Biden says the hateful, despicable Senator Eastland never called him "boy."

[pnwmom]

But Eastland, the segregationist who urged a crowd to "abolish the Negro race," would have called him "boy" if Biden had been black. He would have called him much worse.

How can someone like Eastland, who called for taking up weapons against African Americans, NOT be our enemy?

So I'm not sure what Biden's point was here.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/joe-biden-segregationist-senator-never-called-me-boy

“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said, before imitating a Southern drawl. “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’” “At least there was some civility,” Biden continued. “We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/734103488/democrats-blast-biden-for-recalling-civil-relationship-with-segregationists

At the height of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s landmark Montgomery bus boycott, Eastland told a segregationist rally that "In every stage of the bus boycott we have been oppressed and degraded because of black, slimy, juicy, unbearably stinking n*****s." According to Robert Caro's Master Of The Senate, Eastland went on to urge the crowd to "abolish the Negro race" with "guns, bows and arrows, slingshots, and knives."

[Zambero]

1. The point would seem to be in the last two sentences

"But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

[pnwmom]

2. Why the lead-up about boy and son? n/t

[BeyondGeography]

3. Because Biden seriously needs an editor

Always has.

[HopeAgain]

4. Because Juneteenth

The perfect day for a Biden gaff on this...

[Demit]

8. He thinks the anecdote illustrates the thing he cares most about--civility?

To Biden, Eastland was a courtly old Southern gentleman who maybe was a virulent racist but he had such good manners!

[Hoyt]

5. Another example of why it's early to declare a favorite.

[bigbrother05]

6. Makes me wonder who he heard him call "boy"?

Not particularly "civil" to refer to a fellow Senator as son no matter how junior in seniority.

To make such a distinction sounds like he heard him call others "boy".

Wonder if he called Goldwater son?

[elleng]

7. Black lawmakers get Biden's back amid 'segregationist' uproar.

'I worked with Strom Thurmond all my life,' Jim Clyburn says.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/19/joe-biden-segregationist-comments-1370844

[pnwmom]

9. Cory Booker's a black lawmaker. n/t

[elleng]

10. No shit, sherlock.

Obviously there is room for different takes on the issue of working with those with whom we/they disagree, and I'm pleased Congressman Clyburn has spoken out on the matter.

[Skya Rhen]

12. He's a black lawmaker that has been rejected by the AA Community

and is desperate to increase his 1% poll number average...

Huge difference.

[LibFarmer]

11. Manufactured outrage from the outrage factory.

Coming to you via outrage distributors.

[awesomerwb1]

14. Meh.

So the guy didn't use the perfect words to get 100% approval from all Democrats about working with the dark side to get shit done?

Meh.

We need to terms with the fact that we live in a very polarized country where if you're in government you'll have to work with some racist, corrupt, no family values assholes on the other side to get shit done for everyone as a whole.