I was going to offer some commentary on the sad and pitiable man known as Hank Aaron, but Mark Levin’s and, especially, Jeff Goldstein’s have really beaten me to the punches.
In case you missed what the former baseball star said, here’s an except from a report by Cheryl Chumley, over at The Washington Times [tip of the fedora to Mr. Levin]:
“We can talk about baseball. Talk about politics. Sure this country has a black president, but when you look at a black president, President Obama is left with his foot stuck in the mud from all of the Republicans with the way he’s treated,” Mr. Aaron told USA Today.
He went on, expressing both the good and bad of where race relations in the United States now stand: “We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country.
“The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts,” he said.
Goddamn sad because for many of his fans this will be his epitaph.
The Right Scoop has the audio of Mark Levin’s spot-on comments on what the fool said, but here is a highlight, as transcribed by Scoop:
I reject this race hustling. I reject this balkanization of this great nation. To say what he said about basically Republicans who are trying to stop Obama from destroying the economy, from turning our constitutional system on its head, is outrageous! I don’t care how many damn home runs he hit and I don’t care what his name is!
Jeff Goldstein is dead solid perfect:
… I didn’t comment yesterday on his remarks because frankly I was too disgusted; after all, here’s a man who was in pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record when I was a small child, and who played the majority of his career in a decade wherein Republicans marched with blacks and civil rights leaders against the Klan, against the segregationists, and against the Democratic politicians who worked to block Civil Rights legislation. I remember writing a book report on him in second grade, and I still remember his home run, which I watched live on TV, off of Al Downing, that broke Ruth’s record. Later, when I was in high school, I commemorated the moment in a large drawing that made the rounds at local art shows. Like many others, I understood, at least intellectually, the pressure Aaron was under during those days, just as I understand that a remainder of racists from all parts of the country harassed and threatened him. Which is why I, like many others of my generation, spent our youths pulling for him, idolizing him, inspired by his ability to overcome such adversity and continue on, the very model of consistency.
For him, years later, to call those from the party of Lincoln, which was formed in part as an abolitionist party, the modern-day Klan in neckties and starched shirts, is to do a disservice not only to those people who have always stood for individualism and a color-blind society, but to those who sacrificed so much taking the fight to an entrenched group of racists in many of the states. To suggest that those of us who fight daily to maintain individual dignity and autonomy are really just racists for vehemently disagreeing with the policies of a red-diaper baby, whose confidants include a collection of sixties radicals, domestic terrorists, and foreign provocateurs who hate this country, is absurd on its face, and really shouldn’t even be dignified with this response.
Not only that, but such historical revisionism shows how deeply stupid and, yes, enslaved, Aaron is — not to his color, but to the Democrat Party, for whom he’ll be used as a mouthpiece and a mascot of sorts. In fact, his brother-in-law happens to be (surprise!) a leftist Democrat Congressman.
LBJ, in touting his Great Society Program, famously said, ““I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.”
Henry Aaron, a man I once looked up to and a man who never came out in defense of people like Clarence Thomas, eg., is now playing the role of Samuel L Jackson in Django Unchained. He’s the kind of modern-day plantation slave LBJ envisioned, albeit one of those who gets the special privilege of living in the Big White House and speaking candidly, on occasion, to Master.
And in doing so, he may win over a bunch of Democrat and progressive hacks and get a medal of freedom or some such from the odious, race-baiting Obama, who can’t wait to rub shoulders with notorious race-hustler Al Sharpton; but he has forever tarnished his legacy, and he has essentially accused nearly half of all Americans — those whose party freed the slaves and fought for Civil Rights — of being like the bigoted Democrats they fought so hard against four decades ago.
Congrats, Henry. The Ghost of LBJ and Robert Byrd (and his Kleagle hood) would like to thank you for being a good boy and knowing your place. You’ll be rewarded with a pat on the head and some extra vittles come supper time.
There’s nothing left for me to say after what these two truly brilliant men have said, except to add: well, ‘Obama’ and Jarrett and Axelrod and all of your apparatchiks, you’ve made great progress in fundamentally transforming America into the Balkans.
In his dank and filthy prison cell, Charles Manson is laughing.
