Race is everything, saith the left
The following is quite a comment, gleaned from a thread at the New Republic, and written by “12alainu.” I highlight it here because it is a good example of the persistence on the left of the reductionist racialist explanation for everything conservative and/or Republican (from 8/11/2010 at 9:36am):
Yes it was the President and his party’s profound political stupidity to delude themselves into believing that Obama’s election in 2008 meant that there had been realignment in political philosophy of the American people. The realignment was suppose to have been brought about by working class white men changing their minds about loathing the Negro (except when they are on a basketball court or football field); and by the supposed emergence of a post race-hating white youth into the electorate in states like North Carolina and Virginia. This belief was the sheerest fantasy.
But ultimately, it was/is the President and his Party’s failure to push through a change in the economic climate (a simple failure in political strength and courage) which left the President groveling at the feet of Congressional Republicans who despise him; begging them to embrace his and his Party’s economic philosophy and programmatic agenda.
From the outset Republicans were only interested in destroying this President and his Party. And they knew the strategy which would achieve their purpose. They also correctly understood that failure to “cooperate” with this President and his party would never be politically costly. Obama never had that kind of relationship with the American people. If the American people were or are asked to believe either the Negro in the White House, his Party, or the Republican opposition to him over any issue of national policy, when they, middle and lower middle class whites are threatened; they will never go with the Negro. It’s that simple.
Does the commenter actually believe this claptrap? Perhaps. Perhaps he/she is just that simple.
Or perhaps it is being relentlessly put out there because this is still seen as some sort of winning argument. Whichever it is, anyone who actually believed that the election of Barack Obama as president would get the American people off the racial hook has been proven sadly and deeply mistaken.
Racism, like crying wolf is the last stronghold of liberals with no other leg to stand on. The tragedy is that no matter how many times they cry “race”, it still works, or at least among their own. I’m with you Neo. How can they believe this clap-trap.
And is he kiddung about Obama groveling. “The election’s over. I won,” ain’t somebody down on their hands and knees. The only groveling he’s done is with the enemies of America.
Neo:
I vote for the former: “actually believes this claptrap.” If it were the latter, the commenter would be using this argument to persuade those in the middle who were not true believers. Comment sections at TNR are closed to subscribers, which means the odds are that most of those who are able to comment there are already true believers, as true believers are more likely to subscribe to TNR than independent skeptics.
I don’t even know what he said and I read part of it twice.
A relationship with the American people?
And what in the hell does this phrase mean???
my brain hurts !
What a crock. Obama was the candidate and won because he is black. No way a young white guy with no record of accomplishment and only two years in the Senate would have even considered running.
Obama is now unpopular because he has done a lousy job. Affirmative action has its limits. You can put a shoe in the oven, but that doesn’t make it a biscuit.
From Jon Stewart of all people, via Instapundit: ” The Race Card Is Maxed Out. Your charges of racism have been declined!”
I wonder what happened to the upper class white people that made them betray their race?
Does wealth lead to enlightenment?
“Does the commenter actually believe this claptrap?”
He/she needs to believe this claptrap, it is a cause, a means of proving one’s moral superiority, it also allows one to mix with others who also believe this claptrap. Believing that claptrap is one of the best social investments that commenter has probably ever made, also less expensive than becoming a comic book junkie and having to associate with other comic book junkies.
Mr. Frank wrote “You can put a shoe in the oven, but that doesn’t make it a biscuit.”
Now you tell me.
Of course he believes it. It’s all that’s left of his illusions.
Does the commenter actually believe this claptrap? Perhaps. Perhaps he/she is just that simple.
Yes, I think so. Given that the Republicans are unable to generate a filibuster in the House (and where unable to get
a filibuster until Scott Brown was sworn into his Senate seat), they couldn’t do squat to stop the Pelosi-Reid-Obama juggernaut.
