rssThe Divide That United
Friday, October 31, 2008 at 6:44 pm
- 14 Comments
Sen. Barack Obama (WDCpix)
As this election draws to a close, a strange and wonderful thing is happening with hardly a being word said about it: racism is losing. To celebrate this fact might feel like assuming an Obama victory, but this is about another sort of victory.
Sen. John McCain was once considered an honorable man, a maverick even, but clearly not so upstanding as to resist mounting The Last Republican Campaign. Again. We have seen it many times — whether attributed to Richard M. Nixon, Lee Atwater or Karl Rove. It relies not just on “culture wars,” “wedge issues” and “the base.” It relies on racism. And it usually wins. Well, to coin a phrase, not this time.
Illustration by: Matt Mahurin
Since the Republican National Convention, the McCain-Palin ticket has hurled or endorsed the following “epithets” at Sen. Barack Obama to highlight his otherness: Muslim, terrorist, socialist, (sneer first) community organizer, elitist.
Frustrated that the polls keep moving away from them, the Republicans question whether tens of millions of Obama supporters with Big City addresses are “real” Americans. Their nationally televised white pride moments are revealing. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin considers “redneck” a compliment.
Yet for all the macho, moose-killing bravado of these labels, none was said to the man’s face — as must be done in those sections of New York where Humphrey Bogart once advised the Nazis not to try to invade. No, the campaign of verbal violence has uttered these pearls for the supposed electoral swine who would know the codes and dive into the mud after them. Some have, even playing the assassination card (“Kill him!”). For the party that reduces racial matters to a card game, stacking the deck with insults, innuendo and blatant division has not met with much success.
Why not? Other than time and sanity, two things happened to rescue the apparent self-interest of a majority of Americans polled: the calamitous presidency of George W. Bush and the death of the American dream of credit consumption—as in garage sales, foreclosures and the end of consumer life as we knew it.
Obama might have won with only the first. The second — and McCain’s initial unresponsive response to it — makes it probable. Why? Because the previous Republican campaigns succeeded by stoking people’s “artificial differences,” as Jesse Jackson once put it. That old okey-doke can’t survive this much time or this much crisis. Americans have seen their self-interest, and he’s the skinny black guy with the six-minute answers.
What this means for racism is different than we thought. We thought if racist campaigns would be undone, if racist tactics occurred and were beaten back, it would be by Obama and his team. After all, he’s a self-described “unifier.”
Well, it turns out there may be an even greater unifying force than a unifier: dividers. The McCain-Palin campaign has hauled out the racial tropes, codes and one-liners like an incredulous comic mad at his audience for not getting it. Other than telling falsehoods, division is their most consistent act.
Sure, there are millions who find this stuff entertaining. But week after week, both national polls and the more granular kind tell us, amazingly, that the people to whom ignorance sells is a shrinking minority. That doesn’t mean ignorance doesn’t exist. It means it’s become unreliable. Face it, the jokes just aren’t funny anymore.
Racism is losing.
In any event, pluralism is winning, and the McCain campaign has shown almost a contempt for pluralism. The burden for social change need not always be on the presence of a unifier. Sometimes it’s the absence of antagonistic ideology and the simplistic rhetoric of massive resisters that creates room for change.
First the dividers must go. Then maybe we can all talk again. Maybe the election will help make certain things less spectacular and render others obvious. Maybe we can speak of our interests; re-examine our history in order to undo it, and plan for shared equity. It’s clear we need it.
My personal hope is the GOP campaign orthodoxy, as set down by Rove, will lose so soundly that Republicans will forever remember the “McCain ‘08” strategy in which they tried every last divisive trick against “That One.” They pulled all the goodies off the shelf one more time — including the repugnant appeal to sexuality, faux-feminism, faux-populism and vulgar mediocrity entangled in the Palin pick — only to find that, to a trick, they failed. And failed so miserably that no one will ever again want to put them back in play.
But let’s accept it for what it is. This is only a presidential campaign; and racism in the United States runs deep, through many more institutions and even many more minds. If we’re honest, we will admit that we are still learning the lessons of Katrina, let alone correcting them, before we can claim victory over racism itself.
But this election is truly remarkable. My hope is that people who dare to even sound like McCain, Palin or any of the hate-mongers they employ will, in future, be recognized as somebody to avoid.
Perhaps we thought Obama himself would be “the one” to do it, because he dared to try. Back in March, in Philly and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. That was something, but not quite what it means to hear others like former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell stand up for the undefended Muslims and say, in effect, “How dare you! They are us, and we are them.” It was only a gesture of decency and remembrance. But translate that into policy and you may see half the battle won.
Or maybe Obama, despite his campaign silence on that issue, is readying us for something special after all. Maybe he is teaching us a way do this race thing a little differently than we’ve been doing it. By first leading us to our shared needs and aspirations. By leaving no one out. By then understanding racial inclusion as an aspect of citizenship.
