It Wasn't "You Lie." It Was "You Lie, Boy"

It's about time. The media is finally coming around to reality. The wingnut backlash against Obama is being caused by a racist undercurrent in this nation, which is strong, despite the fact that the majority elected Obama. Look at how emboldened Joe Wilson has been after his "apology," an apology that he made clear wasn't something he was inclined to do but something that the leadership required him to do. You'd think he would've been shamed and embarrassed. But no. He's been running around establishing cred with the wingnuts. Wilson is now the hero of Rush Limbaugh. That says it all. As Maureen Dowd points out in her column today, he is a wingnut:

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.
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