The only reason they didn’t get to do more damage was because The Won wasn’t a seasoned executive who knew how to rally the troops and lead. If he comes in 20 January 2009 (or shortly after) with a health care bill, a stimulus bill, a financial reform bill, cap & trade bill, card check bill, and whatever other pie-in-the-sky liberal program, he could have rammed that thru by December.
So obviously, it was those wascally Rethuglikkkans who gummed up the works, not Obama’s lack of leadership, and his subcontracting the dirty work to Pelosi and Reid’s porkbarrel express.
“Negro?” “Negro?” ISTM that term has been out of style since the 1960s, certainly the 1970s. The writer is, I guess, either an older stuck-in-the-mud racialist or someone who has been thoroughly indoctrinated by older stuck-in-the-mud racialists (a.k.a. freeze-dried hippies). People just don’t talk that way nowadays, do they?
I notice that the words “socialism”, “communism”, and “Marxism” don’t appear in his little screed.
Either he is too stupid to see what is really happening (a definite possibility), or he believes that those ideologies are self-evidently good and any opposition is automatically evil.
If the latter, then he will enthusiastically support mass roundups and detention camps when the time comes.
As Virginia Bob said, this is easy moral superiority.
It’s easy not to be a racist, as long as whatever you do–move to a gated community, promote zoning laws against multi-family dwellings or houses on lots small enough to be affordable to the Other–is not admitted as racism.
It helps a lot if you are in a minority, a very small minority of non-racists. You get there by insisting the maximum number of your fellow citizens are racist and the maximum number of statements, attitudes and actions are racist.
Simple, as Bob says, and cheap.
While “easy moral superiority” is probably the simples explanation, I see something a little darker afoot.
Constantly labeling your opponents as racists and bigots is a way of delegitimizing and dehumanizing them. Obama started doing this himself during the campaign, with comments like “I don’t look like the Presidents on the money” and “They’re going to try to scare you with my name”.
(Those are paraphrases, not exact quotes.)
I’ve written about this on other blogs, but it’s worth repeating here.
The Democratic Party has had a virtual monopoly on the black vote for 45 years. I did some research once, and Clinton got more than 90% of the black vote in both his elections, as did Gore in his election bid. Kerry slipped to about 88%, but Obama got more than 95% of the black vote.
Put it in perspective. Blacks make up about 13% of the population. So, because blacks are so loyal to the Democratic Party, it’s like the Democrats start out with an 11.7% headstart in every election (13% of the population * 90% = 11.7%). If the black vote had been split down the middle in the 2008 presidential election, so half voted Republican and half voted Democratic, and holding the rest of the results constant, McCain would be president today.
The Democrats have a vested interest in keeping their virtual monopoly on the black vote. I believe the Demcrats are terrified their monopoly on the black vote may be at risk of slipping due to the oustanding example being set by black conservatives like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Larry Elder, Lt. Col. Allen West, Condi Rice, Ken Blackwell, Clarence Thomas, Star Parker, Angela McGlowan, Kevin Jackson, and scores others (including several prominent black conservative bloggers).
One way to try to maintain their monopoly on the black vote is to constantly scream about racism in the Tea Party and the Republican Party (whether it exists or not). That’s why the black Congressmen lied about Tea Partiers calling them niggers 15 times at the Tea Party rally before the healthcare bill was voted on this spring. That’s also why the NAACP, an arm of the Democratic Party for all practical purposes, denounced the Tea Party as racist. Because if even half the black vote switches to vote as Republicans, the Democrats will lose any races that are as close as the 2008 presidential election (and 53% to 47% wasn’t really a nailbiter).
They are desperate to hold onto that 11.7% headstart.
ELC: I am fairly certain that the writer uses the term “Negro” because he/she is mocking the way he/she thinks conservative/Republican racists (i.e. all conservatives and Republicans) think. Not only are they of course racists, but they are troglodyte stuck-in-the-40s-and-50s-mentality racists, who don’t even know enough to use the proper up-to-date terminology in their covert racist thought-crimes.
