GOP’s Grifter Problem: Why party attracts provocateurs, faux martyrs, & grifters in droves

Slate ^ | May 30, 2014 | Jamelle Bouie

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Republican Party has a lot of problems, and if there’s one that doesn’t get enough attention, it’s the party’s broad appeal to provocateurs, faux martyrs, and grifters. Just look at the speakers list for the Republican Leadership Conference, which began on Thursday. There’s Donald Trump, the man who made “birtherism” a national cause; Herman Cain, whose presidential run was a glorified book tour; Dinesh D’Souza, who just pleaded guilty to a felony campaign finance violation, and Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty star who—like Cliven Bundy—believes black Americans were better off under racist oppression.

In fairness, I’m sure Robertson despises slavery. (Bundy, by contrast, wondered if blacks weren’t “better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things.”) He just thinks it wasn’t so bad under Jim Crow. “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person,” said Robertson, discussing his childhood in Louisiana. “The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field. … They’re singing and happy.”

But whereas Bundy was condemned by every Republican under the sun— “Bundy’s comments are completely beyond the pale,” said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee—Robertson became a conservative hero. Of course, the main difference is that Robertson got in trouble for his views on gays. “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he said.

On the right, this language isn’t beyond the pale. Or at least, it’s seen as a matter of religious expression, not bigotry. As such, conservatives defended Robertson as a victim of political-correctness and religious intolerance. At National Review, Mark Steyn compared anti-Robertson activists to Soviet totalitarians....

[2ndDivisionVet]

The author

Comments?

[nascarnation]

Negro hipster?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I’d say “Raj” from “What’s Happening!”

[2ndDivisionVet]

He's an American Prospect writing fellow and a Knobler fellow at The Nation whatever those mean.

[rimtop56]

The writer denigrates four good men of integrity simply because they’re Republican when the Democrats top people are the most evil, repugnant, traitorous pieces of crap to walk the halls of the White House and Congress? This man is a lying fool, and he’s not convincing anyone but himself and his anti-American cohorts. Ptt! That’s me spitting on his name and his article.

[nhwingut]

Slate’s token black.

[Dr. Thorne]

Here’s my comment: We know the Left hates us. What is the use of posting one more of their apoplectic screeds?

[oldbrowser]

The Republican Party has a lot of problems, and if there’s one that doesn’t get enough attention, it’s the party’s broad appeal to provocateurs, faux martyrs, and grifters.

It is probably the overflow from the democrat party. We do have a few but at least we have some foundational principles that unite us. The democrat party is a collection of chronically discontented special interest groups led by sleazeball politician.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yeah, the GOP has a problem with grifters, because they're actively trying to undermine the party, but we at least try to run them out. The Democrats don't have a “problem” with them, because they ARE the party. Without the unsavory element, they cease to exist.

[nascarnation]

He’s a Negro hipster based in DC, LOL

http://jamellebouie.net/about/

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Look like Slate has a grifter problem of its own.

[vbmoneyspender]

How many of those guys in the author’s list left a woman to drown in a submerged car?

[lulu16]

The provocateurs, faux martyrs, & grifters are the leaders who inspire others to get in on the big scam.

[Cowboy Bob]

So, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head DID have children!

[IronJack]

Yeah. Glad the Democratic Party is a bastion of virtue, boasting such sterling paragons as Marion “Toot” Barry, Bill “Blue Dress” Clinton, James “Raccoon Head” Traficant, Jesse “Sticky Fingers” Jackson Jr., Al “Hymietown” Sharpton, Robert “Grand Dragon” Byrd, and the rest of that Hole In the Constitution Gang. Plus every bun spelunker, welfare mooch, union torpedo, and bong-addled anarchist on earth.

Yep, those Republicans sure attract the weirdos ...

[GeronL]

crooks and crap describes the Dem problem

[Russ]

He’s a wart on the ass of society...Of course, aren’t all liberals?

[Maceman]

it’s the party’s broad appeal to provocateurs, faux martyrs, and grifters

You mean like Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Michael Moore, everybody at MSNBC, virtually all university professors, most celebrities and virtually every single Democrat politician, for starters? Talk about projection.

[Kansas58]

I was, at one time, a REAL “Martyr” -— Federal Judge Patrick Kelly tried to crush me during the Summer of Mercy in Wichita.
I used that notoriety to recruit and endorse candidates and to work to take the Kansas Republican Party away from the liberal crowd.
Then I moved on, in many ways.
However? The LEFT makes LOTS of Martyrs for us, on our side. We don’t really ask to be “Martyrs” they just can’t tolerate those of us who disagree with them.

[Boogieman]

“He’s an American Prospect writing fellow and a Knobler fellow”

More like a Knobhead fellow, as the Brits might say.