The attack was not merely false. It was absurd and implausible.
Yet now they are doubling down.
The attacks by the Oregon GOP leadership calling Jeff Golden "racist" makes Golden's Republican challenger, Randy Sparacino, look like a pawn of upstate handlers. They have dragged him into their mud.
The GOP Party Chairman Justin Hwang wrote:
Anytime you pull back the curtain on Democrats, you see open racism and hate. Senator Golden’s vile commentary toward Black Americans is outrageous and unacceptable. Jeff Golden should resign from office immediately.
Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopf, a major financial contributor to Sparacino, said:
As elected officials, we represent constituents of all backgrounds and Jeff Golden has proven unfit for that job.
In Golden's 1970 book, Watermelon Sumer, it was obvious that Golden was not reflecting his own voice when he quoted the N-word. He was quoting and reflecting the words of others, the people hostile to his work with Black community in a farm in Georgia. He was working on behalf of racial justice, attempting to help the Black sharecroppers make the struggling farm profitable.
This isn't an honest misunderstanding by his critics. Golden's context was obvious. His critics know it. This is a blatant attempt to deceive. They are doing it anyway.
Who does it hurt? Not Golden. It is patently obvious what is going on. Besides, it gave him a chance to explain the context of his work for economic and racial justice, which I quoted in this morning's post.
4 comments:
I can see why Republicans consider Jeff such a threat. He was addressing social justice issues in Georgia, something Republicans consider “reverse racism.” It’s the basis of their anti-woke/anti-CRT culture war: projecting their own flaws onto others. Now you know why Hillary Clinton called them “a basket of deplorables.” It may not have been diplomatic, but facts are facts.
The new story in The Oregonian reflects the accuracy of my gloss in the previous post on this subject.
The headline reads, “Racist slurs in Oregon Democratic Senator’s 1971 memoir prompt Republican criticism”.
Applying the old notion of primacy and recency to the headline, Golden is getting tarred even by The O.
And sure enough, Golden’s quotes are defensive. He acknowledges he would not write the same way today.
This is NOT to say the GOP opportunism is remotely in good faith. They are just as guilty through their cynicism.
But older Democrats are learning the intent of the speaker matters less than the effect on the credentialed listener.
Perhaps this kerfuffle will help them grasp the sheer reductionist inhumanity of modern identitarian race dogma.
Do you know what is really sad about this Jeff Golden affair? This event occurred over 50 years ago. Golden's "Watermelon Summer" book was written over 50 years ago, and many people in the Rogue Valley had to be aware of this book and its contents before now. I've never heard any criticism of the book until now.
Jeff Golden has run for political office numerous times over the past 40 years. Mayor, county commissioner, state senator, TV host, and who knows what else? Jeff Golden has been a public figure for a long time. The public has had lots of time to comment on the book before now.
Anyone who is offended by the book, and that includes the media, has had 40 years to complain about Golden and his book. Really, if the book and it's contents were so highly offensive, then you would have heard something before now. The current outcry is manufactured.
I'm afraid that Sparacino and his team have nothing to offer the voters, and so they are nitpicking for anything they can find in order to smear Golden. Sparacino is unqualified (what has he done as mayor?), so he smears his opponent with falsehoods instead. That's how the Chamber of Commerce and their puppet RINO candidates operate.
Kim Wallan, Rick Dyer, and Randy Sparacino are all puppet candidates owned by the Chamber of Commerce good old boys, and they should be avoided.
I am more worried about Jeff's lack of presence on TV with ads and with the huge Sparacino signs I see everywhere in Medford and Phoenix. As Randy is the current mayor, he has some popularity. Jeff should avoid saying more about that book and about his past.
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