![Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL5)](https://stage.yellowhammernews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/YH-Mo-Brooks-1024x515.png)
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL5) has found himself the unexpected center of national attention this week after an appearance on Laura Ingraham’s radio program, during which he asserted that Democrats are engaging in a “war on whites.”
Brooks’ comments were made in response to National Journal columnist Ron Fournier, who said that the Republican Party has become “the party of white people.”
Here’s what Brooks said:
This is a part of the war on whites that’s being launched by the Democratic Party. And the way in which they’re launching this war is by claiming that whites hate everybody else. It’s a part of the strategy that Barack Obama implemented in 2008, continued in 2012, where he divides us all on race, on sex, greed, envy, class warfare, all those kinds of things. Well that’s not true… Democrats, they have to demagogue on [the immigration issue] and try and turn it into a racial issue, which is an emotional issue, rather than a thoughtful issue. If it becomes a thoughtful issue, then we win and we win big. And they lose and they lose big.
The media firestorm began almost immediately. Huffington Post, POLITICO, The Hill, Slate, Talking Points Memo, USA Today, Washington Post, and just about every other outlet in the country jumped on Brooks’ comments, most of them painting it as another example of Republicans being out of touch. AL.com has written at least 10 articles about it by themselves.
Most conservatives will probably find it a bit strange that the media has suddenly decided they’ve had enough or racial politics.
When asked if he stood by his comments, Brooks pointed out just one of the countless examples of Democratic leaders injecting race into an issue.
“Look at what the Democrats do on a regular basis,” Brooks said on the Steve Malzberg Show. “They appeal to specific racial groups by saying ‘we will protect you’ — that specific racial group. Now who are they talking about protecting them from? Well they’re talking about protecting them from Republicans. But at the same time, what do they say about those Republicans? That they’re whites. Let’s look at Sen. Harry Reid recently when he was complaining about a Supreme Court decision. What did he say? ‘White men.’ Now one of them happened to be black, but that would have interfered with the argument he was trying to make. So the Democrats on a regular basis try to divide Americans up based on race, and I find that highly inappropriate.”
Political strategist are already saying that Democrats will use Brooks’ comments against Republicans, both in November as the GOP tries to retake the senate, and during the 2016 presidential election. And even Laura Ingraham clearly didn’t feel comfortable with Brooks’ “war on whites” terminology, although she seemed to agree with his underlying premise.
But what do you think?
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