Al Sharpton: Rick Santorum is Racist for Saying 'America Was Great Before 1965 '

Al Sharpton: Rick Santorum is Racist for Saying 'America Was Great Before 1965'

By Noel Sheppard


As NewsBusters has been reporting for weeks, one of the goals of the Obama-loving media is to depict every possible Republican presidential candidate as racist.

On Monday's "MSNBC Live," substitute host Al Sharpton implied that newly announced candidate Rick Santorum was making a racist comment when he said at Saturday's Faith and Freedom Conference, "America was a great country before 1965" (transcript and commentary):

AL SHARPTON, SUBSTITUTE HOST: Santorum today said that America was great before 1965 in his announcement. I mean, what is he talking about? Was he talking about the Voting Rights Act?

PAT BUCHANAN: Who are you talking about?

SHARPTON: That’s what I remember happening in ’65 from my studies.

BUCHANAN: Who are you talking about? The Eisenhower and Kennedy, this was a magnificent, Al Sharpton. Did it have problems?

SHARPTON: Why did he use the year ’65? What signal is it sending?

BUCHANAN: Who are you talking about? Who used it?

SHARPTON: Rick Santorum has said America was great before ’65. What is the, what is the significance of '65? Is he sending a signal here?

BUCHANAN: I think in '65 is one of the years we really got ourselves deeply involved in Vietnam, the Democratic Party came apart and lost 47 seats

SHARPTON: Oh, so rick Santorum was attacking our involvement in Vietnam?

BUCHANAN: Well, I don't know what he was attacking, but why would you pick out the Voting Rights Act? You’re hung up on that stuff, Al.

SHARPTON: That's one of the great things that happened in '65 that he may have been referring to. Bill?

BILL PRESS: Al Sharpton, Al Sharpton, you know better than anybody what it was like particularly in the south of this country in 1965. But I think what it shows is what the Republicans mean when they say they want to take back America. Yeah, they want to take America back to 1965, if not to 1950 before Brown v. Board of Education.

You know what else happened of great significance in 1965? Medicare was created, and that's what Santorum was talking about.

As reported by Talking Points Memo Saturday:

Obama, Santorum said, thinks that it's the nation's safety net that helps to define America's greatness. This is an example of Obama missing the point about America's inherent exceptional nature, Santorum said. Social conservatives know that America had it goin' on before there was a social welfare system.

"There's one statement that everyone in this room should remember that the President of the United States says, that sums up how the President looks at America," Santorum said. "He said it about 6 weeks ago."

As TPM noted, this is what Obama said on April 13 in response to Congressman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisc.) budget proposal:

Part of this American belief that we are all connected also expresses itself in a conviction that each one of us deserves some basic measure of security. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, hard times or bad luck, a crippling illness or a layoff, may strike any one of us. "There but for the grace of God go I," we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities. We are a better country because of these commitments. I'll go further - we would not be a great country without those commitments.

Santorum said the following as a result:

He was talking about Medicare, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance, and it was in response to the Ryan budget. And he said this, talking about these three programs: He said, "America is a better country because of these programs. I will go a one step further: America is a great country because of these programs." Ladies and gentlemen, America was a great country before 1965.

Did this have anything to do with the Voting Rights Act? Or Brown v. Board of Education? Or race?

Not at all, but that's the impression created by Sharpton and Press.

Now in reality, it took me about five seconds on Google to find what Santorum said Saturday as well as what he was referring to.

Do the folks at MSNBC lack the resources to uncover what prominent political officials are saying without so badly misrepresenting them absent any factual basis?

Is this really what qualifies as journalism at this so-called "news network?"

Are there any fact-checking standards at this organization anymore, or is all fair in love of Obama?