"We Don't Need 5000 More Illiterate Peasants"

CNN has some video that won't surprise most of our readers but that ought to make you angry nonetheless.

Colorado House Republican Douglas Bruce, representing a district in the Colorado Springs area, dropped a reference that would make Tom Tancredo proud. While commenting on a seasonal agricultural guest worker bill under discussion in the Colorado state House, Representative Bruce referred to guest workers as "illiterate peasants". When asked about his comment afterwards, Representative Bruce argued the lame defense that if you look up peasant in the dictionary, you'll find that they are agricultural workers.

That defense is calculated cowardice at its worst. There's an entry in the dictionary for "Negro" but most people have the common decency to not refer to an African-American person as "a Negro". There's also an entry in the dictionary for "Mick" but most people have the common decency to not refer to an American of Irish descent or an Irish person as "a Mick". I also don't expect that Representative Bruce or those who think like him would consider labeling an American farmer a "peasant" or a "sharecropper".

But then again I'd never want to insinuate that people like this bigot have any concern for decency unless it's their race or their beliefs that are being slandered.