Posted by
C-Hayes on Monday, March 24, 2008 8:13:39 PM
FINALLY.
"...How 'typically white' is Obama’s grandmother? She is the woman who raised him — that’s to say, she brought up a black grandchild and loved him unconditionally....She does then, in her own flawed way, represent a post-racial America. But what of her equivalent (as Obama’s speech had it)? Is Jeremiah Wright a 'typical black person'? One would hope not. (CH: absolutely not) A century and a half after the Civil War, two generations after the Civil Rights Act, the Reverend Wright promotes victimization theses more insane than anything promulgated at the height of slavery or the Jim Crow era. You can understand why Obama is so anxious to meet with President Ahmadinejad, a man who denies the last Holocaust even as he plans the next one. Such a summit would be easy listening after the more robust sermons of Jeremiah Wright.
"But America is not Ahmadinejad’s Iran. Free societies live in truth, not in the fever swamps of Jeremiah Wright. The pastor is a fraud, a crock, a mountebank — for, if this truly were a country whose government invented a virus to kill black people, why would they leave him walking around to expose the truth?..."
"For some bizarre reason, Obama aimed his speech at winning praise from National Public Radio, the New York Times, and Harvard, and solidifying an already 90-percent solid African-American base — while apparently insulting the intelligence of everyone else.
"...The speech and Obama’s subsequent interviews neither explained his disastrous association with Wright, nor dared open up a true discussion of race — which by needs would have to include, in addition to white racism, taboo subjects ranging from disproportionate illegitimacy and drug usage to higher-than-average criminality to disturbing values espoused in rap music and unaddressed anti-Semitism. We learn now that Obama is the last person who wants to end the establishment notion that a few elite African Americans negotiate with liberal white America over the terms of grievance and entitlement — without which all of us really would be transracial persons, in which happiness and gloom hinge, and are seen to do so, on one’s own individual success or failure.
"...Somehow Obama could not just say,
There is nothing to be offered for Rev. Wright except my deepest apologies for not speaking out against his venom far earlier. We in the African-American community know better than anyone the deleterious effects of racist speech, and so it is time for Rev. Wright and myself to part company, since we have profoundly different views of both present- and future-day America.
"The more the pundits gushed about the speech, the more the average Americans thought, 'Wait a minute — did he just say what I thought he said?'"
"For many, the primary appeal of Obama's message of 'hope' and 'change' was its success in transcending the politics of race. Since the campaign's inception, Obama had successfully presented himself as a presidential candidate who happened to be black, rather than as a black presidential candidate. But by initiating yet another national dialogue on race relations, Obama has undermined his message of change and inserted himself into the middle of the most controversial area of American life - to his certain political detriment."
We can see from these examples that the Right pretty much had nothing good to say about his speech on race.
So what now? Shouldn't the Right be asking more questions? This time, though, unrelated to race?
I mean - is "race" really one of your top 5 issues this election? Top 10, even? With the war, the economy, health care, illegal immigration, education, earmarks, taxes, gun control, national security, political scandal and distrust, and "climate change" all issues that arguably come up more than "race" - how important was his speech anyway? Shouldn't the Right now move to expose Obama on what really matters?
For instance:
He will immediately begin to end the war in Iraq, regardless of the state of the war (presumably ignoring recommendations from generals on the ground) and will work to secure Iraq's borders, but not our own.
He will raise the minimum wage, undoubtedly hurting small businesses, making it more difficult for working-class Americans to find jobs and raise their families.
He will quadruple Early Head Start and increase federal funding for Head Start, a government program that already eats up close to seven billion dollars annually and has no appreciable effect on education. Of course, funding for education is going up in other areas, too - like after-school programs and bilingual education.
He wants to work with Mexico to decrease (rather than eliminate) illegal immigration. He wants "undocumented immigrants" to pay a fine and "go to the back of the line" when applying for citizenship, but says nothing of deporting them.
Mandatory health insurance for children (nanny state) - AND...get this...the option of young people up to age 25 to be covered under their parents.
The creation of a Global Energy Forum so we can talk with fellow polluters Brazil, China, India, and others about how to save the planet.
All this is off his website.
And I didn't even mention talking to Ahmadenijad and invading Pakistan!
Okay, people on the Right - the Reverend Wright backlash is over. Can we get to the real issues now? If it's an "honest discussion" Obama wants...why don't we give him one?