Since the commentary is continuing on the apparent political damage that the Wright affair has had on the Obama campaign, let me add my own view. Obama’s appeal to whites is based on his presentation as completely “safe” and unaggressive, the opposite of the feared “black militant” that still haunts white America’s imagination. He overflows with nice in order to neutralize racial paranoia. And this is why his association with Rev. Wright has been so costly: it reignites subterranean white fears that Obama’s political style takes such great pains to allay. Context is everything. (And the lack of a corresponding context is what makes McCain’s association with frothing right wing ministers politically irrelevant.)
This has nothing to do with what you may think about the good reverend’s jeremiads, some of which I think are right on target and others bizarre. It’s about a battle of racial subtexts.
It also poses another problem for Obama down the road. Quite a few voters think he’s a Muslim, and the web rumor mill will crank this up to a fever pitch as the election approaches. The simplest rebuttal would be to emphasize his church-going, but this will remind people once more of Wright. Forget about the flag pin; Obama needs to wear a giant neon cross.
Ah, but if you are a black Christian, you can be a crypto-Muslim. After all, Rev. Wright is big pals with Louis Farrakhan, who claimes to be a Muslim, even if he holds racialist views that are viewed as heretical by most Muslims. And, Obama's opponents have made much of the Wright-Farrakhan links. So, wearing a neon cross will not save him. Probably needs to get a flag lapel pin and learn how to bowl while chugging beer.
ReplyDeleteBarkley
Isn't Obama's funding by the large multinationals far more damaging to his image?
ReplyDeleteI can't see the big firms funding a non-conformist [That is a non-capitalist, non-Christian, non-industrialist, non-moneyman, non-warmaker.]
obamma has to run two campaigns
ReplyDeletein the primary campaign he had to appeal to democratic voters where race issues are not the major issue
he has survived thed wright controversy as well as the systematifc the clinton "edge of race" baiting
in the general election we can expect to see his campaign address race by emphasizing his "black and white" image with photos of obamma and his grandparents etc
brenda,
ReplyDeleteSuch funding may be a real problem in the longer run and to astute outside observers. He will certainly be constrained if he gets elected by that and many other things, although I have no doubt he will be substantially more progressive than what we have seen in the White House for quite some time.
But from the standpoint of the US electorate such funding is not remotely the issue or problem. It is that he is this, as somebody put it on another blog, "scary black man who does not wear lapel flag pins," blah blah.
Barkley
Obama has already proven he can take a punch, so to speak. The clintons have been hurling hay-makers and he's still standing.
ReplyDeleteNow the battle will take on a new tone. McCain, contrary to many opinions, has a serious uphill battle while dragging with him the Bush legacy, thousands of dead and destined to die American troops, an apocalyptic zealot contingent (Parsley/Hagee) salivating for the war of all wars and the end of civilization as we know it.
By contrast, Obama is just the innocuous black guy who wants to bring our boys and girls home and actually dialogue with our enemies. What a horrible man he must be.
"But from the standpoint of the US electorate such funding is not remotely the issue or problem..."
ReplyDeleteFinally, some recent experience has finally enlightened me.
It's mass unconsciousness.
"The power to become habituated to his surroundings is a marked characteristic of humankind. Very few of us realise with conviction the intensely unusual, unstable, complicated, unreliable temporary nature of the economic organisation... We assume some of the most peculiar and temporary of our late advantages as natural, permanent and to be depended on, and we lay our plans accordingly..."
John Maynard Keynes
'The Economic Consequences of the Peace', 1919.
Finally, finally I will stop repeating the same word in the same paragraph over and over, ad nauseum. And then, and only then, will I stop repeating myself.
ReplyDeletebrenda,
ReplyDelete"mass unconsciousness" Yes, there has been quite a bit of this going around. Remember that in 2004 over 60% of those voting for Bush thought that Saddam Hussein had been involved in 9/11. However, these days the blinders seem to be somewhat more off, if not fully so.
Barkley