Monday, October 27, 2008

"Racy Content"

I don't know about you, but I am pretty darn tired of being called a racist for not wanting Obama anywhere near the White House. As I have said about a gazillion times, it is just as racist to vote for someone BECAUSE of their skin color as it is to vote against them because of their skin color. In Obama's case, it has nothing to do with the color of his skin at all. It is because I think he is horribly inexperienced, a liar, a fraud, pals around with dangerous associates, has an ideology with which I completely disagree (you know, Paternalistic Socialism with a heavy dose of Nation of Islam-like attitude - just ask Rev. Wright), and is a major freakin' misogynistic homophobe. That pretty much rules him out in my book. But that's just me.

And apparently, Jonah Goldberg, who also doesn't appreciate the frequent, no, RAMPANT use of the race card by the Obama Campaign and the DNC, as evidenced by this article, Racy Content
This? Racist! That? Racist!
. Goldberg makes some mighty good points in this article, beginning here:
Transcend means “to move beyond, to surpass.” At least that’s what I always thought. But I’m beginning to wonder whether it means instead: “Much, much more of the same, only this time really stupid.”

Exhibit A: the incessant, relentless, click-your-ruby-red-slippers-and-say-it-until-it-comes-true mantra that Barack Obama will magically cause America to “transcend race.” One hears and reads this everywhere, but less as an argument than as a prayer, an expression of faith, a “from my lips to The One’s ear” sort of thing.

It is, of course, total and complete nonsense. According to L.B.O. (Logic Before Obama), transcending race would involve making race less of an issue. Passengers on Spaceship Obama would see race shrink and then vanish in the rearview mirror.

Instead, Obama has set off a case of full-blown race dementia among precisely the crowd that swears Obama is leading us out of the racial wilderness. Rather than shrink, the tumor of racial paranoia is metastasizing, pressing down on the medulla oblongata or whatever part of the brain that, when poked, causes one to hallucinate, conjure false memories and write astoundingly insipid things. For instance, a writer for Slate sees racism when anyone notes that Barack Obama is — wait for it — skinny. What this portends for Fat Albert is above my pay grade.

OHMYGOSH - how much do you love, "LBO"?? It is SO true, though, isn't it? Our whole vocabulary has been redifined as a result of Obama:
We need to rewrite those old Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, because now virtually any adjective, noun, verb, or adverb aimed at Barack Obama that is not obsequiously sycophantic or wantonly worshipful runs the risk of being decried as racist. Community organizer? Racist! Mentioning his middle name? Racist! Arrogant? Racist! Palling around with a (white) terrorist? Racist! Celebrity? Racist! Cosmopolitan? Racist! This? Racist! That? Racist! The other thing? Oh man, that’s really racist.

The new Schoolhouse Rock cartoon: “Conjunction: a word that connects a racist attack and Barack Obama.”

Oh, perfect - I can just see that new "Conjunction Junction" piece right now. Anyone who disagrees will be yelled at, threatened, and called a racist over and over and over until they acquiesce. Perfect! Or, maybe it will go something more like this:
This week, an editorial writer for the Kansas City Star denounced John McCain and Sarah Palin for suggesting that Obama is a socialist because he wants to “spread the wealth around.” Don’t they understand that “socialist” has always been a racist codeword used by bigots like J. Edgar Hoover to demonize black activists like W.E.B. Du Bois?

A couple problems: First, as best I can remember, Marx, Engels, Lenin, George Bernard Shaw, Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas, and Michael Harrington do not usually get a lot of attention during Black History Month. Second, as writer Michael Moynihan recently noted, Du Bois wasn’t merely a socialist, he was a Stalinist! (Du Bois was not entirely unsympathetic to the Nazis, either.) Besides, when did “socialist” stop being an anti-Semitic codeword for Jew? Maybe when the left started going batty over “neocons.” But that’s a story for another day.

Now, just hold the damn phone. How in the HELL can anyone claim that correctly acknowledging one's political ideology, in this case, socialism, is RACIST??? Well, holy crap - all those times my buddies at Union and I joked about how we just CANNOT play Monopoly (we kept giving each other houses, money, whatever was needed) because we were socialists we were being RACIST!! Wowie zowie. Ahem. Really, this kind of BS has just gone way, way, WAY too far.

As is the idea that Obama will "transcend" anything, except morals, ethics, and common sense, but especially race:
The idea that Obama was ever really about transcending race flies completely in the face of his own writings. The overarching theme of his book Dreams From My Father is the story of (a) man who found it impossible to transcend race and instead explicitly chose to have a racial identity when he didn’t have to (he describes fellow multiracial students he met in college as sellouts). He then joined a black church whose theology is shot-through with black nationalism and whose longtime pastor believes that black brains are different from white brains.

But, yes, I know: The above paragraph reads: “Blah, blah, blah ... racist, racism, racey-race-racism.”

Now, let us actually transcend race for a moment. Apparently for Obama, “transcend” isn’t a racial term so much as a euphemism for declaring victory. He says he wants to “turn the page” on the arguments of the ’80s and ’90s, by which he means conservatives should stop clinging to their guns and antiquated Sky God and join his cause.

Well, yes, because who could not be moved by such Rainbow-y, hope-y, change-y, pretty little unicorn-y type of rhetoric like,
"they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Oh, WHERE do I sign up?!?! Obama surely does have his own lexicon:
He told Planned Parenthood he wants to stop “arguing about the same ole stuff,” by which he means he wants people who disagree with his absolute support for government-funded abortion on demand to shut up already.

He doesn’t want to argue about his pals from the Weather Underground who murdered or celebrated the murder of policemen and other Americans, he just wants everyone to agree no one should care.

In short, Obama and his disciples only demand one kind of transcendence from all Americans. We must, as Obama likes to say, unite as one people, one nation, one American family and transcend all of our misgivings about Barack Obama. Then, and only then, will The One fulfill his wife’s pledge and fix our broken souls.

Only a racist could possibly disagree.

— Jonah Goldberg is the author of Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

Apparently. You know, as a Southerner who grew up with African American classmates and friends, serving African American men in my grandmother's little country store, doing a BUNCH of anti-racism work as an adult, to then be called a "racist" because I don't support an unacceptable candidate is just a tad harsh. What I find to be racist are all of the people who support this unqualified candidate ONLY because of his skin-color, who refuse to hold him to the same standards as anyone else, and belittle those who try. THAT, folks, is racism, in my humble opinion, of course. But hey - it's a whole new dictionary now, right??

2 comments:

Travelingman Rick said...

And Sarah and John are such warm and fuzzy gay rights supporters? Now that is a laugh riot. Sarah goes to a church that believes in "Praying away the Gay" and good old Johnny boy is right there with her.

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy said...

And Obama hangs out with people who believe they, themselves, have had the gay prayed away, like Donnie McClurkin. Not to mention his great buddy, Rev. James Meeks, the anti-gay activist (and BONUS - he is also opposed to the separation of church and state, working with James Dobson to eradicate it. Gee - wonder why Obama wants to INCREASE the Faith-based initiatives we had opposed in the first place?). Fact is, Obama has the EXACT same stance on same sex marriage. McCain has stood up for his gay friends. Obama won't even have his photo taken with a straight man because of his support of same sex marriage (that would be Gavin Newsome).

Do you Obama supporters EVER do any research, or is faux outrage sufficient for you?