The opposition is not my moral compass nor is the home team. A person would have to be totally oblivious to cultural history not to know the arguments hard core racists used to justify first enslaving blacks and secondly to enshrine inequality into law.
Like it or not a big part of that argument was based on the “scientific” idea that blacks had not evolved as completely as whites and were therefore closer to other primates such as chimpanzees than they were to white “humans.”
So yes it was idiotic even when done without malice. To not get that is to play right into the hands of those who do idolize Obama and who hate those who don’t.
So save your criticizing stupid behavior by a conservative equals worhiping Obama for some ignorant hick who can be intimidated by personal slurs.
You want to allow the other side the right to dictate what symbols you can use, when you can use them and in which situations you can employ them. I do not. As I mentioned, one would be hard put to find caricatures of a black man that did NOT in some way refer to some age old racist stereotype. And, as for the party of the perpetual race card, I care little for thier feelings ...