Whoops 2013: CPAC’s Bigot Eruption

It wasn’t supposed to go down this way. CPAC had prepared for the inevitable liberal comments about how CPAC was so old, so white, and had tossed in some black and latino speakers into the mix. There was Allen West! Tim Scott! Nikki Haley! All the conservatives of color, assembled in one location.

But because the Tea Party is going to do what the Tea Party does, they also had a session on how the right is totally not racist and then a racist went and showed up.

The modern conservative movement has been pretty good at saying they aren’t racist, while at the same time doing everything they can to stop minority voters while also giving a wink and nod to race based attacks on the right. Their ideological leader, Rush Limbaugh, does everything but a shuck and jive routine when he talks about blacks on the left like President Obama or Jesse Jackson (and apostates from the right, like Colin Powell).

But the establishment does its best to keep the movement’s festering racism down in the basement where it can chew on the raw meat and help power votes but without provoking unfriendly headlines.

Yet we know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. Because there really is a racist strain on the right – and while it is definitely dying out as America becomes a more inclusive nation every day – it is still around and serves a function on the right.

On Friday, it bit them in the butt. Maybe they’ll learn. I doubt it.