21 Dec 2009 Statement of Project 21’s Bob Parks on Senator Whitehouse Comments

This statement was issued today by Bob Parks of the national black leadership network Project 21:

“President Obama’s almost-constant apologies to the world for the our nation’s actions and his socialist economic policies at home have energized a normally lethargic American people into gathering in American cities and storming the steps of the Capitol in protest.  Senator Whitehouse would have us all just shut up and give Obama his political victories unchallenged.  Not doing so makes us all guilty of unprecedented rudeness and – dare I say it – racism.

“Despite liberals’ historically dismal and revisionist civil rights history, when things with this President fall apart, they are all too willing to resort to playing the race card.  The problem is – whether it’s the Black Panthers in Philadelphia or Professor Gates in Cambridge – Barack Obama and his administration have conducted themselves so poorly in office that the race label really doesn’t bruise the skin anymore.

“If President Obama had not entered the presidency with his signature arrogance, the American people may have had more patience, but he and his liberal allies have talked down to the American people like we were stepchildren they were forced to tolerate.  Statements like those of Senator Whitehouse only further harden the opposition’s resolve.”

During Senate debate on the Obamacare bill on December 20, Senator Whitehouse said: “They are desperate to break this president.  They have ardent supporters who are nearly hysterical at the very election of President Barack Obama.  The birthers, the fanatics, the people running around in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups, it is unbearable to them that President Barack Obama should exist.  That is one powerful reason.  It is not the only one.”

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives since 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (https://nationalcenter.org).