, and there’s nothing the GOP hates more than admitting that it was wrong.

The Republican base is aptly named.

Yowza.

I always wonder whether the majority finds stuff like this as stupid and racist as I do.

My opinion of them has gone up a bit lately, but we’ll see.

To Saltsman:

Hey, asshole, WE WON. Try making a funny CD out of THAT.

I’m tempted to rewrite the magic N-bomb song as “Earvin the Magic Johnson”... but perhaps that would be inappropriately phallic.

On a positive note, all this stuff has been out there for months. While it did have some effect, it didn’t swing the election.

Can we start talking about Obama Derangement Syndrome yet?

“Can we start talking about Obama Derangement Syndrome yet?
Phoenician in a time of Romans on 12/27 at 07:43 PM”

Hell, I’ve been noticing it since the “Celebrity” ad.

I don’t think they’re necessarily dumb, exactly (although some of them clearly are). But they’re all sheltered, the same way Bush has been: they haven’t heard anyone credible-to-them saying anything but that this kind of behavior is just fine.

Which is potentially a really good thing for democrats and progressives, because for the next year or two at least the “mainstream” conservatives will still be living in the reality they’ve created for themselves, which is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the rest of us. And if their strategy is based on that self-created reality, the reality-based community could kick their collective asses.

Classy as usual, RNC.  There’s a reason Republicans are the least-trusted people in America right now.

It is a combination of the two.

1. The bigots are beyond unhinged. Their world view is crashing down around them and they do not know what to do.

2. The GOP is populated by people who are as dumb as rocks and never saw that their “wedge issues” strategy actively appealed to, and attracted, unhinged bigots.

“The CD, called “We Hate the USA,””

Truth in advertising?

It’s political satire.  You people need to lighten up.  Pretty much all humor and satire is at the expense of somebody.  Some awfully hateful things were done by your side with regard to
Sarah Palin, ie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJS9yoHQms
I guess it’s ok, though, when conservatives are viciously lampooned.

I guess it’s ok, though, when conservatives are viciously lampooned.

Maybe it’s because liberals lampoon the person who’s the actual topic, while conservatives take the chance to lampoon people who aren’t actually involved except for sharing a characteristic like skin color.  You do realize that when David Ehrenstein was talking about how some liberals thought of Obama as a movie-style “Magic Negro,” he was specifically and explicitly talking about WHITE liberals, right?  So what was the point of dragging Al Sharpton into it?

I must have Christmas songs on the brain, because when I heard the title I assumed the tune must be “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

I haven’t heard the song, and don’t want to either. Does it make fun of Barack Obama, or does it make fun of white liberals who think he’s the Anointed One? If the former, it seems objectionable, if the latter, a dead-on satire. Most of my friends are liberals and about 70% of them are just crazy stupid with Barack love - at the “he’s a Lightworker!” level of fatuous faith. The other 30% think he’s a fine Democrat and will be a good president.

Either way, however, it’s a politically tone-deaf item of low culture for Republicans to be promulgating.

I must have Christmas songs on the brain, because when I heard the title I assumed the tune must be “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

I did the exact same thing. And I can’t make the words fit “Puff the Magic Dragon” without some serious hiccups in the meter.

Some awfully hateful things were done by your side with regard to Sarah Palin, ie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLJS9yoHQms

How about some proof that “TheFineBros” who made that video are on “our side”? Just making fun of Sarah Palin is not evidence that the person is making a liberal or leftist political statement.

There were some sexist things said about Sarah Palin, and some of those sexist statements were defended as political satire, and here at Pandagon that excuse did not fly. Sexism toward Palin was consistently condemned by the bloggers here. But you want us to excuse racism toward Obama? Clever.

I guess conservatives think that racism is A-OK as long as “aww, we’re just kidding.” Well, no surprise there, that’s exactly the sort of excuse I’d expect from a bunch of racists.

I haven’t heard the song, and don’t want to either. Does it make fun of Barack Obama, or does it make fun of white liberals who think he’s the Anointed One?

Actually, it’s done in the voice of Al Sharpton complaining that white liberals will vote for Obama but not for him because Sharpton is a “real” black man like Snoop Dogg and Obama isn’t.