Actually, I think there’s a pretty good chance that 12alainu is black. If you do a little searching with Google and Bing on the name, you’ll find other comments — such as a remark to the effect that white southerners refer to the birth of a black child as “dropping a pickaninny,” a warning that the 14th amendment will be repealed and white Americans will start another civil war if they drop to less than 40% of the population, the statement that right-to-lifers only care about white babies, and even an attack on Obama and Holder for not being black enough. There’s quite a lot of explicit and implicit anti-white hatred. I’d say that alainu12 finds it easy to perceive race hatred in others because he (or she) is full of such hatred himself (or herself.)
The accusations of racism delegitimize the accused only to the extent anybody believes that crap any longer.
According to Jon Steward, not many do.
Nice research, Mrs. Thx!
Yup, neo, to the left the only three issues are race, race, and race. I used to be able to throw sex/gender into the equation but their tolerance of radical Islam means that even women’s rights have been thrown under the bus.
“which left the President groveling at the feet of Congressional Republicans”
My god they have enormous majorities in both houses and still they blame the Republicans.
@ Neo 8:13 p.m. Could be. Thanks.
Neo,
Notice that according to the commenter, when the American people have to decide between the philosophy of the Republicans (however vaguely defined), and the philosophy of the Democrats, the American people do not decide based on rational belief and experience.
Rather, according to the commenter, the American people just choose ‘who’ to believe. They are like little sheep who decide on their leader, but can’t decide on ideas.
Of course, if the commenter accepted that the American people decided based on ideas, not by choosing who to believe, then two results would follow:
1) Race doesn’t matter, since any idea can be expressed by any race.
2) The commenter would have to defend the actual ideas, which would require thought.
This commenter is probably not professional. So it might be a little unfair to pick on him. Would you like to defend every comment ever left on this blog? The only question is whether the comment is typical of leftist thought. I think that might be a little unfair. Typical leftist thought probably gives the people some more benefit of the doubt. In that they believe the American people choose the ideas based on stupidity rather than race – though race helps.
I guess that makes me stupid – for preferring free markets.
I sense a sort of desperation in the race baiting industry. A realization that the sympathetic character of the oppressed black is the cash cow that is about to quit giving if times aren’t turned back. Hence the reference to negro.
Just yesterday, I spotted this on the “front page” at Open Salon –
http://open.salon.com/blog/jimmy_zuma/2010/08/12/the_common_thread_is_white_supremacy
I was just appalled – the person who wrote this, actually believes it? What kind of fantasy construction has he built for himself?
I was born in 1954, I have never, ever seen a sign like this (outside of a history book) and only on one occasion did I ever personally witness a white person being deliberately ugly in public to a casually-met black person. Yes, I did lead a semi-sheltered life, growing up in California, and then 20 years in the military, (officially and in practice quite color-blind.)
I didn’t have the heart to go into the comments and try and reason with the author of that post. There are some very nice, and reasonable people posting at Open Salon, but some raving lunatics as well.
This just in: Inspired by “12alainu,” Obama’s advisors have announced that they have already decided on Obama’s re-election slogan:
“Go with the Negro!”
Tom:
Yup, neo, to the left the only three issues are race, race, and race. I used to be able to throw sex/gender into the equation but their tolerance of radical Islam means that even women’s rights have been thrown under the bus.
I’d have to disagree. I don’t think that the reduced emphasis on women’s rights has anything to do with tolerance for radical Islam; rather, I think it’s because (a) women’s rights are much more mainstream in America today, and (b) we have a Democrat in the White House.
Remember, the angry feminists remained white-hot livid at GWB for eight years… after having given President Clinton a free pass. (In that case, it was Monica Lewinsky who was thrown under the bus. I wonder if she’s ever forgiven them.)
And by the way, don’t think for a moment that the radical Muslims are not racist. (Remember the Arabic-language cartoons of Condoleezza Rice?)
There may be good reasons for the West to treat radical Muslims as allies — although frankly, I can’t think of any — but shared values are not among them.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline