With Election Day approaching, McCain surrogates or supporters may not be able to resist the temptation to fan the flames of racism. Expect the snippets of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to resurface. Expect video of Michelle Obama sounding militant. Expect disgusting ads about Obama's admitted drug use as a very young man. Expect that picture of Obama in Muslim garb again.
This campaign will ultimately be a referendum on the intractability of racism.
Sigh.
The way things are going with these endless charges of "racism," I think it's more likely to be a referendum on the intractability of the imputation of racism. Which of course the imputers would claim proves their point. That's because when an issue -- dishonest or not -- is injected into a campaign as relentlessly as "racism" is being injected into this campaign, it's there, and it won't go away easily. The old "try not to think about elephants" routine. American voters are being inundated -- on a daily basis now -- with the following, deeply ugly, message: if you're white and you don't vote for Obama it's because you're a racist.
The only people who have any hope of a defense are Republican stalwarts. They can say "I just voted the Party line as I always do." Not so for Democrats and independents. If they vote for McCain, they will have to live with the unsettling knowledge that post-election inquisitors will always be able to ask them who they voted for in 2008, and if they answer McCain, it will be seen as suspect. And even if they say, "It's my business who I voted for!" leftie McCarthyites will take that as a tacit admission that they voted for McCain. And either way, they're obviously racists, right?
Not that I could ever convince anyone on the left that I'm anything but a cracker, but I thought it might at least be entertaining to take a look at the "flames" Mr. Rothschild cites in his indictment piece.
Expect the snippets of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to resurface.
It's hard to forget a malevolent clown like Wright. I can't stand the guy, although as I havesaidmanytimes, I think Obama's close association with Bill Ayers is far worse. Forgive me if I am wrong, but not only were the Wright snippets first dug up by Clinton campaign operatives, but what really upset people was the one showing the guy screaming "God damn America!" Please correct me if they were really upset by Wright's race and not by the hateful things he said, but that's my memory of it, and I don't see what Jeremiah Wright has to do with race. Unless, of course, it's the same identity politics formulation that because he is black, all criticism of him by whites is assumed to be racist. (Or might the author think that hating America is "black"? The thought would never cross my mind, but I'm just wondering.)
Expect video of Michelle Obama sounding militant.
Militant? I remember a video in which she said that she was proud to be an American for the first time in her life, but that didn't strike me as especially militant. The debate revolved around her patriotism, which Obama's opponents were questioning.
Hmmm.... So what's with the word "militant"? Am I missing the videos of her calling for armed struggle against "the Beast" like Ayers and his odious wife? I doubt such videos exist, and even if they did -- even if she had been as loony as the Weather Underground -- how would pointing that out be a form of racism? I think "unpatriotic" is the correct word here. Why didn't he say "Expect video of Michelle Obama sounding unpatriotic?" Is it possible that Rothschild is uncomfortable with the word? Or does he think that "militant" is a better word to fan the flames of racism because somehow (in his mind, at least) militant equals black? (Frankly, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear that was racist thinking on Rothschild's part. But he can't be the racist, because he's leveling the accusation. So forgive me!)
Expect disgusting ads about Obama's admitted drug use as a very young man.
It's news to me (an admitted former drug user) that drugs have anything to do with race. As a matter of fact, the last time I visited the leading liberal news site (Raw Story) I saw countless lurid pieces revisiting Cindy McCain's past drug use. Naturally, in any campaign, such stuff can be used to generate "disgusting ads." And I agree that they're disgusting. Certainly they don't persuade me of anything. But can anyone tell me why they'd only be racist in the case of Barack Obama? Again, unless drug taking equals black (something no reasonable person would contend) I think this might reveal a certain bias on the part of the author.
Expect that picture of Obama in Muslim garb again.
Personally, I thought using that picture was a low blow, and the Clinton campaign should have been ashamed for doing it. But it fed into the meme that Obama was a Muslim, and Islam is a religion, not a race. I don't like anti-Muslim bigotry, but it is no more "racism" than is anti-Catholic bigotry.
I think the racist "flames" are being fanned by the hyperventilation of Rothschild's mind.
The problem is, if enough people want this race to be a referendum about race, it will become that.
Whether it should won't matter.
posted by Eric on 09.23.08 at 10:42 AM
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Comments
It must be driving them nuts waiting for Republicans to tip their racist hands. Democrats can't keep their racism under wraps for five minutes (or their sexism for five seconds) and yet Republicans, whose racism is MUCH more virulent, have kept it quiet for weeks. AND THERE'S ONLY WEEKS REMAINING!
They're running out of time to scream "GOTCHA!" and like small children dying to tell their secret, they're finding it impossible to keep a straight face. If Republicans can't give them a reason to scream gotcha! then they'll just have to scream it anyway and hope nobody notices it was done without reason.
What a sad group of people they are.
tim maguire · September 23, 2008 11:14 AM
If this race (pun intended) really is a "referendum on the intractability of racism", then why have we not actually seen more of it? How does Mr. Rothschild know that the race is about racism? What are his indicators? How does he know there are no other major issues in play?
The race is very close. Indeed, pre-Palin, the polls showed McCain behind Obama. In fact, it gives indications of being a photo-finish, similar to the last two elections. If Republicans and independents are in fact coming out of the racist woodwork, why are the numbers not showing it?
The last two elections were dead heats, without the race element in play. The current election is also a dead heat, with the race element in play. If anything, that would indicate that the race element has had almost zero influence.
"Progressives" hyperventilating about race again? Must be Tuesday. Still no word on the Dems support for FARC, eh? You know, FARC, the narco-terrorists from Columbia, that dealt mainly in cocaine. The same cocaine that is still wreaking havok in the black communities around the U.S. as crack. Apparently the non racist Democrats' support of a terrorist organization, who deals in a product that is destroying the black community is not racist.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
It must be driving them nuts waiting for Republicans to tip their racist hands. Democrats can't keep their racism under wraps for five minutes (or their sexism for five seconds) and yet Republicans, whose racism is MUCH more virulent, have kept it quiet for weeks. AND THERE'S ONLY WEEKS REMAINING!
They're running out of time to scream "GOTCHA!" and like small children dying to tell their secret, they're finding it impossible to keep a straight face. If Republicans can't give them a reason to scream gotcha! then they'll just have to scream it anyway and hope nobody notices it was done without reason.
What a sad group of people they are.