'REPUBLICANS ARE BASICALLY STARTING A WHITE SUPREMACIST CAUCUS' - The 'America First Caucus' is being formed.

[Mickey_Rat15]

It may have little to do with some peoples paranoiac obsessions about race.

bullshit

What an eloquent comeback that surely taxed your intellectual capacity to come up with.

[CmdrKing]

Expending mental energy on transparent lies is not something most people should trouble themselves with.

Unless you meant you didn't see the appeals to racism there in which case you may want to study on media literacy.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Like I don't see any British resemblance in our government. As if they all still wear white wigs or something.

[Mickey_Rat15]

More directly, why highlight specifically the Anglo-Saxon lineage of American legal tradition for your America First movement and not, y’know, the Constitution? Well you’d do that if you disagreed with later additions to the constitution of course. The 13th, 14th, and 19th amendments one assumes.

Because where it came from might be important? And assuming the worst of people as a result of buying into conspiracy theories is not healthy.

"The world is watching what we do today in America. They will know what we do here today, and they will treat all of us accordingly in the future—our soldiers, our diplomats, our journalists, anybody who travels beyond these borders. I hope we remember this as we go forward. I sincerely hope we can protect what has been called the "great writ"—a writ that has been in place in the Anglo-American legal system for over 700 years." - Senator Barack Obama, September 27, 2006

[Deledrius]

And assuming the worst of people as a result of buying into conspiracy theories is not healthy.

Nice try. It's not a conspiracy theory or reading into something when the person in question is absolutely open and proud of these ideas. MTG is not hiding her influences or her goals. It's not ascribing unfounded intent when she's stated belief in things far crazier than this.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

It may have little to do with some peoples paranoiac obsessions about race.

bullshit

What an eloquent comeback that surely taxed your intellectual capacity to come up with.

It's a word well chosen. Bullshit is something that the person who says it knows is a lie and the people listening to it know it's a lie. It's not a fib, or a half-truth, or an evasion, or hyperbole. It's just bullshit.

[Muzer]

Like I don't see any British resemblance in our government. As if they all still wear white wigs or something.

The US government is actually based on the British government to a large extent — or at least, the parts of British government that the founding fathers thought were good ideas, combined with a bunch of their own ideas. The Senate and House of Representatives were loosely modelled after the House of Lords and the House of Commons respectively. The Bill of Rights was named after an important piece of British constitutional law. And the entire US legal system is based on English common law. Just to name a few things. Of course the two governments have diverged an awful lot over the intervening centuries. But the ancestry is certainly there.

However, this isn't me excusing the clearly racist crap in this particular case. Given how much of a hard-on many Americans in general and Republicans in particular have for the idea that they invented democracy and fair government, I'd be incredibly surprised if they were actually referring to the basis of their government and legal system — it's such an obscure term to couch their meaning in that you would have to ask why they said that rather than saying what they actually meant. And the fact that most of their material seems to have nothing to do with government or the constitution or the legal system, but instead has everything to do with talking about how bad it is that immigrants exist, I think the only reasonable reading is the author asking "what's the best way to say 'white people' that we can just about justify as not being racist?"

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Like I don't see any British resemblance in our government. As if they all still wear white wigs or something.

The US government is actually based on the British government to a large extent — or at least, the parts of British government that the founding fathers thought were good ideas, combined with a bunch of their own ideas. The Senate and House of Representatives were loosely modelled after the House of Lords and the House of Commons respectively. The Bill of Rights was named after an important piece of British constitutional law. And the entire US legal system is based on English common law. Just to name a few things. Of course the two governments have diverged an awful lot over the intervening centuries. But the ancestry is certainly there.

However, this isn't me excusing the clearly racist crap in this particular case. Given how much of a hard-on many Americans in general and Republicans in particular have for the idea that they invented democracy and fair government, I'd be incredibly surprised if they were actually referring to the basis of their government and legal system — it's such an obscure term to couch their meaning in that you would have to ask why they said that rather than saying what they actually meant. And the fact that most of their material seems to have nothing to do with government or the constitution or the legal system, but instead has everything to do with talking about how bad it is that immigrants exist, I think the only reasonable reading is the author asking "what's the best way to say 'white people' that we can just about justify as not being racist?"

The pigment of the skin is probably the most sensitive proxy, but I don't think the foundation of the racism in the framework is about the optics in itself but the over protection of culture and customs of people who were here the longest.

[McAvoy]

Pigment certainly is major factor but so is culture. Racists don't mind *as much* if for example a black person talks and acts white. Versus a black person from the city for example.

Spanish speaking people have been here since the very 'founding' of the new world. Has been around since the beginning of the US and yes there was a time where there was hostility too. But I highly highly doubt today's anti immigration has anything to do with that.

It's a boogey man thing. Scapegoat for today's issues. Just like 100 years ago it was the Irish or Italians.