Obama under attack from racists, says former president

The former US president Jimmy Carter provoked heated debate after suggesting that 'an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man'. Mr Carter's remarks came at the end of a summer in which the US president has been sharply attacked during 'townhall' debates on his healthcare plans culminating in an intemperate outburst from a member of Congress during a presidential address.

The former US president Jimmy Carter provoked heated debate after suggesting that 'an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man'. Mr Carter's remarks came at the end of a summer in which the US president has been sharply attacked during 'townhall' debates on his healthcare plans culminating in an intemperate outburst from a member of congress, Rep Joe Wilson from South Carolina, during a presidential address last week. In an interview on NBC News, Mr Carter, who prior to becoming president was the governor of the previously racially-segregated state of Georgia, said: "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shared the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans. And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country." The New York Times said: "In response to a request for comment, Bill Burton, the White House deputy press secretary, wouldn't address Mr Carter's remarks directly. Instead, he referred us back to those made by [White House press secretary Robert] Gibbs on Sunday. 'I don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the colour of his skin. I think people are upset because on Monday we celebrate the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that caused a financial catastrophe unlike anything we've ever seen.' Mr Gibbs counseled that everyone needed to take a deep breath to defuse the hot rhetoric bandied about. "Other prominent officials however, like Representative James Clyburn, the Democratic majority whip from Mr Wilson's home state, have publicly implored the White House to directly confront what they view as an unseemly element aimed at, in Mr Clyburn's words 'delegitimising' the president. Don't let it fester, he warned." In The Guardian, Michael Tomasky wrote: "right or not, Carter wasn't being strategic, and it's a classic kind of no-win statement. I've seen a thousand of these kinds of situations over the years, especially when I covered politics in New York City. Whenever a liberal tosses out a charge of racism, the other side demands 'proof'. And since everyone has learned by now how to code and calibrate their language so as to stop just at racism's water's edge, there almost never quite is proof, even in extreme cases. "And something else happens. Conservatives, ironically, are the ones who get to say that liberals 'injected race' into the discourse. This is insane because today's American conservative coalition was built around the very idea of racial mistrust and fear. After low taxes and a strong military, it's probably the third leg of the stool going back to Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan, even though Republicans will never of course acknowledge this. "But conservatives get to claim the high ground when a liberal charges racism without stone-cold proof." Meanwhile, at a demonstration in Washington DC on Saturday attended by tens or even hundreds of thousands of mostly white Americans, the tone of America's McCarthy era was invoked as Mr Obama was portrayed as a threat to the American way of life. "The protest - touted by organisers as the largest-ever outpouring of political conservatives - was organised by a loose-knit coalition of anti-tax, small-government proponents, and widely promoted by sympathetic voices in the blogosphere and on TV and talk radio. Park police declined to provide an official crowd estimate," the Los Angeles Times reported. "The rally was embraced, after some hesitation, by congressional Republicans, some of whom were leery of associating with the more incendiary elements of Obama's opposition. " 'The coming weeks and months may well set the course for this nation for a generation," said Indiana Rep Mike Pence, the number three GOP House leader, voicing the apocalyptic tone that rang through much of the day's rhetoric. 'How we as conservatives respond to these challenges could determine whether America retains her place in the world as a beacon of freedom, or whether we slip into the abyss that has swallowed much of Europe in an avalanche of socialism.' " Last month, a rise in right-wing, racially-charged extremism was noted by an organisation that has carefully monitored racial hatred in America for the last four decades. The Alabama-based Southern Law Poverty Center reported: "Almost a decade after largely disappearing from public view, right-wing militias, ideologically driven tax defiers and sovereign citizens are appearing in large numbers around the country. 'Paper terrorism' - the use of property liens and citizens' 'courts' to harass enemies - is on the rise. And once-popular militia conspiracy theories are making the rounds again, this time accompanied by nativist theories about secret Mexican plans to 'reconquer' the American Southwest. One law enforcement agency has found 50 new militia training groups - one of them made up of present and former police officers and soldiers. Authorities around the country are reporting a worrying uptick in 'Patriot' activities and propaganda. 'This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years,' says one. 'All it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.' "A key difference this time is that the federal government - the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy - is headed by a black man. That, coupled with high levels of non-white immigration and a decline in the percentage of whites overall in America, has helped to racialise the Patriot movement, which in the past was not primarily motivated by race hate. One result has been a remarkable rash of domestic terror incidents since the presidential campaign, most of them related to anger over the election of Barack Obama. At the same time, ostensibly mainstream politicians and media pundits have helped to spread Patriot and related propaganda, from conspiracy theories about a secret network of US concentration camps to wholly unsubstantiated claims about the president's country of birth."