If NBA Can Ban Donald Sterling Harlem Should Ban Charlie Rangel
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
If outrageous comments are the new criteria for banning individuals then Harlem should ban Charlie Rangel from Congress.
Unlike Donald Sterling, the soon to be former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers who was banned from basketball for his secretly taped racist comments, Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) issued a race card rant demeaning millions of Tea Party conservatives on the House floor.
In full view of the public, Rangel gave a rambling speech outrageously claiming that an entire Tea Party social movement is racist.
Roll Call reported on Rangel’s speech:
During the Congressional Black Caucus’ special order hour on the House floor Monday night, Rep. Charles B. Rangel hammered the tea party not only for embracing the Confederate flag, but also for hating President Barack Obama “as much as their [Dixiecrat] predecessors probably hated Abe Lincoln.”
“[In] some parts of the United States of America they don’t believe that the Union won. The reason I come to that conclusion is that … I have never seen so many Confederate flags that represent groups that are proud of the fact that they call themselves the Tea Party,” the New York Democrat said during his 10-minute floor speech, referring to an event he attended with President Ulysses S. Grant’s great-great-grandson. “They’re from that part of the country that the states owned slaves.”
Rangel’s comments are outrageous, false and unbecoming of an elected official.
I’m a black Tea Party member from New York and have given speeches around the country. The response to my remarks are overwhelmingly positive and in most cases I get a standing ovation especially in former Confederate states including Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.
If the NBA can loot an owner of his property for private comments, then voters certainly should hold an elected official accountable for public comments.
Rangel is facing a tough primary fight – let’s hope the residents of his district rally and ban him from Congress.