Phatscotty wrote:I think the point is that he is talking about putting "people" in chains, not chaining the economy with regulations. If Biden were talking about the economy, then I would have never even asked the question
Also, does what you say hold true, if say, Trent Lott cracks a private joke. not even about slavery, but about segregation, at a birthday party (he had to step down)? Can a Republican say what Joe Biden said, criticism free? Do you think there is a double standard going on here?
I see what you're saying. There
is a difference between what language is acceptable to apply to people vs. what is acceptable to apply to abstract concepts, but I truly don't think this crosses a line. He wants to show that deregulation will have a negative effect on peopple, and he does this using the rhetorical device that his opponents have used in the past. "Opponent says Good Thing? More like OPPOSITE OF GOOD THING" is fairly routine political rhetoric, and while I'm not blind to the undertones, the reaction from Romney's campaign has been excessive.
Do you believe there is a double standard? In my last post, I mentioned Santorum talking about how the ACA would put people in chains. As far as I'm aware, there was not a negative reaction to that remark. Likewise, the recent Romney campaign ad claiming that Obama ended work requirements for welfare has come under fire for factual inaccuracies, but not for the "dogwhistle" image of lazy food stamp sponges and welfare queens that it conjures up.
I was not politically aware in 2002, and only have a passing familiarity with the Trent Lott controversy. Was it a joke, or a gaffe? He shouldn't have been pressured to step down (from his role as Senate Republican Leader,
not from his Senate seat as I initially believed), but this isn't enough to prove a widespread double standard is at play. Newt Gingrinch said that Obama could only be understood by people who "understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," but he still got to run for the Republican presidential nomination. Elected officials who are or were birthers still hold their positions. Trent Lott is an unfortunate outlier, not evidence of a larger trend.