It’s amazing how tough it is for some of these racist, bigoted Republicans to restrain themselves from revealing their true colors in what are supposed to be civilized settings. Colorado State Rep. Douglas Bruce was immediately scolded and barred from speaking Monday after he called migrant workers “illiterate peasants” on the floor of the statehouse. Kudos to the fellow lawmakers who were quick and swift with their denunciations.
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Disparaging remarks aimed at migrant workers got resident House rabble-rouser Douglas Bruce banned from speaking on a temporary-worker bill today.
“We don’t need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in the state of Colorado,” Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, told the chamber to an audible gasp.
Rep. Kathleen Curry, leading the House at the time, immediately barred Bruce from speaking at the podium, an uncommon maneuver.
“How dare you?” she asked Bruce, before House members moved back to discussion of a bill aimed at helping seasonal farm workers from other countries enter the state legally on a temporary basis.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Bruce, he masterminded Colorado’s notorious Amendment 2 debacle and the state’s disastrous “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” (TABOR). He’s been relatively calm of late, having only been involved in three embarrassments this calendar year (until today).
- In January he became the first representative ever formally censured by the Colorado legislature. Why? For kicking a photographer.
- He pissed off his colleagues by refusing to support a bill honoring military personnel, a move that got him removed from a House committee overseeing veterans affairs.
- In February he got caught - ironically enough, given TABOR - charging the state for days he didn’t actually work.
UPDATE: Rep. Bruce responds by digging deeper.
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white supremacist anyone?
He’s a mean guy, all right. But the answer to mean comments isn’t censorship, it’s other comments that show up mean people for what they are. Enforcement of immigration laws isn’t mean, it’s civilized…and only mean people can make it look otherwise.
White Flour!
Have state legislators always been as stupid, vicious and mean as this and we just didn’t know, or is their collective IQ dropping like a stone>
I’m guessing he’s not voting for Obama.
From now on, only PhD’s will be picking Colorado’s crops.
Take note of his use of the word “peasants” Yes, my friends, there is a class war, and Republicans are waging it.
Guy’s xenophobic. Not surprising for a Republican. Guy’s a state representative in an Evangelical stronghold. Also not surprising. Pity, seems that Torquemada isn’t dead after all….
I really wish all these old KKK racist will just die off and leave the rest of us alone in peace.
Jaden @ 9:
What, so the modern ones can take their place while couching racism with a soft glove instead of a rough boot? It’s when I hear stuff like this that I understand the Jim Crow-era black preference for open, as opposed to hidden racism. The old racists at least told you they were. Modern racism is much softer, and therefore more dangerous.
What AMAZES me is that a local TV station, Channel 4 a CBS station, ran a poll today on it’s website and 59% said he should keep talking!!
Have we reached the 18th century yet???
Well he could have been a little more ‘pc’ about it…..but hey, sometimes you have to say, what you have to say. I wouldn’t agree with the ‘peasants’ part. But if you don’t speak the language and make no effort to even try….that does make one illiterate to a point.
Robert Lockwood Mills @ 2:
It’s not ‘censorship.’ It’s demanding that civil boundaries of discourse be maintained.
Nobody’s interferring with this fool’s ‘right’ to spout offensive gibberish. But it’s perfectly appropriate to restrict him from doing it on the taxpayer’s dime, in a house of governance.
I just read more details about this guy from the links. HE IS SCUM!
One of the commentors at Think Progress, in agreeing with Rep. Bruce, asserted that “Colorado is full.”
Colorado is full.
Huh.
Call him “Doug”, not Douglas. He hates being called Doug…..
Guess he missed last weeks Economist article on the how the capping of intellectual immigrants means more jobs outsourced to other countries and how the US will be left behind in science and technological fields.
On the plus side though…as far as migrant workers go….Americans picking their own fruits and veggies could reduce obesity.
General_Rennenkampf @ 10:
Sheesh, Relax dude…you are over thinking my post. We all understand how our overall current system of Republican slime works. Focus your energy on them, not the people that already agree with you just the same.
“I looked up ‘illiterate’ in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write,” he said. “I don’t think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word ‘peasant.’ The word ‘peasant’ means a person who works in agricultural fields. These people, most of them, don’t speak English. Most of them haven’t had any formal education, that’s why they’re coming over here. I don’t blame them for trying, but I don’t think we should pave the way for more aliens to come here.”
I looked up Jackass in the dictionary “a stupid or foolish person: nitwit”
Colorado State Rep. Douglas Bruce showed his true self
an “ illiterate peasant “ The people of Colorado voted
for this bimbo to represent them. That says alot!!!
If this asshole sees people who work with their hands as “illiterate peasants” what does he seem himself as a Duke or a Baron?
He needs to be removed from office pronto.
Robert Lockwood Mills @ 2:
I don’t know, seems like sitting him in the corner with his mouth taped shut is just about right.
Hey,he has nothing to worry about. He’s from Colorado Springs, home the two biggest Evangelical megachurches in the country (remember Ted Haggart?), and the largest Military Evangelical College: the Air Force Academy. And they elected a nut as bad as this guy to the Congress in 06.
Colorado Springs, the wingnut center of the universe. So this guy will wear his remarks and his banishment from the well as a badge of honor. Hey, victimized by the peasant-loving Liberals who control the State House.
RB-Chicago @ 11:
I say let him keep talking. Let him keep shoveling!
