Is Jimmy Carter Right in Saying the South is Racist?

[Mark Mentzer]

Former US President Jimmy Carter says much of the vitriol against President Barack Obama's health reforms and spending plans is "based on racism".

Mr Carter told a public meeting there was "an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president".

Republican lawmaker Joe Wilson was rebuked on Tuesday in a House vote.

He shouted "You lie!" while Mr Obama was delivering an address on healthcare to Congress last Wednesday.

The House resolution of disapproval described it as "a breach of decorum".

But Mr Wilson's eldest son, Alan, has denied racism was a factor in his father's outburst.

Some conservatives have accused the president's supporters of playing the race card.

'Abominable'

Angry town hall meetings and a recent taxpayers' demonstration in Washington have been vitriolic towards the president, reports the BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell.

Many have not just protested against the president's policies but have accused him of tyranny, and have promised to "reclaim America".

"Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national programme on healthcare," Mr Carter said at a public meeting at his Carter Center in Atlanta held prior to the Congress vote on Tuesday.

"It's deeper than that."

Responding to a question specifically on Mr Wilson's outburst, he said Mr Obama was the head of state as well as the head of government and - like heads of state elsewhere - he should be "treated with respect".

It was a "dastardly thing to do", he said.

His comments were rejected by Joe Wilson's son, Alan, an Iraq veteran who is running for state attorney general in Georgia.

"There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," he said.

"I guess we'll probably have folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again and riding through the countryside intimidating people
Rep. Henry Johnson (Georgia)"

Apology

In Tuesday's vote, lawmakers voted 240-179 in favour of the resolution to censure Mr Wilson.

The move was backed by most Democrats, but dismissed by many Republicans as a distraction from more serious issues.

"My goodness, we could be doing this every day of the week," said Republican Minority Leader John Boehner.

But Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer insisted that Mr Wilson's outburst could not be ignored.

"At issue is whether we are able to proceed with a degree of civility and decorum that our rules and our democracy contemplate and require," he said.

Mr Wilson himself maintained that his personal apology to Mr Obama should have been enough to resolve the matter.

Mr Obama "graciously accepted my apology and the issue is over", he said.

Mr Wilson's remark came in response to a passage of Mr Obama's speech in which he asserted that his reforms "would not apply to those who are here illegally".

Under the terms of Mr Obama's reform package, undocumented immigrants would not be able to claim healthcare subsidies, but they also would not be explicitly barred from buying private insurance through the new health insurance exchanges.

[Just-a-Writer]

The increasing debt is troubling, but given the current state of our nation it is needed. Like the saying, you have to break a few eggs to make an omlette. You can't fix your roof if you don't incur a little debt to do it.

When you break the spending down, it isn't as bad as the lump sum appears. Billions were loaned out, and a lot of it has already been repaid. The spending that generates jobs will help feed the economy cycle to get it going again, which will produce more income in taxes. It isn't pointless spending this time, The credit card analogy is less apt than to compare it to investing in a business start up.

Granted, there is wasteful spending included, like sending millions to Montana for border check points in dead end villages, but that just exemplifies why we need reform in these pork additions. But a lot of it can be traced to spending that will promote growth. That's why we have to be so diligent in reading the bills instead of trusting our officials to do it. That's why we have to be adamant in contacting our officials when something comes up we don't like.

[Mark Mentzer]

Cynthia, Who started the ridiculous spending? Your president Bush. And on what? A stupid pointless war. Let's not forget what Obama inherited from that idiot.

[Just-a-Writer]

lol I was trying not to invoke his name. hehehe

I see it like inheriting a house. Say, you inherited a house from your aunt. She put charges on her credit card for large screen TVs, knick knacks, and the gaudiest furnishings imaginable. Now you've inherited her house and her debts. So on top of dealing with her maxed out credit cards, you have to make the house livable again.