Here’s a small sample:

Don’t vote the Magic Negro in –
‘Cause — ’cause I won’t have nothing after all these years of sacrifice
And I won’t get justice. This is about justice. This isn’t about me, it’s about justice.
It’s about buffet. I don’t have no buffet and there won’t be any church contributions,
And there’ll be no cash in the collection plate.
There ain’t gonna be no cash money, no walkin’ around money, no phoning money

So the offense isn’t even in the “Magic Negro” part.  It’s that the song is having “Al Sharpton” say everything that Rush and his listeners assume all black politicians say.  If it was done from the POV of your stereotypical latte-drinking, Volvo-driving liberal that the column was talking about, it would be stupid, but it wouldn’t be racist.

I’m sure the Republican Right LOVES the African-American community and are outraged at Chip Saltsman’s attempt at humour.

Furthermore, I bet the Republican Right is livid with Saltsman for distributing and promoting such racist material.

They are probably just as angered as when a Dailykos “trusted user” sees the burning of a US flag at an anti-war dmonstration.

I mean, everyone knows the deep and unabiding sense of racial equality and commitment to social justice that Republicans have. It’s on par with the deep and unyielding sense of patriotism to the United States that the Left has. All you have to do is see the pro-American displays this very website (all those US flags) and you know one major American patriot operates this site.

To furher see what I mean, you should visit a GOP political club on MLK Day and visit this website (and dailyKos) on the Fourth of July!

That’s the problem with US politics today. The Right will never admit their hatred of gays and minorities, and the Left will never come out and say how much they truly despise the USA.

We don’t despise the USA, UglyFace. We just despise people like you, and in your muddled fashion, you think you constitute the USA.

UglyFace:

All you have to do is see the pro-American displays this very website (all those US flags) and you know one major American patriot operates this site.

...

the Left will never come out and say how much they truly despise the USA.

Your inability to tell the difference between patriotism and nationalism is a big, flashing casino sign that you fall into the latter category rather than the former.

Also, an obsession with belligerently advertising one’s tribal allegiances is not the sign of a healthy mental state. The word “overcompensation” springs immediately to mind, although the specifics are usually different from person to person.

. . . the Left will never come out and say how much they truly despise the USA . . .

My family has been in this country since before it was a country, and they’ve fought in every war it had, up through WWII. And on behalf of my entire family,  I say: Go fuck yourself, UglyFace.

Patriotic Americans—all of them on what the GOP would call the Left, since the Rs have marginalized themselves so much—can tell the difference between loving our country and wrapping yourself in a flag while pissing on the Constitution, draining the U.S. Treasury, hollowing out our armed forces—all the while whining that anyone who questions those actions “despises the USA.”

Too bad you can’t.

But hey—it looks like Russia is falling back to the old Soviet system. Why don’t you move there? Like most apologists for the Right, you’d clearly be happier under KGB rule.

It’s political satire.  You people need to lighten up.

You sound like someone’s who’s heard of satire but never experienced it directly.

Saltsman, a personal friend of conservative satirist Paul Shanklin, sent a 41-track CD along with a note to national committee members.

“I look forward to working together in the New Year,” Saltsman wrote. “Please enjoy the enclosed CD by my friend Paul Shanklin of the Rush Limbaugh Show.”

The CD, called “We Hate the USA,” lampoons liberals with such songs as “John Edwards’ Poverty Tour,” “Wright place, wrong pastor,” “Love Client #9,” “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish banner.”

Several of the track titles, including “Barack the Magic Negro,” are written in bold font.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Napoleon Bonaparte

the Left will never come out and say how much they truly despise the USA

Bullshit.  There’s a difference between despising the US and being able to identify its flaws.  Waving around a flag and singing Lee Greenwood until you’re red, white and blue in the face is not loving the USA anymore than stalking a woman means you love her.  Loving this country means that in spite of its problems, in spite of everything that bothers you, you’re willing to stay and make it a better place, to work together to make things better for everyone, not just the rich straight white males.

Thank you! Very interesting post

Slightly OT, but after reading the wiki entry on the ‘Magic Negro’ phenom in films and culture, I have to disagree about The Matrix example—it’s not Morpheus filling that role, it’s The Oracle.

That’s the problem with US politics today. The Right will never admit their hatred of gays and minorities, and the Left will never come out and say how much they truly despise the USA.

