such classy placards as, with a picture of a lion, “The Zoo has an African and the White House has a Lyin’ African;” “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy;” “We came unarmed (this time)” and “ ‘Cap’ Congress and ‘Trade’ Obama back to Kenya!”But I don't agree with President Carter that "You lie!" involved racism (at least, it didn't involve racism against Obama, as Carter suggested - whether or not it involved racism against Mexican people is another matter). And to any extent that it did, Carter was not being particularly strategic in making this charge, a point very cogently made by Michael Tomasky in the Guardian.
In our attempt to explain certain anti-Obama statements, I suspect we are led to racism in part because of a phenomenon called the "solipsism of the present moment." This is the feeling that whatever is happening right now is way more intense, way more revolutionary, way CRAZIER than anything we've ever seen before. We're appalled by what we take to be the extraordinary coarseness of political rhetoric and are driven to think there must be some extraordinary, previously unseen cause at work. To be sure, much of the "criticism" of Obama is straight-up racist, like the bits cited above, and much of the "criticism" is pretty much racist, i.e. the "birthers" movement. But a lot of it - the bulk of it - fits in with the generally ugly tone of the way we've historically talked about politics. Bush was constantly compared to Hitler. His legitimacy was constantly questioned. (Not to conflate those claims with birther claims - they're obviously not in the same ballpark - but they are the same sport.) Oh, and Andrew Jackson's wife was called a prostitute.
3 comments:
Just curious about two of your Dowd statements: “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy,” and “We came unarmed (this time).”
These are obviously nasty comments and in very poor taste, but how are they "straight-up racist?" I guess I'm missing the overtones.
You're right - I was primarily referring to the "lyin' African" one and the "back to Kenya" one.
I joined a march in Los Angeles that fell under the umbrella of "Anti-war Rally." This was early in the Iraqi war when they "definitely" had WMD's. I felt we were swinging a sledgehammer to kill a fly. I soon found myself immersed in Bush/Monkey posters, "Bush Dummy", "No Blood for Oil" and other off-message slogans.
In reading "Card Playin" and seeing town hall clips- I wonder if protest organizers can get anyone other than the nut-jobs to come out in force. On EITHER side. Pinky-biters included.
As far as Wilson's "You Lie" comment. I thought Democrats did a brilliant job of making it partisan and proving that they can be just as petty as anyone else. What's wrong with following "I'm sorry" with a gentlemanly (or ladylike) "Apology Accepted." And those that did got my respect.
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