Am I Just Guilty, And White?
I was just watching Reliable Sources on CNN and the discussion centered around attention-needy child Ralph Nader. The discussion featured Biggus Rickus’s personal lord and savior Jonah Goldberg, and Goldberg insisted that some of the allure of Barack Obama is white guilt. Now I think that too much in this Presidential election those who are not for the Illinois Senator do not want to argue the positions like Iraq, the economy, the housing and credit crunch, torture, but more about how creepy they find it that the country is excited about a Democrat and not a Republican. Those who worship at the alter of Reagan Jesus talk derisively about the cult-like aura of the Obama campaign. But unlike criticisms on the economy and Iraq, the accusation of white guilt is almost rhetorical. The person that hurls it does so not expecting any retort that will convince them otherwise.
I am a caucasion and I am a supporter of Senator Obama, and why is it difficult to believe that I am not doing so out of some kind of guilt? I did not grow up during the Civil War, Jim Crow, or the civil rights movement. Living in the south I have experienced rank amounts of racism. After Obama visited our area, local news site firstcoastnews.com was filled with reader comments that seemed right out of 1956 Selma Alabama, yet I don’t think any of this entitles the member of a certain race to the Oval Office. It’s almost insulting that someone would think you so incapable of making a decision on the next President on the basis of the issues, as they themselves are avoiding those very issues. Goldberg hedged and said that it was at least fair for it to enter the realm of discussion, but why can’t the actual issues enter the conversation as well.
Watching the roundtable later on The Week, Hugh Hewitt stated that the country was starting to see Obama flip-flop on issues of campaign financing and debate scheduling, ignoring the more egregious McCain flip-flops on taxes, torture, and immigration. Yet those issues are so rarely discussed in the “liberal” media. As I have said before, it is the right that seems to be focusing on crazy black preachers, people saying whitey, liberal white guilt, and not the policy positions in taxation, Iraq, and international diplomacy and terrorism that I and many share with Senator Obama. They lose overwhelmingly when they bring up these issues after the last seven and a half years, and they are more comfortable voting against a black man if they think he’s acutally the racist one.
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Fine, I’ll be baited. First, I think of Goldberg more as a patron saint than a savior. Second, of course white guilt plays a role amongst some Obama supporters. Just as racism plays a role amongst some of his supporters. Third, the issues are discussed all the time by conservatives like Goldberg. More to the point, the stuff on the periphery of so-called serious issues certainly should have a bearing upon voting decisions. Particularly considering that campaign promises are often unkept after election day.
I, too, have noted the sudden attention given to flip flops. Not just for summer wear, folks! But, like you mentioned, apparently only for democrats. I think it’s to be expected - Obama’s going to get everything, including the kitchen sink, thrown at him from the Republican/conservative side. Luckily I think Obama’s campaign staff is very savvy and will be ready for all of it. (I hope.) It’s another reason I’m voting for him - if he can surround himself with good people now, it portends that he will be able to pick a good cabinet, etc, once he’s in office.