Confederate flag-lovin’ GOP rep Steve King, just a little bit ago over on East Fourth during a live interview with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, dropped this bit of explicit language on the subtext of what many feel like is going on inside the arena: The civilizations of Western and Eastern Europe have done more for the world than any “subgroup,” by which of course he means white people.
The floored looks of the rest of the table alone are worth the price of admission.
PIERCE: Tell you what, in that hall today, that hall is wired. That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people. Any sign of rebellion is going to get shouted down either kindly or roughly but that’s what’s going to happen.KING: This whole business does get a little tired. I would ask you to go back through history and figure out where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people you are talking about. Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization? [N.b.: The “other people” the panelists had just been talking about were black Americans and Mexicans.]
HAYES: Than white people?
KING: Than Western civilization itself. That’s rooted in western Europe, eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where Christianity settled the world. That’s all of Western civilization.
Transcript above via Slate, which you should be following for all the real coverage of actual politics this week.
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2016.
If given another segment, King would have gone on a rambling monologue concerning his incredible respect for William Dudley Pelley.