They should have allowed him to speak, because he would have eventually REVEALED that actually he was referring to himself as the “illiterate”!
givemeabreak @ 19:
They should all just get back into their spaceships and find another planet to invade!
While this gentleman certainly failed the ‘PC speak” test, he was not entirely incorrect. If people who come across are from the peasantry in the countries below our southern border they would by definition be peasants. (Yes, even in this day and time there are still many people throughout the world who are very, very poor.) And if they can’t speak, read or write English they would by our standards be illiterate. While what the guy said sounds really bad, I don’t believe it warranted stopping him from saying it. Surely the other legislators could consider the source (you did say he was a republican; right?) and continue on with an intelligent conversation and thoughtful discussion after this man spoke about the 800lb gorilla.
I lived in rural Colorado for 18 months. Don’t be surprised to learn that some of this guy’s constituents agree with what he said.
That’s the reality of where our country is at on the issue of immigration. If we want it to get better then all sides, no matter how distasteful need to be heard from.
Rich
My. Simply charming.
With the price of food rising the way it is, can you imagine what an average meal would cost WITHOUT the benefit of cheap, foreign labor?? Crikey!
Racism has to be denounced and stood up to and stomped and crushed wherever and whenever it may rear its ugly head.
Love that woman. May the US have millions like her.
I belive the caption under his picture says: “HB-1325 Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program”
Hmm..now why do think such a matter is being discussed?
Aren’t there enough literate non-peasant types to do the work? Oh yeah, I guess not.
Racism and ignorance go hand in hand.
How many of us would have been fired for this kind o behavior,yet Rethugs get away with far worse.
I read a diary on Kos today where the topic was torture, and the consensus of the legal authorities say no member of the Bush gang will even be indicted much less punished for their crimes.
I want to go on record that I prefer they all go to the Slam,the Iron Hotel, and not be allowed to speak in public ever again; or in cyber-talk-STFU while I ROFLMAO.But this is not to be so I must either weep or forget about it.The first rule of grief club is ….
Sluggirl @ 29:
Food prices are going up; becuase, the food distributors decided to charge more money and make more profit. These things happen when global markets are deregulated. Globalism is all about starving the masses while concentrating power into the hands of a few. Globalism is worse than communism.
Rich @ 27:
By definition, “peasant” is a word created and used by people who feel themselves superior to other people.
chuck @ 33:
Well, yeah, and because the government is encouraging production of crops for biofuels, meaning more is being grown but less is used for food, and because the government pays farmers to NOT grow wheat to keep prices abnormally high, and because government subsidies make it more profitable to grow certain less edible crops (and to grow for feed to animals instead of food for humans)… AND THERE’S EVEN MORE!!!
Read THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA or FAST FOOD NATION. Eat locally, eat vegetarian/vegan, and don’t buy into the hype.
CNN has a story from a UN food expert regarding the food crisis and the role of “biofuels”
And his party called Obama elitist? Wow. Just… wow.
Douglas Bruce - obviously he knows nothing of his own family history.
As a descendant of lowland Scots, he comes from a long line of people who, for hundreds of years, were considered uncouth, haggis-eating, “illiterate peasants” by the British.
So what’s wrong with being an illiterate peasant?
That’s what gripes me most about this event.
Granted, the Colorado ReThug was using it as a pejorative, but (sheesh!) America was built by illiterate peasants, when you get right down to the reality.
The very fact that the phrase “illiterate peasant” CAN be used as a pejorative is more damning of American society itself than the ReThug’s use of the phrase.
Power To Us Peasants!!
(including the few Literate Peasants among us!)
Sluggirl @ 29:
The latest price increases in your food is not because of the high cost of labor. It’s not the high cost of fuel either. It’s mostly the corporatist fascism in our political system.
The problem with what he said is that they are stereotypes and over-broad generalities. To simply say ALL 5,000 of the workers would be illiterate peasants will always be 100% false no matter how you slice it it.
To assert something that on its face can never be true is the racist part of what he said.
To use flat out stereotypes as part of your rational for opposing a bill is jaw dropping in itself.
We got a long ways to go to perfect labor and work issues in this country. But this guy and his attitude is the biggest problem we have.
Sluggirl @ 36:
Japan’s Hunger Becomes a Dire Warning for Other Nations
yeah .. Japan ..
Rich @ 27:
It’s just offensive to hear those people being pigeonholed in such a dismissive and rancorous way. He meant to be offensive and managed it beautifully.
Even his explanation he provided later when he looked up the exact terms he used was just stupid. Let’s just say for the sake of argument that “illiterate peasants” is a fair and accurate phrase and is acceptable in civil conversation. The point is that even HE had to look up the two words in order to defend himself. In other words, he meant to put these migrant workers in their place and didn’t care what the real definition of his phrasing was. In my view and apparently in the view of a good many legislators in that room, one of whom took away his microphone, the first intent was to be abrasive and mean.
Hah. Listen to me: “He’s a big meanie!”
Anyway…
I’ve lived in Colorado for 27 years. The guy’s a classless knob.
But the other poster who mentioned his constituency is right. Colorado Springs isn’t exactly Diversity Central. They like ‘em white, Republican and Christian over yonder. He’s probably getting thank-you cards by the bucketful….
Soaring food prices (commodities trading) is the direct result of greed.
I live in this man’s district in Colorado Springs. He was basically promoted up. Previous to this, he was a county commissioner and they wanted him out, so they filled a seat by a vacancy appointment. Now we have to deal with his crap on a statewide level.. Woo effing hoo.