The caller introduced herself as Cathy from Massachusetts. She had a couple of modest points to make about the benefits of a national health service but Glenn Beck, one of America’s most ferocious right-wing broadcasters, was in no mood for a discussion about “socialist medicine”.
“Cathy, get off my phone,” he yelled, his voice rising several octaves. “Get off my phone, you little pinhead. Get off my phone . . . I’m losing my mind today.”
An audio clip of the exchange was duly posted online where it was heard by several million listeners, one of whom likened Beck’s outraged shrieks to “a cartoon mouse being stabbed in the scrotum with knitting needles”.
Americans have long been used to airwaves filled with wild political rants. But with President Barack Obama in the White House and Democrats in control in Washington, the gates have been opened to what some are describing as a new age of conservative rage.
The angry white men, whose voices were largely silenced by the excitement and pride that greeted Obama’s election last January, are back with a vengeance.
They are also beginning to cause problems for a Republican party that is eager to capitalise on right-wing revolt against Obama’s supposed liberalism but is also wary of being associated with the hail of frequently racist abuse spilling into debate.
Behind the verbal slapstick of Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly lies unease that Obama is changing the face of the United States by shunning white males.
“This has been a country basically built by white folk,” complained Pat Buchanan, a former presidential candidate and key conservative voice, during a television debate. “What is happening to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folk for years.”
Much of the anger has focused on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, a Hispanic judge, to the Supreme Court. She once observed that as a “wise Latina” she brought a different perspective to issues. Some conservatives took this to mean that she would be biased against whites.
Sotomayor appeared assured of her job after confirmation hearings that were notable mainly for the failure of Republican senators to provoke her into saying anything controversial. Maureen Dowd, a columnist on The New York Times, labelled the hearings White Man’s Last Stand.
The Republican dilemma was also highlighted by Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known during last year’s election campaign as Joe the Plumber, a middle-class everyman who questioned Obama’s economic policies. Adopted by John McCain’s campaign, he went on to become an author and motivational speaker.
Last week he gave an interview to Christianity Today in which he complained about “queers” and declared that he “wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children”. It was McCain’s daughter, Meghan, now a Republican pundit, who was first to distance her party from Wurzelbacher’s comments.
“Joe the plumber, you can quote me, is a dumbass,” she said. “He should stick to plumbing.”
It was left to Obama to point out that the entire basis of white rage — the notion that white males are somehow being discriminated against — is false. Quite apart from the plethora of administration posts occupied by white men, a report showed that blacks in New York are losing their jobs at a much faster rate.
Addressing a civil rights group on Thursday, Obama noted that African Americans remained “more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else”.
He added that “the pain of discrimination” was still felt by African Americans, Hispanics and Muslims. He did not mention whites.
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They better be back with plenty of raging.Obama signed an executive order last year that will allow for 80,000 Muslims to enter the U.S.A. from around the world under a refugee releif plan.Obama said that he is doing this for humanitarian reasons.Some critics of his decision say that he is trying increase the immigrant population as fast as he can for the next presidential election.To many young white men have sacrificed their lives through blood,sweat and tears from the revolutionary war and the civil war(war between the states)and twentieth century wars and the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars to have Obama abuse his executive privileges when it comes to Muslims immigrating as worthless refugees into the U.S.A..It was white men and white women that made this country a wonderful place to live and work in because of the social contract that unions and corporations established after world war two and the inventions and innovations.It’s to bad that the younger generations of white adults and teenagers don’t know about all of this.In stead,these younger generations of white people listen to ghetto rapp and let them selfs be brain washed into Obama and the democratic party’s Marxist ideology.
Please People I also listened to the call. She not only had comments about the health care bill but told him that he held views and stated several things that indicated she had never listened to him or his program. It was obvious that she was basing her opinions on statements made by others about him. I suggest you listen to the episode your self before writing about the incident.