The Actual Racism Campaign

Throughout the two years of the Obama campaign racism regarding blacks has been a constant undercurrent. There has been some dogwhistling type from opponents and some just plainly ignorant word choices that pass as racism but at management level the opposition campaigns have done a pretty fair job of leaving black out of the equation. That doesn't mean there hasn't been racism, just the targets weren't the commonly expected ones.

Awhile ago John McCain came into some praise for telling a woman that, "No, he's not an Arab, he's a decent family man..." Now I'm not sure that it was intentional to counterpose Arab and decent, but given the McCain camp's insistence on playing the terrorist association theme I'm not confident either. That doubt was ramped up the other day with the charges by that campaign that Obama associated with a PLO spokesman and other bad things Palestinian named Rashid Khalidi. Professor Khalidi is American born (NYNY) of Arab descent and the director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. He was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation during the peace talks in the Bush I administration.

The last I checked, not giving Israel a free pass for anything it gets up to isn't anti-Semitic nor is it unpatriotic. Last I checked, Israel has not been exactly blame free in its relationship with Palestinians. And the last time I checked, despite Republican whining, getting diverse opinions on important subjects before making decisions is a good idea. But there, in one pile, is the biggest difference between the authoritarian mind set of the Republicans and actual thought. Yes, I just did accuse the Republicans of an inability to think. There is to be no diversity of thought in the Republican world, just emotional talking points predetermined for us. This is where the Pro/Anti American theme comes from, this is where calling Palin out on bullshit is an attack on the First Amendment, it is where BushCo could actually state that you were either for them or against us. An absolute crock of unmitigated ignorant jingoism put in front of the American public as, no kiddng, policy.

The mere fact of the man's name and his refusal to toe some line makes him suspect. Dare we say it? An uppity sand nigger? Understand this, ideology is one thing, this is another altogether. It is the act of despicable people in desperate circumstances brought on by their own actions. The Party of Personal Responsibility uses scapegoats left and right and is not only eating its ownself but the fabric of a nation of immigrants. Khalidi is suspect and someone for Obama to be ashamed of because he is the wrong descent. I'm trying to figure out why these people shouldn't be slapped into next week - and I don't mean figuratively. These idiots are using a national platform to paint a damn bullseye on people's backs, literally.

This is the bunker mentality that led to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII and the wholesale round up of Arab Americans post September 11. It provided the campaign theme for Mr Noun, Verb, and 9/11. It makes the fact of Arabian sufficient for large portions of the populous to believe Saddam Hussein had a hand in 9/11. It is the stupidity and xenophobia of BushCo come home to roost. Is it some kind of surprise that a theocrat like Sarah Palin cannot separate her Christianist position from the reality that Muslim is not inherently bad? In her narrow stupid world there are good Christians and everybody else and she'll pray for them as she crucifies them. The ultimate irony is that they don't want to be President/Vice of America, they want to rule in a world that exists only in their fantasies.

There is a very closed circle within many Republican's world that includes them and excludes everyone else. Us or them is the only meaningful distinction. Gay, non-Christian, non-Republican, non-white are the other, treacherous and dangerous. It isn't that liberal is a dirty word, it is code for 'the other' - change that label to progressive and it still is 'the other.' Otherness is the sin, the original sin, the one unforgivable sin. What these bigoted prigs don't realize is that in this nation of 300 plus million they are 'the other' and they are losing ground fast. That doesn't make them less dangerous, in fact it makes them more so. As the evidence of their failures piles up they will react, and the reaction will bear less semblence of reason as the evidence gets deeper. Do not expect them to go quietly into the good night.