Holder Equates 'Vehemence' of Opposition to Obama with 'Racial Animus'

Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News that “vehemence” in opposing the president and his policies is indicative of racism.

In other words, it’s OK to oppose the president. Just don’t do it too intensely if you want to avoid the racist tag.

The Hill:

“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There’s a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”

Holder said the nation is in “a fundamentally better place than we were 50 years ago.”

“We’ve made lots of progress,” he said. “I sit here as the first African-American attorney general, serving the first African-American president of the United States. And that has to show that we have made a great deal of progress.

“But there’s still more we have to travel along this road so we get to the place that is consistent with our founding ideals,” he said.

He also stood by his controversial comments made during Obama’s first year in office, in which he said the U.S. was a “nation of cowards” when it comes to race.

“I wouldn’t walk away from that speech,” Holder said. “I think we are still a nation that is too afraid to confront racial issues,” rarely engaging “one another across the color line [to] talk about racial issues.”

The attorney general also pointed to Republican efforts to enact stricter voter ID laws in southern States as evidence that more needed to be done to protect minority rights. Republicans have maintained the efforts are designed to prevent voter fraud, while Democrats say instances of fraud are exceedingly rare, and far outpaced by the minority population that does not have identification that would be unable to vote.

Holder called the laws “political efforts” designed to make it “more difficult” for “groups that are not supportive of those in power” to “have access to the ballot.”

“Who is disproportionately impacted by them? Young people, African Americans, Hispanics, older people, people who, for whatever reason, aren’t necessarily supportive of the Republican Party,” Holder said, adding that “this notion that there is widespread in-person voter fraud is simply belied by the facts.”

It takes a truly self-absorbed man to think that the level of emotion engendered by opposition to public policies is somehow indicative of race hatred. But from Holder’s point of view, it makes perfect sense. Obviously, the president’s policies are good for the country. Obviously, the only reason to oppose them is because you don’t like the president’s race. Obviously, the madder you are at the president, the bigger the racist you are.

Obviously.

Holder’s delusions about the opposition have been exposed before, as evidenced by his repeated contentions that voter ID laws are meant to suppress the black vote. But to define racism as a measurement of how strenuously the opposition opposes his policies is absurd beyond belief. If passionate opposition is to be an indicator of one’s tolerance for other races, what does that say about blacks who go off the deep end when opposing the policies of a white politician?

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in nearly six years of having Eric Holder as attorney general, it’s his racial double standards. That last question is moot.

So the next time you go to a demonstration against President Obama, please remember to keep your emotions in check. And don’t scowl too much. And don’t scream too loud.

Be nice. Our AG will thank you for it.