So you start putting charges on your credit card. You buy new wiring for the house, repair the plumbing, re-roof it, and redo the insulation. You've incurred massive debt, but you'll save in the long run on heating and cooling costs, you'll save by not wasting so much water on the leaky pipes, and you know the house won't totally burn down now from faulty wiring. You may be hurting financially at the moment, but what you save in the long run will make the payments on the debts.

[cynthia Hunter]

and Bush got it from Clinton and Clinton got from Bush so forth and so on! I get all that. I have also have always said that you cant just blame the President congress and the senate also have to take the blame. I wasnt happy when Bush did the first tarp but Obama is keeping going.You cant not keep putting the blame on Bush forever. Obama has got to start acepting some responsibilty in this mess.
Like I said that is just one of the things that has so many people upset.
How about all the pork that went through. He promised no more pork. Well we got all kinds of it. I dont care how long the bill was he should have read it. That pork could have been used for other things.

[Just-a-Writer]

I agree with you there, the blame lies with the entire administration of every president, with every administration that was afraid taking on the big stuff would hurt their career. Both Bush's, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, all of them that didn't want to disrupt the status quo. All of them that preferred leaving the mess for the next guy to clean up.

I've heard President Obama say several times that it's all on him now, where it goes from here will be his fault if it doesn't work, so he's taking the responsibility of it. But at the same time, I'm not going to lay the blame on the newly hired janitor when the rusty pipes break and dump water all over the floor. He can be noble and swing that mop as fast as he can, but I know the janitors that worked there before should have done something about the pipes. The longer they're left to rust, the more money it takes to replace them.

The big problem is we've gotten so use to the house falling apart around us we think it's normal and we're afraid to spend the cash to fix it.

I also agree with you, all of the Congressmen and the President should have read them, line item vetoes should be given back to the president so he can cut pork spending. That, or making each addition to a bill up for individual vote in Congress. That's the only way they can cut pork spending. But even though they should be reading these, doesn't mean we should blindly trust them to read it. We need to do it too.

[cynthia Hunter]

You can not get out of debt by borrowing more.

[Just-a-Writer]

It depends on what you do with the money. They're trying to invest part of it in jobs, which will lead to more income tax (not by being raised, but by having more tax paying people in the work force), which will make more money. They're trying to make it possible for us to have more money to spend, which will get the cycle that drives capitalism going again.

[Rhon91]

What exactly did Bush get from Clinton? Clinton reversed the deficit- and even left a surplus! So no, you dont get it... Clinton is probably the best President we ever had. And Bush the absolute worst President we ever had.

[P.A.]

not all Southerners are racists. I am a Southern and I am not a racist. That sounds bad coming from me because I have always said that a person who prefaces their post with "I am not a racist" usually is. But actually I did not preface my post with it did I.

[James Worede]

Of course it is racist, I have a lot of conservative coworkers and good friends, who didn't vote for Obama, solely on ideological reasons. Yes, most of them well to do, when it comes to politics we don't see eye-to eye. Some of them are blacks and but majority of them are whites. They don't take those fire spitting talk show hosts, they see them as opportunistics who try to make bucks on many people idiotic and racist atitudes.
But on the recent events, they all say it is dangerous and way out of lines. And they don't want to be part of it. But they loudest screaming minority bigots are taking over the discussions and the real intelectal congeress members are afraid to speak out, because they seen what kind of sabotages done to McCain for speaking out speaking out his mind by talkshow trashes. These unelected leaders are taking over the party. They don't have intellect rationales for their arguments except saying the same old things as parrots. And, the new childish methods they are using are calling others before being call what they are "racist". Last week Fox Tabliod the big fat talk show host called the speaker of the house " racist" for warning the methods they are using is dangerous. Yes, Carter knows what he is talking about, he knows what the consequences of for calling what it is "Racist". These people didn't think he is gone win, they only saw their friends and their church preachers, who are spewing hate from the churchs. They didn't the silent majorities way passed race for elected offices or anything. They keep saying I want "My country Back" . I saw one who called herself or himself conservatives as saying eventhough I didn't vote for him I was happy he won, I had tears in my eyes, are you kidding me. Please don't give conservatism bad name , call yourself something else.