On "Race and Circuses"

The petty and absurd manner in which the "racism" charge has been used recently, virtually proves its "descendant" position in American politics. Still, it has the ability to inflame, arouse passions and degrade all those involved. It needs to stop. It has reached the point where I have become sympathetic toward the president on the issue. With "supporters" like Jimmy Carter, who needs enemies?

This is not to say the president has not brought a lot of this upon himself, because he most definitely has. He began his administration by letting the supercilious Attorney General, Eric Holder, toss out his "nation of cowards" charge. It was a stunning and stupid remark, regardless of Holder's so called intent. The reaction was muted because a very popular man had just been inaugurated and most wanted to give him the benefit of all doubts. Obama's various speeches abroad were also not helpful, although they had the "virtue" of at least being consistent with his known ideology.

The Henry Gates affair was a disaster. One could say Obama had a "Joe Wilson" moment. It is hard to believe that Wilson did not say what he said purposely for political gain. Despite what Democrats would have us believe, Wilson is not exactly the first Congressman to practice indecorous presidential politics. So let's not pretend to be "shocked, shocked" by his comment. Still, it was an irritating and amateur stunt.

Obama's comments regarding Gate's arrest, at the end of a press conference on health care, were planned, scripted and also irritating. The White House admitted it knew the question was to be asked and admitted it planned for its answer. How the president could believe his transparently biased comments would be blithely accepted by most Americans is puzzling. The clear and heart felt disagreement by black members of the Cambridge police force simply drove this point home. The president backed off on his position, although not enough.

Then there is Van Jones. Putting aside the absurd idea of having a "green jobs czar", how do you put an attention seeking self promoter like Jones into any visible position? So when Jones' opinions about Bush's secret involvement in the 9/11 attacks and "white environmentalists" purposely poisoning "communities of color" surface, it is, as they say, "not helpful".

So, it is fair to conclude that President Obama has not been as good as he could have been on issues regarding race. However, he is the president of the United States, not the "black" president of the United States. His job is not to solve all residual racial issues in America, no more at least than if he were John McCain or George Bush. He also does not need a bunch of white sanctimonious losers rushing to his "defense" every time some one disagrees with him. This is degrading to him and degrading to the country.

Former President Carter is particularly odious and shameless. He still looks like the tightly wound repressed peanut farmer telling Playboy Magazine in 1976 that he committed "adultery" in his heart. Gee, that was a shocker. Similarly today, I see a tightly wound repressed former president basically confessing that he has "committed racism" in his heart. He then chooses to "project" that repressed sensibility onto other Americans. Part of me, and not that small a part, believes he is purposely making nominally "anti-racism" comments as an expression of loathing toward Obama. That is how bizarre he seems to me. This is the "subliminal" message that radiates from him, regardless of purpose or intent.

Politics, like all competitive activities with high stakes, is a tough game. It involves a mixture of self interest, compromise, idealism, and "hardball". We don't expect perfection, although we seem to intuitively understand when a line is crossed. Obama has been accused of "letting" these surrogates play the race card. If he thought it would benefit him politically, I am sure he would and perhaps he is. What else is new? If true, this would be, to a point, within the acceptable limits of democratic (small "d") politics.

But this is not helping him and has the potential to get worse. Further, Carter's extremely disturbed comments have crossed a boundary and cannot be permitted to go unanswered. At this point, Obama really does need to put an end to it as he is the only one who can do it. But he has to do it in a way that does not drag the issue out interminably. As mentioned, he has not been particularly good at this so far. But everyone learns. It does not have to be a big deal. He can slip it in during one of his 5 scheduled appearances on this Sunday's talk shows. If and when he does comment, it will engender a media circus for a few days, then go away.

That's life, but I am sure we can handle it. We then can return to our regularly scheduled political programming of radically disagreeing with each other, the good old fashioned American way.

Comments

[tek104]

Jimmy Carter is setting up Obama. Carter is tired of being the consensus "worst president in living memory." He wants to pass the torch to the new guy, who just might end up being a bigger joke than Carter ever was.

[Harvard Delenda Est]

The below link will shed some light on cracker carter's internal dialog. Scratch a color obsessed race baiter and you generally find a crypto-racist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w4xjcRzqts

[Melvin]

After seeing the signs at the teabagger rally last weekend, how can any sane person say there is racism involved?

[Melvin]

I meant to say, how can any sane person say racism is not involved?

[Michelle]

Although most of the people that oppose the president are doing so based on his policies, the ugly signs displayed last Saturday, prove that there is a sizable minority motivated by racism.

[Samantha]

Republican politicians need to speak up against the racist mouthpieces like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Yeah, their side is getting a lot of attention now, but ultimately Rush and Glenn are going to lead them off a cliff, and into a lifetime as the minority party.

[Mike Rulle]

There are some comments which state the resistance to Barack Obama is based on race. This seems implausible to me. Race and ethnic centered politics have existed for a long time and will continue to exist for a long time. But it is ideology which has been and will always be the stronger force. We tend to get caught up in the politics of the moment and forget the politics of yesterday. Was resistance against Bush "anti-Texan" or "anti-Patrician"; was resistance against Clinton "anti-Southern White"? Maybe partly, but they are side shows. Most people will support any person or any party they see as promoting their interests.

[jon]

It would be very refreshing to hear conservative news outlets or bloggers (such as you Mike) give credit to Obama for how he handles the issue. Its funny how you get right wing pundits going nuts over how racism is brought up, but seldom do they counter that, hey, the president actually agrees with us on this, and maybe we should give him credit once in a while. Race is a very sensitive issue with every single African American, and for him to brush it under the rug as irrelevant was noble I think.

It's amazing how outlets like Fox and talk radio refuse to give Obama credit for anything. I think he made an excellent point on Sunday, which was that the media just needs to shut up about this. If Carter was such a joke of a president, why does anyone care what he thinks about this issue?

I also find it interesting how the "you lie" comment actually helped the right wing position on the issue of healthcare. You had the president give a big speech on just this one issue, and afterwards, nobody even talks about it. Nobody would say, OK this point was valid, but I dont like that one. All they can talk about is how awful the statements were and whether or not they were fueled by racism.

The media today is an absolute joke, and that includes the "non main-stream" conservative ones. (by the way, don't you find it ironic that Fox news claims to be outside the mainstream, making them seem all renegade and pious, yet they have the most viewers out of any 24 news channel, HA)

[m2]

**Race is a very sensitive issue with every single African American, and for him to brush it under the rug as irrelevant was noble I think.**

Why? Yes, I asked ((WHY)) is race a very senstive issue with every single African American?

and to the last part of the statement quoted: "for him to brush it under the rug as irrelevant was noble I think." -- was this pre/post Rev Wright congregation participation?