Republican Racism Review: Birthers, Ethnic Studies, and Trayvon Martin Followup

Real button handed out at the 2008
Texas Republican State Convention

If you start keeping your eyes open for them, there are a terrifying number of news stories about Republicans being racist:

• In Sheriff Joe Arpaio's ongoing quest to become the world's biggest nutjob, he's made a bold new discovery in the Birther conspiracy: Have you noticed that none of the Republican Presidential candidates are taking up the Birther issue (except the ones that have)? "So isn’t that interesting? On both sides of the fence, they don’t want to talk about it. … How come everybody’s hiding this?"  Clearly the Republican Party is in on the Birther conspiracy.  At this point, who isn't involved?

• Sheriff Joe shouldn't worry though, while Mitt Romney might not be openly calling for Obama to release a birth certificate he already did 4 years ago, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) is.

• Georgia is discovering for the second year in a row that if you scare all of your agricultural workers out of the state with draconian immigration laws (seriously, you weren't allowed to be sold water unless you could prove citizenship) that there isn't actually anyone left to do your agricultural work.

• And in Arizona, the Republicans have decided that removing Ethnic Studies from high schools isn't enough, they need to ban in from their universities too.  Because that doesn't come across as a desperate attempt o rewrite history at all.

• And finally more wonderful reactions from Republicans to the Trayvon Martin shooting:
• Rush Limbaugh thinks getting upset about the murder of an unarmed child is only "harming the black community."
• Dick Morris agrees saying that Obama is using the shooting to "rekindle the sense of black victimization."
• And we should read absolutely nothing into the fact that George Zimmerman created a legal defense fun website that shows images of vandalism by white supremacists.
• But we should probably read something into Fox News calling a known Neo-Nazis Organization a "civil rights group" when they spoke up in Zimmerman's defense.
• But hey, maybe it was Trayvon Martin's "shitbag parents" fault like the Miami-Dade fire captain said.
• And surprising exactly no one, the single best predictor that someone is going to think that the shooting has received too much coverage is being a Republican.