As if you needed another reason why some people refer to the Sunshine State as "Flori-duh": Now a couple of hot shot Republican school board members in the Miami-Dade area are stomping their feet about First Lady Michelle Obama making an appearance at a campaign event to be held at Barbara Goleman Senior High in Miami Lakes. They're urging the event to be cancelled and are even questioning its legality.
Too bad the idea that the event is out of line legally is a complete conservative fairy tale (or nightmare, however you wish to see it). And the only obvious conclusion why they've dreamed this temper tantrum up is clear: They -- like a gazillion other backasswards politicians on the right -- are complete racists.
Since that conclusion could easily come off as a knee-jerk reaction, let's try to give the guy the benefit of the doubt for a moment ...
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Board member Carlos Curbelo wrote in a letter to the board's attorney:
Allowing the First Lady of the United States to use one of our schools explicitly to benefit the president's reelection campaign is inappropriate and sends the wrong message to our students, employees, and to taxpayers -- even if the president’s campaign is willing to pay for all costs resulting from the event.
But then, lookee here ... The Daily Kos breaks Curbelo's concerns down for us. To sum it up ...
- The district's policy is to allow all groups, including political ones, to lease facilities. Obama's campaign is paying $2,351 to rent the school for the event.
- Mitt Romney's campaign is also renting out a public high school in Colorado to do the same thing.
- In the past, (white) Democrats like Bill Clinton and politicians' spouses like Laura Bush have participated in similar campaign events at Florida public schools.
So there you have it. There's absolutely no legit reason for them to be throwing this hissy fit.
Sadly, this incident is further proof that there are some on the right who are attempting to block the Obamas at every turn, for one reason alone. They hate them unconditionally. They can blame their disdain on Obama being a "socialist" or "Communist" or whatever other ridiculous, extreme label they want to slap on our POTUS and his wife. But ultimately, the real word they can't stand -- and the real reason they're giving Michelle a hard time in Miami -- is "black."
Do you believe this campaign event should be held at a public school? Do you think it sounds like the FLOTUS is being discriminated against?
Image via Talbot Troy/Flickr
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Comments 72
What one action or comment would lead any reasonably sensible individual to even go down the race path on this? What am I missing? Is there a history of this group specifically raising campaigns to exclude Black individuals from hosting events? I think the Obama's being Black offers a convenient excuse for supporters to fall back on when the president's policies are questioned / questionable. People such as this author only contribute to the perpetuation of a racial divide.
Gotta know it's FL, home of the butterfly ballot. God they must think people are stupid and aren't going to investigate. I think it is only partly racist, the rest is that they're just plain antiObama; desperate and will try ANYthing to disparage their opponent. Next: gerrymandering and voter poll harassment.
Next.
I think the racism charge is a bit of a stretch, but I do think the panty-twisting over using the schools for political rally is totally and completely politically motivated. If it was Mitt Romney or his wife they'd be first in line for tickets and probably trying to figure out a way to do it during school hours and require the students to attend. Schools have been used as facilities off hours for all kinds of things and I see no problem in using them for political events.