Mike Parry, a GOP candidate for the state senate, has apologized for tweets calling President Obama a “Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man” and asking “whats with the Dems and Pedophiles?”
The tweets succeeded in making Parry look like a power hungry ignorant white man. He insists that he takes full responsibility for “all mistakes in my past tweets.”
Parry insists that the racist reference was “written in haste and out of the frustration I felt for the out of control spending in Washington.” In one interview, he insisted that he should be credited for at least using his own name in such attacks, here. He also stated:
“My opinion is that our president is arrogant and angry. The fact is that he is a black man. Now if the Democratic Party and the liberals want to take my opinion and the fact and mix it together and use it to bring a bad light about me and keep them away from discussing the real issues they can do that all they want. They’re grasping for straws.”
Well, I am not sure how much mixing it takes, Mr. Parry.
Here is Parry’s website and bio.
Gyges:
and that is part of the problem, too much bashing goes on during the race. No one in their right mind wants to subject themselves or their family to that. And so people that would be good stewards of our republic stay home.
Byron,
I like my family too much to ever run for office.
Gyges:
you would make a better candidate. when are you running? Let me know and I will pop a check in the mail. I wont even expect anything in return, well maybe a beer in your senate office but you have to buy.
And you last line? Dead spot on the truth of it. They should have humility that they tread in the shadows of giants.
Byron,
I submit what happens to them when they get to DC is lobbyist graft.
Buddha:
you are right about more access to the political process. It is severely limited by both parties. You have to pass the party hierarchies “litmus” test to run for office. I think the 2 party system should remain but I think there ought to be open primaries (in the sense that anyone from that party may participate if they get the required signatures) and multiple candidates from each party running.
The party apparatus even keeps the primary pool small (at least in Virginia) and they can influence the vote as well.
I meet many fine men and women on a daily basis that would do a better job than the majority of our elected officials. Something happens to them when they get to Washington. Probably most are not well grounded and don’t have a true regard for the greatness of America as envisioned by our founders.
They should be humbled to serve in the shadows of Jefferson, Madison and others who understood what it means to be an American.
Contemplate if you will the processes a politician must go through to get elected and maintain office. My sense is it takes a special breed of egotist to do this and unfortunately only a rare few of them actually are just as interested in doing the people’s business, as they are in their own ego gratification.
Byron,
Arrogance is in the eye of the beholder. I may think I’m being confident in thinking I’m a better choice for senator then the guy I’m running against, he’ll probably think I’m being arrogant.
Byron,
1) “one doesn’t need to be arrogant to be a politician.” You do if you want to play by the campaign finance rules out there today. You also have to be ethically compromised.
2) “I think that power does not corrupt, but power in the hands of men who lack confidence does corrupt.” Flat wrong about the nature of power. Again, our Founding Fathers wanted a country of laws, not men, and you are relying upon that most unreliable of all creatures: man. However, a lack of confidence does exacerbate the tendency to abuse power – that’s just sound psychology.
3) A properly crafted psychological test could be of value in sorting the fit from the unfit to rule. However, some dipstick like Tom “Xenu” Cruise will argue that psychology is a religion and you’ll have an Article VI case on your hands. I worked for a company one year in college that developed screening tests (in the tech side but I liaisoned with the psych pros on the team). They can be a useful tool. But a tool they are and still subject to misuse and abuse, so the test would have to be very very well defined. That potential abuse alone makes me uncomfortable with the idea. See the recent thread about the Chicago Police exams. But I won’t argue we do need a better way to get good candidates to choose from. My solution is to smash the two parties system and make getting on the ballot everywhere easier for third party candidates. Mandate air time for any and all candidates who make the ballot and let the Americans see them in action. More choice is also a way to better quality.
gYGES:
one doesn’t need to be arrogant to be a politician. Arrogance in my mind is actually an indicator of a lack of self confidence. I am further of the opinion that power lust is a result of this lack of self confidence. Imposing ones will on another gives a feeling of adequacy.
I think that power does not corrupt, but power in the hands of men who lack confidence does corrupt.
We should do more to choose our politicians. I used to work for a company that made you take a psychological test. They used it to find future project managers and company executives. They were a successful company and the people in management positions were well suited. We should use this same methodology to choose our leaders. It may not ferret out all the incompetents and people with delusions of grandeur but it may help.
As opposed to all other politicians who run for office because they don’t enjoy power and feel that they aren’t equipped to do the job?
Elaine,
It might just be a statewide case of Cabin fever.
Obama used C-span as a political football. Said no less than 8 times the proper way to do it was to put the healthcare debate on C-Span. Obama lied about H M D’s Health Care of Mass Destruction.
Interview with CEO of C-Span
http://www.breitbart.tv/c-span-ceo-white-house-has-allowed-only-one-hour-of-health-care-coverage/
I am really tired of republicans doing this type of thing. I think it is time for a new conservative party, no compassionate conservatives allowed and certainly no idiot/moronic politicians.
There are so many real issues to fight over, arrogant and angry are not even on the radar.
Heck I bet most of us are arrogant and angry at some point about something.
In fact I am angry over an arrogant republican putz from Minnesota making a imbecilic comment. For Christ sake argue about his economic policies. And by the way leave the psychologizing to the professionals.
I do not disagree with that at all. He from what I understand was ruthless and maybe some bodies may have come up missing from his family’s association with the early political machinery.
If memory serves he became great friends with a guy named Franklin that played as some Navy person. An Alliance was built as Joe work for Bethlehem Steel and Franklin went on to build another legacy.
For what ever reason about that same time he made a fortune in investments from land to the market and befriend the folks in Hollywood and formed what became known as RKO. This you are probably aware of was one of the cornerstones for Howard R. Hughes. That poor boy from Texas that died without a State to call home. Like California, Texas and of all places Nevada.
Not that I know anything.
Of course Parry is not racist. That’s why Perry emphasized Obama’s race, just to prove he’s not racist. Get it?
AY,
Yes I do. That was the old man’s doing. Any semblance of decency in the Kennedy clan came from Rose’s influence on the kids. Joe was flat out criminal bastard not worth a plug nickel. Today he’d have been a cocaine lord or meth master of some sort. A truly shitty specimen of humanity was Joe Kennedy.
Buddha,
I am a supporter of the Kennedy’s and most of the good work that they did for this country, but don’t you think that it was Power that they were taught to seek?
“He’s a power hungry size 10 1/2 who is near-sighted and dyspeptic.”
Mespo, even then, every thing past “power hungry” ends up as gibberish designed to point a finger – totally neglecting the four fingers pointing back at Parry, who is a uppity white man not smart enough to realize he’s just a racist clown.
Seriously, “power hungry” is a legitimate criticism. One you could make about most of the Fools on the Hill. That’s a flaw in character, not genetics (stipulation: unless the behavior is rooted in organic mental illness). But skin color has squat to do with that character deficiency. There where power hungry morons in place long before Obama got there. Cheney and Bush are the poster children for that behavior. Their being white has nothing to do with that either. Being simply evil in Cheney’s case and a stupid puppet in Bush’s case have more to do with the behavior than genes.
For those of too tender years, or of short memories let me explain the problem with this man’s statement. The history of prejudice in this country has used “arrogant black man,” really “Uppity Niggah” as a means of describing black men who did not know their place at the bottom of the pecking order and as a justification for harshly punishing them. This is what makes Mr. Parry’s statement so offensive. Similar situation to someone calling me a Jew “Christ Killer.” That this is not understood by our putative black man and resident troll is on one hand astounding, but on another quite understandable.