Maybe, in the absence of haters and their lexicon, we are not quite as far apart as we figured. If Obama wins, maybe we’ll see what life is like with competent agency heads pursuing laws that all along have required equality in their administration — but rarely got past the politics involved. It will be different.
Of course, if it happens, it will happen amid painful scarcity, war and high economic anxiety — just the sort of conditions that have always made social change difficult. But that is where we are. Nothing but a little greatness is required of us all.
David Dante Troutt is a professor of law at Rutgers University. His most recent books are “The Importance of Being Dangerous” and After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina.” He can be read at daviddantetroutt.com.
14 Comments
Comment posted October 31, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Living here, in Australia, and watching various american news networks – I get the feeling that there is a lot of hate out there. You see, we do get Fox, and it is a viscious thing, especially Hannity. So maybe this article was written with the right intentions, but you have millions watching that garbage. How do you overcome that! Fox should not be able to be on the air, just because it is a 'hate crime' network. But with your stupid translation of the 1st ammendment Fox will be around spouting its hate for millenia – this cannot be helpful. Oh, and I forgot those wonderful right wing radio shows! How is it that they grow in number and followers?
Comment posted November 1, 2008 @ 3:01 am
The US used to have something called the “Fairness Doctrine”, upheld by the Federal Communications Commission, that said that viewpoints had to be told from both sides. I will admit that I've never researched the doctrine, but that's what I understand that it meant. So in the case of Hannity, or Rush Limbaugh, they couldn't blare their crap without a liberal being able to blare his crap, too. At some point the doctrine was eliminated which gave rise to the uncontrolled right wing radio and TV programs and only poor little Air America as, generally, the only left wing outlet. Limbaugh supposedly has 20 million listeners, I have no idea how well Air America does. Unless they bring back the Fairness Doctrine, there's not a lot that can be done about FOX News, Hannity, and Limbaugh, what with the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, except just not listening to them.
Comment posted November 1, 2008 @ 7:25 am
what you say is very true concerning fox, hannity et. al. and it is encouraging to know that people beyond our borders see them for who they are.but do not fail to also see the majority of our citizens whom are rejecting their hateful rhetoric en masse and are creating a ground swell of epic size in support of Obama. this has been the most fascinating election i have ever witnessed due to the support that Obama has garnered and to witness the self destruction of a campaign based on division and cloaked racism.
Comment posted November 1, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
The racial appeals bubble beneath the surface, mostly among the base, but sometimes they rise up to startle the rest of us.
The viral email I got earlier this week was especially notable for the false witness it contained and for the way it introduced, as is too usual these days, the issue of race.
So I wrote a reply posted here.
Comment posted November 2, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
I'm Sick and tired of hearing Obama compare John McCain to that of George Bush. Well here is a new one for Obama, should McCain wish to use it wisely:
NEW SLOGAN:
“A Vote for Obama is a Vote for Hugo Chavez – philosophy of government.”
We all know when Chavez preached “CHANGE & REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH”.
Well the true finally was exposed, and it was Socialism followed by a terrified Riot &
Civil Up-Roar in the country of Venezuela. As the Dictator also tried to change the Constitution for his gain, and was followed by high inflation, bankrupt economy, citizen jailed with the end results of Marxism / Socialism.
Hum does that speech reminds you of someone? However; Obama & Biden tells us is the “PETRIOTIC THING DO!”
And, if that wasn't enough – to add the insult to an injury Chavez goes on a kissing/hugging quest to Cuba uniting with Fidel Castro, Iran under the Terrorist & Nuclear watch, and building an army to joint forces with Russia, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and others.
Yet again, Obama has no reservation as he stated he will go to these countries, sit with them, and have a dialog the same.
Supporters of Barack Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FPoK1Oqh_Y
Dear Mr. Obama: Who Are You?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16aBNduAyQ4
Of course not before manipulating, and dominating the news media and journalist just like a Communist country does.
Mark my words people if Obama wins; what's to come after the election is nothing short of chaos in a epic level that we have never seen in the history of the United Stated of America. God forbid if you or any of your love ones ever becomes prosperous. You will be demonized as I'm sure the Democrats will find a way to stick it to you on more taxes to give the undeserved.
Gaddafi: Obama is a Muslim – Foreign Donations to the Obama Campaign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSemkPChvHo
I hope, that you all heed this message with great importance, and I pray for all as well for this dear Country of Ours that we have been blessed so much as we have supported others around the world and ours the same.
What would our forth fathers say today if they were alive? Because we have today, a failed education system how can this generation know what to vote for? But, that remains to be seen, and for the All Mighty to reveal the same on his own good time. We will be weighted/judged as parents, and citizens the same for our social output for this future society. As, all citizens go out to the vote at their respective region for their own reasons; we must remember that what we sow will well reap!