I see that UglyFace has shown up to demonstrate Al Franken’s point about conservatives again.  They don’t love this country like an adult does.  They love it like a 4-year-old loves his Mommy, with a complete inability to understand that Mommy is not perfect.

Adults understand that our mommies—and our country—sometimes make mistakes, but we continue to love them as we try to correct the mistakes.  Children—and conservatives—try to pretend that Mommy is perfect and never makes any mistakes, ever, so if Mommy didn’t pack you a lunch that morning, well, clearly you didn’t deserve to eat lunch that day.  Because Mommy knows all.

A true Patriot is not the one who refuses to speak ill of his country, it is the one who sees both the good and the bad and works to make it even better. Conservatives are either unwilling or unable to admit this.

One of the most common valid complaints about individual Christians is the ones who shout and pray the loudest about how devout they are, attend every service, and can’t make it out of the parking lot before they are flipping people off, shouting at their families, and then spending the next six days looking out for number one, cheating their customers, stealing from their bosses, and then starting the cycle all over again.

The same is true with Patriots. Noticing that the people in power are murdering, torturing, destroying the economy, trashing our international relations, utterly failing in civil defense and disaster relief, and systematically destroying our future in the science and technology areas that we were once leaders in is not “hating the country.” In fact, it is the reverse. Knowing what the country can be, and in some ways has been, and seeing the amazing potential we have, and reviling those who trail it through the mud for their own financial gain isn’t a failure of patriotism. The people who not only sit idly by while it happens, but actively support it simply because it has flags and white people are the true failures at patriotism.

Why would we hate a country that just elected our party to power overwhelmingly?

hey love it like a 4-year-old loves his Mommy, with a complete inability to understand that Mommy is not perfect.

Nah, 4-year-olds are perfectly able to understand that their mothers aren’t perfect. Every time she tells them not to have any more cookies or to take a bath, she is the meanest person in the world. (With a 4-year-old stewing in the next room but one, I feel like that wonderful scene in Annie Hall.) It’s more that republican politicians try to be the kind of person their 4-year-old base would never get mad at.

Oh, and while we’re on that theme,

Why would we hate a country that just elected our party to power overwhelmingly?

Can’t answer you, but if you had a time machine you could go back to 2002 and ask Dick Cheney…

Nah, 4-year-olds are perfectly able to understand that their mothers aren’t perfect. Every time she tells them not to have any more cookies or to take a bath, she is the meanest person in the world.

Well, yeah, that’s the corollary.  Conservatives can’t conceive of doing anything other than utterly worshipping a perfect mommy/country or utterly despising the meanest mommy/country on earth, so if liberals don’t blindly worship the United States as the most perfect creation on the entire Earth, that automatically means we must despise it like a 4-year-old despises the parent who doesn’t hand over a cookie. 

Most people mature out of that worldview by adolescence at the absolute high end, but not conservatives.

It was a parody song based on an actual column written by a liberal in praise of Obama.  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center  Kind of begged to be made fun of.

It was a parody song based on an actual column written by a liberal in praise of Obama.

Actually, no, as you would know if you looked at my comment from 2:36 am yesterday.  It was a parody song that used one phrase from the column to make fun of Al Sharpton who, last time I checked, was not one of the while liberals that the column was making fun of.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that Shanklin’s problem with Ehrenstein’s column was that it was making fun of white people, so therefore Shanklin had to “defend” his fellow white people by turning the column on its head and using it to make fun of black people instead.  Otherwise, as I have asked multiple defenders of the song, what was the point of taking a column that was about white liberals and turning it into a song about black liberals?

“It was a parody song based on an actual column written by a liberal in praise of Obama.

Actually, no, as you would know if you looked at my comment from 2:36 am yesterday.”

Or actually read the article. It wasn’t in praise of Obama at all nor did the column invent the term Magic Negro like a lot of Rush Limbaugh supporters. The song does not meet the critera of satire nor do any of the songs on the album.

Btw the people who wrote Puff the Magic Dragon are offended by the actions of Shanklin and Rush Limbaugh.

Like a lot of Rush Limbaugh supporters are stating on various online forums. Yeah that’s right there are people claiming that the column invented the term when the column was refering to the term invented years ago. Hit the submit button without proofreading.