Americans brainstorm worse insults after Louisiana senator says ‘racist’ among ‘worst things you can call’ someone

After Republican Senator John Kennedy declared “racist” one of the worst insults Americans might face during Supreme Court confirmation hearings, social media took up the challenge, deluging the Louisianan with alternatives.

Kennedy uttered the offending phrase in defense of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the conservative lawmaker President Donald Trump nominated to the Supreme Court last month to fill the vacancy left by the deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“I know, for someone unaccustomed to it, that it hurts to be called a racist. I think it’s one of the worst things you can call an American,” Kennedy declared in his trademark southern drawl.

That was too much for Twitter. A major contingent had already bristled when Kennedy likened 2018’s confirmation hearings for Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the “cantina scene from Star Wars” earlier in the hearing, and weren’t about to let this one go.

Many hit back at Kennedy by reminding him there’s a much better-known racial epithet most people would find more hurtful than “racist” – though most stopped short of typing it out.

Others slammed the “privileged” senator for his apparent ignorance.

Quite a few rolled their eyes, suggesting if being called ‘racist’ offended Kennedy so much, there was an easy way to avoid it.

Though others managed to slip a little humor into their attacks on Kennedy, musing on what sort of insult might bother him more.

The Barrett confirmation hearings have been predictably contentious, as the media establishment has made her out to be a fanatical Christian unable to separate her religious beliefs from her legislative principles. As the third judge nominated by President Donald Trump to the Supreme Court, she represents something of a point of no return for Democrats who had hoped to shift the court back toward their “side” within their lifetimes.

Additionally, many have likened her confirmation in what could be the twilight hours of the Trump presidency to the failed confirmation hearings for Judge Merrick Garland, the justice nominated by former president Barack Obama during the last few months of his presidency. Senate Republicans refused to hold a confirmation hearing on Garland, reasoning Obama would be out of office in a matter of months and had no right to appoint another justice.

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