The Incendiary Language of the Right-Wing

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 5:32 AM on August 13, 2008.

On Sunday Cokie Roberts implied that Hawaii was too foreign and exotic for Obama to vacation there and suggested that he should go to Myrtle Beach. Today, Nancy Pelosi says that she's changing her stance on drilling and this is what she gets from her Republican colleagues:

REP. LYNN WESTMORELAND (R), GEORGIA: She's elected by the San Francisco mentality. And I think most of the American people, no matter whether you live in Ohio, North Carolina, Minnesota, or Georgia, or wherever would understand that her constituency is a little left of where this country is.

Saying "San Francisco mentality" and derisively calling someone "a French-speaking socialist from Boston, Massaschusetts," and referring to Hawaii as "foreign" is considered completely appropriate for public discourse in this country. They issue these little bon mots in a derisive tone, suggesting that anyplace that votes in a somewhat liberal fashion (even though they often vote Republican too) is somehow unAmerican. And yes, I realize that there are liberals who are rude and dismissive of Southerners, but you don't hear it coming from politicians or media figures. They wouldn't dare say anything like this about Mississippi or South Carolina in public.

This is nasty stuff and it's one reason why I'm so skeptical of this new commitment to comity and reaching across the aisle. It's hard for me to see how we can feel any confidence that they will negotiate in good faith. Republicans don't consider liberals to even be Americans -- and the media and a good portion of the Democratic party agree with them.

Tagged as: republicans, san francisco, hawaii, lynn westmoreland, cokie roberts

Digby is the proprietor of Hullabaloo.