![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The End of My Rope.
Oct. 28th, 2008 09:08 amSeriously, this is it.
Up until now, I've been able to rationalize a lot about McCain supporters. If someone is hard-core about overturning Roe v. Wade, they're going to vote for McCain. If someone REALLY doesn't believe in the idea of social services provided by the government, they're going to vote for McCain. If someone believes that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, and that Iraq is going spectacularly, they're going to vote for McCain.
In all three cases (and many more besides), I think they're wrong, misinformed or possibly stoned, but those valid philosophical differences, which I will be (and have been) happy to debate until the cows come home. That is, in fact, what democracy is all about, and why it's such a good political system.
However, even I have my limits, and this "Obama Hates The CONSTITUTION!" one (which I wrote about here) is one of them.
The Founders encoded slavery into the national DNA when they allowed it to continue. Given the situation, the fact that it would have provoked the Civil War 78 years early in a country that was already beaten up by the Revolutionary War, that Britain was ready to swoop in and take advantage of any disunity, I'm not sure they had any other practical choice at that point, but that doesn't change the fact that a huge segment of the population was declared to be less than human in our Founding Document.
(BTW, if I may make an aside for a historical pet peeve, the people who were arguing for the 3/5 Compromise were actually the good guys: the Southern states wanted each slave to be counted as a whole person when it came to Federal accounting for Representatives and tax distribution purposes, but as cattle when it came to, you know, basic civil and human rights. The Northern states said, hey, if you're treating them as pack animals, you don't get to put them in your population counts, but that was a deal-breaker for the South.)
Race relations as they stand today are a direct descendant of that flaw. Yes, the 14th amendment took care of the compromise; yes, the Civil Rights movement addressed Jim Crow and segregation; yes, things have gotten a lot better; and yes, a black man has a very good chance to be the next President, but that doesn't make what happened before right or just, or that things are 100% peachy today.
And Barack Obama said as much.
So now the Right is screaming and fainting and clutching at their collective throat at the idea of Obama saying that the Constitution had a "fatal flaw," and that the repercussions of said flaw echo down to today.
I am befoggled that they're trying to turn this into a controversy. I hardly even know what to say.
They're not arguing against Obama, they're arguing against the caricature they've built up in their heads of the SCARY MARXIST MUSLIM BLACK TERRORIST. I hesitate to use the "R" word, because I think it gets bandied about far too much, but in this case, I think that the folks who've grabbed onto this one are either racist or opportunistic. They're so terrified of a black President that they'll use anything, anything at all to try and bring him down.
Ever run into a racist person who thinks that black people have nothing to complain about in the US, while also being afraid of black people being in charge because they'll take "revenge?"
Yeah. It's like that.
I've talked to conservatives who refuse to read Obama's position papers, who won't listen to any of his speeches, because "He's just lying! They're worthless!" They're scared of having a black President, they won't listen to any information except that which backs up their preconceived notions that Barack Obama is BAD for the country. They won't admit that they're afraid of a black President, so they oppose him because he's a baby-killing, Constitution-hating traitor who will turn the US over to... well, I'm not exactly sure to whom, for all that I've been listening to Hannity and Limbaugh, I haven't figured that out yet.
And let me be clear: I'm not saying that opposing Obama makes someone a racist. As I said before, lots of people have valid philosophical differences with the man and race doesn't ever enter into it.
But seriously, when all someone is running with is the SCARY MUSLIM MARXIST INFANTICIDAL TERRORIST crap, well, that's when I have to start to wonder.
Up until now, I've been able to rationalize a lot about McCain supporters. If someone is hard-core about overturning Roe v. Wade, they're going to vote for McCain. If someone REALLY doesn't believe in the idea of social services provided by the government, they're going to vote for McCain. If someone believes that Saddam Hussein had WMDs, and that Iraq is going spectacularly, they're going to vote for McCain.
In all three cases (and many more besides), I think they're wrong, misinformed or possibly stoned, but those valid philosophical differences, which I will be (and have been) happy to debate until the cows come home. That is, in fact, what democracy is all about, and why it's such a good political system.
However, even I have my limits, and this "Obama Hates The CONSTITUTION!" one (which I wrote about here) is one of them.
The Founders encoded slavery into the national DNA when they allowed it to continue. Given the situation, the fact that it would have provoked the Civil War 78 years early in a country that was already beaten up by the Revolutionary War, that Britain was ready to swoop in and take advantage of any disunity, I'm not sure they had any other practical choice at that point, but that doesn't change the fact that a huge segment of the population was declared to be less than human in our Founding Document.
(BTW, if I may make an aside for a historical pet peeve, the people who were arguing for the 3/5 Compromise were actually the good guys: the Southern states wanted each slave to be counted as a whole person when it came to Federal accounting for Representatives and tax distribution purposes, but as cattle when it came to, you know, basic civil and human rights. The Northern states said, hey, if you're treating them as pack animals, you don't get to put them in your population counts, but that was a deal-breaker for the South.)
Race relations as they stand today are a direct descendant of that flaw. Yes, the 14th amendment took care of the compromise; yes, the Civil Rights movement addressed Jim Crow and segregation; yes, things have gotten a lot better; and yes, a black man has a very good chance to be the next President, but that doesn't make what happened before right or just, or that things are 100% peachy today.
And Barack Obama said as much.
So now the Right is screaming and fainting and clutching at their collective throat at the idea of Obama saying that the Constitution had a "fatal flaw," and that the repercussions of said flaw echo down to today.
I am befoggled that they're trying to turn this into a controversy. I hardly even know what to say.
They're not arguing against Obama, they're arguing against the caricature they've built up in their heads of the SCARY MARXIST MUSLIM BLACK TERRORIST. I hesitate to use the "R" word, because I think it gets bandied about far too much, but in this case, I think that the folks who've grabbed onto this one are either racist or opportunistic. They're so terrified of a black President that they'll use anything, anything at all to try and bring him down.
Ever run into a racist person who thinks that black people have nothing to complain about in the US, while also being afraid of black people being in charge because they'll take "revenge?"
Yeah. It's like that.
I've talked to conservatives who refuse to read Obama's position papers, who won't listen to any of his speeches, because "He's just lying! They're worthless!" They're scared of having a black President, they won't listen to any information except that which backs up their preconceived notions that Barack Obama is BAD for the country. They won't admit that they're afraid of a black President, so they oppose him because he's a baby-killing, Constitution-hating traitor who will turn the US over to... well, I'm not exactly sure to whom, for all that I've been listening to Hannity and Limbaugh, I haven't figured that out yet.
And let me be clear: I'm not saying that opposing Obama makes someone a racist. As I said before, lots of people have valid philosophical differences with the man and race doesn't ever enter into it.
But seriously, when all someone is running with is the SCARY MUSLIM MARXIST INFANTICIDAL TERRORIST crap, well, that's when I have to start to wonder.
