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Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Congrats, America
I'm in full agreement with Chief Justice John Roberts: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
Despite the racism bound up in its history, I firmly believe that America is ready to follow that prescription.
The fact that a black man has been chosen as the presidential nominee of a major party is not, by itself, any reason to vote for him. Likewise, there are many reasons why I won't vote for that particular man; his skin color isn't one.
But I congratulate America over what this data point reveals and confirms. Obama's nomination conclusively proves that Rev. Wright is wrong about America, and that Wright is in fact a relic of the history that has passed him (and other racists) by.
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UPDATE (Wed Jun 4 @ 11:00am): One of the least perceptive articles on politics I've ever read, written by The New Republic's senior editor John P. Judis, concludes with this paragraph:
In the end, though, Obama faces hurdles at least as great as those that Kennedy faced. Kennedy never fully overcame anti-Catholic prejudice during his campaign. It was only in the aftermath of his victory that the country fully accepted a Catholic politician as an ordinary American politician. In November, Obama may lose far more than he gains from the sheer fact of his being an African American. If, in October, the country is still discussing Obama's relationship to Reverend Wright and not the Republican record on the economy and foreign policy, he is likely to suffer defeat — not as decisively, certainly, as Al Smith did, but defeat nonetheless.
If, in October, the country is still discussing Obama's relationship to Reverend Wright, that will mean that the country rejects black-on-white racism, which in Wright's case is mixed with healthy portions of conspiracy-theory nuttiness and plain old anti-Americanism. One need not be white, nor racist, to take offense at Wright's rants; indeed, they offend as many black Americans as they do Americans of any other race, and they ought to have offended the Obama family before they hit You-Tube (which is the whole point). And those problems are particular to Obama and Wright — they're not something that would afflict all black candidates. Only an utter dimwit could interpret Obama's political problems arising from his relationship with Wright as evidencing widespread traditional white-on-black racism of the sort that was still widespread in, say, 1960.
Posted by Beldar at 04:39 AM in 2008 Election, Obama, Politics (2008) | Permalink
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Comments
(1) HardHeadedWoman made the following comment | Jun 4, 2008 9:28:40 AM | Permalink
I'm afraid the only way we will prove that we're not racist is if we elect Obama. And that won't really be enough. Only when all of Congress is "black" and "whites" allow themselves to be dominated and enslaved will America be considered to be non-racist because, of course, no matter what they say or do it isn't possible for blacks to be racist. Race baiting Donks aren't EVER going to give up any point of victimhood or anything else that will show the world know how truly horrible America is.
(2) hunter made the following comment | Jun 4, 2008 11:52:58 AM | Permalink
Now if only the candidate was not tied so deeply for his adult life to the Wrights, Ayers, Pflagers, Farrakhans, etc.
(3) Gregory Koster made the following comment | Jun 4, 2008 1:26:59 PM | Permalink
Dear Mr. Dyer: To the common sense of HardHeadedWoman, I would add that it is too early to congratulate ourselves that nominating Obama proves the nation has risen above racism. That day will come when a black candidate is running well ahead in the polls, and then the YouTube clip of the candidate's "spiritual advisor," a ranter in the manner of Wright, comes out and the black candidate's candidacy blows up. Then we will know that there is one set of rules for everyone, instead of the present system of not-quite-blackmail, an eternal Original Sin that can never be expunged except for a privileged class.
In any case, that this even comes up in such perilous times is a poor sign. You need only watch what is happening in Eurabia, with its not-so-slow motion surrender, then consider that everything Obama stands for would abet this surrender in the United States. Do that, and the hollowness of the grievance crowd and its off-the-shelf persecutions becomes evident.
Hold your nose and vote for the grumpy old man.
Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster
(4) Tony made the following comment | Jun 5, 2008 6:52:20 AM | Permalink
Obama's win has caused me to reflect on my own upbringing and the fact that I am slowly becoming aware of the fact that I've never truly been able to bond with the "Nation" of my birth. I left the U.S. in the early 60's, was raised overseas as an "Oil Brat" and never really wanted to return. I think my experience of America, even before that was severely colored by my mother's dissilusionment with the experience which I beleive she "inherited" from my grandfather who served in WWI. He was sorely disillusioned by the FDR experience and bemoaned the slide he saw the country taking into an emerging Socialist State and a society which was abandonning the stalwart pioneer attitudes while adopting an attitude of expecting the bailout or handout from Uncle Sam.
All of that said, I guess the reason I got to thinking along those lines is because (and this isn't an intellectual argument), Obama's win has only contributed to my growing feeling of loss, while all the while unsure of what it is I feel we/I have lost. That sense of loss doesn't stem from his being Black, but rather from the awareness that he isn't the "best" Black, that this system doesn't attract and promote the best of the best, the brightest of the bright. And that's not to say he isn't bright or among the best, but rather to say that there's an Elmer Gantry feel to the guy. Most of those who support him know very little about him and can't articulate reasoned, grounded policy arguments for their support. I sense that most who do support him fall in the same vein as those my grandfather saw fawning over FDR, they yearn for the freebie. "Free" gov't healthcare for all, etc. And as this society pursues this sort of solution to it's problems, it does so while ignoring the fact that for so many other reasons such as the open borders policy pursued by both Partys, Globalization, etc., for many of us I suspect, theres a loss of a sense of "place". Not in the sense that we've lost our place in the society but rather a feeling that the U.S. isn't "our" place, or a "home" place for us or our children anymore. It's come more to resemble a Greyhound Bus station populated by transients ever on the move through it.
Vote for the Grumpy old Man? To what end if we have no place to truly call home?
(5) Bewlidered made the following comment | Jun 6, 2008 10:57:19 PM | Permalink
Conservatives have no one to vote for. All that is offered is global warming liberal idiots, Marxist, amnesty hawks and self acknowledged boneheads. Loved by wannabes who have no love for America. Astounding!
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