The “Socialist” meme is really about racism
| By Doc Martin - Oct 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Evergreen Progressives |
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Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Economic Fairness & Security, Effective & Ethical Government, Consumer and Worker Protection, Media Accountability, Crime & Penal Reform, Budget Priorities, Immigration, All Network Posts: Front Page
Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Economic Fairness & Security, Effective & Ethical Government, Consumer and Worker Protection, Media Accountability, Crime & Penal Reform, Budget Priorities, Immigration, All Network Posts: Front Page
The attacks by the McCain campaign, accusing Obama of being a Socialist, sound like a reversion back to something from the 1950s. That is the way the media portrays it, as an amusing and ridiculous jab being made by a desperate campaign that is on the ropes with nothing better to offer. Even Obama's dismissive response about sharing his toys as a child seems to regard it that way.
But the attack is much more insidious and subtle than that. The fact that it is being rolled out in the last week of the campaign suggests to me that the Republicans think that this is the most powerful shot left in their arsenal, and could be the game-changer they rely on to win the election at the last minute.
As McPalin describe it, the socialist accusation is a claim that Obama will take "your" hard earned money and give it to "them." Given the demographics of the group that is being targeted with this pitch - blue collar and middle class whites - it is not hard to see who "they" are.
Just as George H.W Bush's Willie Horton ads were not about crime, and Ronald Reagan's railing on about welfare Cadillacs was not about welfare reform, this socialist line is not about economics or even ideology. Nor is it about painting Obama as outside the main stream.
It is all about stoking the residual and ill- concealed racism that remains a powerful factor in America. It is designed to evoke stereotypes of lazy, shiftless, unemployed blacks in the south and Midwest, drunk Indians in the southwest, and illegal immigrants in big sombreros sleeping in the sun, all supported by the welfare funds taken from "your" hard earned dollars. The campaign is brilliantly indirect, but it is the nastiest attack yet on Obama. It is the McCain campaign playing the race card.
Maybe it is right for us to treat the attack as a throwback to McCarthyism that merely reflects on the age of McCain. Maybe the attack is too subtle and the American people too dumb to respond as the Republicans intend. Maybe America is not as racist as they think. Maybe the fall of communism makes the whole thing irrelevant. But the Republicans would not be rolling it out as their dying gasp of the campaign if they believed that.
But the attack is much more insidious and subtle than that. The fact that it is being rolled out in the last week of the campaign suggests to me that the Republicans think that this is the most powerful shot left in their arsenal, and could be the game-changer they rely on to win the election at the last minute.
As McPalin describe it, the socialist accusation is a claim that Obama will take "your" hard earned money and give it to "them." Given the demographics of the group that is being targeted with this pitch - blue collar and middle class whites - it is not hard to see who "they" are.
Just as George H.W Bush's Willie Horton ads were not about crime, and Ronald Reagan's railing on about welfare Cadillacs was not about welfare reform, this socialist line is not about economics or even ideology. Nor is it about painting Obama as outside the main stream.
It is all about stoking the residual and ill- concealed racism that remains a powerful factor in America. It is designed to evoke stereotypes of lazy, shiftless, unemployed blacks in the south and Midwest, drunk Indians in the southwest, and illegal immigrants in big sombreros sleeping in the sun, all supported by the welfare funds taken from "your" hard earned dollars. The campaign is brilliantly indirect, but it is the nastiest attack yet on Obama. It is the McCain campaign playing the race card.
Maybe it is right for us to treat the attack as a throwback to McCarthyism that merely reflects on the age of McCain. Maybe the attack is too subtle and the American people too dumb to respond as the Republicans intend. Maybe America is not as racist as they think. Maybe the fall of communism makes the whole thing irrelevant. But the Republicans would not be rolling it out as their dying gasp of the campaign if they believed that.
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I've stood in welfare lines and spent time in welfare offices. A small percentage of the people who stood alongside me were deserving and in need of real help. . .SHORT TERM real help, just until they could find work and get back on their feet.
Most, though, were long-term welfare members from a long line of welfare families who had grown accustomed to the "free handouts." Several of them, when discovering that I was anxious to find a steady job and honest pay, laughed at my ambition, stating that "you're better off if you don't work. You get more money that way." These people were white, black, and Hispanic. These are the "them" I think of when I think of "them" taking my hard-earned money.
Sadly, "they" were right about welfare paying off more than hard work. But I believe in earning my pay, and I "paid back" my two-months worth of welfare earnings to charity after getting back on my feet. (I imagine I've paid it back a hundred times over in taxes, as well!)
While there are many, many issues to consider in the election (and I'm not trying to side with any candidate here) I think it's important to be honest about the issues as they stand. The welfare system is broken, and the "Socialism" argument (right or wrong) is about socialism, not racism.
-Lee (a black man) in Colorado