PS.: On Oct 24th 2008. We all knew that the majority of the early voters were Democrats, flocked, and crowded the polling places that you would think they were having a CUMBAYA PARTY along with a few other democrat mixtures – you don't need to take my word for it – just go to the polling places and see for your selves. It is call antagonizing, and bottle necking the line for others in hope that Republicans won’t vote or don’t have the chance to vote.
As the democrats, and the liberal media were preaching that Obama was leading by 2 to 5 points when they know that these early prediction polls were false and unproven.
However; assuming that were true than the democrats for Obama’s campaign are still in trouble, and the Obama's campaign know this. The reason is this, if the race is still close as the news media says they are; what will the Obama’s campaign do after their exhaustion of their supporters in their early polls? I tell you, that's when the real voters for McCain will be out in full force, and will out-vote the democrats in the last 3 to 2 days of the early voting; not to mention on November, Tuesday 4th with pay back interest.
Nothing, would be pleasing than hearing those in charge of polling predictions retract their comments from their false premature reports as they too are in business of making money for supplying predictions to the mainstream liberal Media.
On Oct 24th 2008. Honestly, do you think that Republican voters would enjoy standing in the early voting places waiting 3 to 6 + hours rubbing faces with their counterparts? Do you think the predictors of early voting have called you for a Survey? Yet there are several millions of Republican voters waiting to cast their votes, but the mainstream media calls them un-deciders, and if not better Independents in which I respect them the same. But, many of us don’t have the same luxury on going to an early voting as democrats or welfare democrats do, as we have to work to pay our bills & taxes so the Democrats can tax us some more, and give to the undeserved. Like that of Obama's aunt who was living in the United States illegally. Obama's aunt had been instructed to leave the country four years ago by an immigration judge who rejected her request for asylum from her native Kenya. The woman, Zeituni Onyango is living in public housing in Boston and is the half-sister of Obama's and yes with our tax dollars, and making money contribution to Obama’s campaign with tax payer’s money. Oh that I also forgot to mention that she is not even a citizen of the United States which makes it illegal to do so. Go figure!
KNOW YOU’R MATH PEOPLE… IS THERE… THE DEVIL IS CONING AND FULL OF DECEPTIONS… TO THE LEFT MEDIA I SAY THIS “PLEASE BE REALISTIC!” ITS NOT OVER UNTILL THE FAT LADY SINGS…
Respectfully your,
Joseph Zakaria /. Country First and for McCain & Palin 2008
Reported Oct. 25th, 2008
Here's a little experiment for you; next time you go out to eat, tell the waiter you are going to tip at 30%, but you are going to give his/her tip to the homeless person outside. Be sure to do it. You will find that a) your service will be abominable, you may find spit or worse, in your food, and you may be humiliated by the server who may announce quite loudly that your card has come back as STOLEN, and b) the homeless person will still be homeless. Redistribution just makes your own life sucks, and doesn't improve anyone else’s. The one earning the money (the server) should get the money and the one who sits on his butt all day shouldn't.
The right kind of redistribution is this: the server gets the tip, and after work, goes to the mall where he buys a new pair of MK's and a guitar hero, sending $$$ into the economy, so more goods are manufactured and more services are needed and more people are
employed, paid and in turn, pay taxes on their income.
We would never have been in this mess in the first place if we hadn't legalized the annihilation of the greatest consumer class the world has every known: the American baby. They are greedy little consumers, they use stuff up every day. Diapers, food, clothes, shoes, toys. They grow and change and consume more and more. It's the law of supply and demand. Babies are extremely demanding consumers. Walmart was built on
the back of the American baby. It's a ridiculously lucrative demographic.
Dear Mr. Obama II : Economics 101
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM3Ls8NNc5Q
If they want “CHANGE & REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH” they can do themself
a favor, and buy a copy of the movie Doctor Zhivago (1965). It covers the years prior to, during, and after the Russian Revolution, as seen through the eyes of poet/physician Yuri Zhivago. You can click the link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Zhivago-Two-Disc-S…
Aagain I pray for all as well for this dear Country of Ours, and for our Troops here, and over seas who fight to protect what is dear to us, and that is our Freedon that we have in this country of ours.
Dear Mr. Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4fe9GlWS8
Comment posted November 7, 2008 @ 7:47 pm
Well, it is the 8th november here, and we know the outcome now. Thankyou for replying to my letter. It is nice to sometimes get recognition – for at times one gets to thinking one is talking to oneself. Congratulations on your truly perfect President-elect. There were parties all over Australia when the vote came in. Yours, Sue.
Comment posted January 30, 2009 @ 3:28 pm
Nice post. Have bookmarked your blog and will be sure to come back soon!
Comment posted September 1, 2010 @ 9:25 am
Also hampering the agency’s ability to enforce is the fact that it operates on what [lawyer Marcus] Owens calls “tax time.” Any investigation comes after an organization has filed a tax return. Nonprofits are often granted two three-month extensions before they file, meaning most returns showing campaign spending this fall will come about a year after the election.
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