Randall Kennedy, professor of law at Harvard University and the author, most recently, of “Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal,” writing in the WaPo:
[…] Whether black onlookers believe that this election was decided “on the real issues” and that Obama was “judged fairly” will be shaped in part by future developments, including the nature of the campaign in its closing weeks (will race-baiting intensify?) and the demographics of the final voting tally (will people who have traditionally voted Democrat vote differently this time around?).
— Of course, if blacks vote overwhelmingly for Barack — say, 96% or more — we needn’t ask any questions about the whether they supported him on the issues. That would just muddy the intellectual waters, and take the sting out of the implication that is to follow.
To wit:
I anticipate that most black Americans will believe that an Obama defeat will have stemmed in substantial part from a prejudice that robbed 40 million Americans of the chance to become president on the day they were born black. They will of course understand that race wasn’t the only significant variable — that party affiliation, ideological proclivities, strategic choices and dumb luck also mattered. But deep in their bones, they will believe — and probably rightly — that race was a key element, that had the racial shoe been on the other foot — had John McCain been black and Obama white — the result would have been different.
And naturally, what “they” believe is more important than why they believe what “they” believe — because in the first instance, feelings of perpetual victimization and the solace of having begged a comfortable question, will make the loss palatable to those to whom racial identification with a candidate is nearly uniform; while in the second instance, “they’d” be forced to ask themselves why it is, exactly, that they think a political loss — identical in every other way to previous political losses — has anything to do with racial animus, particularly when Obama’s early lead in the polls showed that he had widespread support among a number of whites before his campaign came off the rails and started putting into practice the whole “Bros vs Hos” ethos that many of his supporters have cultivated.
None of which apparently resonates with Prof. Kennedy, who sees as instructive only the potential for a final tally that doesn’t elevate a black man (as opposed to a Democratic candidate) to President:
If Obama loses, I personally will feel disappointed, frustrated, hurt. I’ll conclude that a fabulous opportunity has been lost. I’ll believe that American voters have made a huge mistake. And I’ll think that an important ingredient of their error is racial prejudice — not the hateful, snarling, open bigotry that terrorized my parents in their youth, but rather a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.
[my emphases]
That Obama has dropped in the polls precisely after the Republicans’ nomination of Sarah Palin to the VP slot caused an outpouring of very real “hateful, snarling, open bigotry” of this Alaskan “snowbilly” and her doublewide mafia by media elites, Beltway insiders, and those whose aversion to religion borders on the religious — a bigotry that until now had been “a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip (“we are the champions of the little people! The working Moms! Unless, you know — they get all presumptuous and whatnot…”) — doesn’t seem to register with Prof Kennedy.
And even if it does, he rejects it — as in fact he must. Because Kennedy’s entire argument is a pre-emptive bit of blame-placing and victimology, a careful attempt to set up the black community, who will vote for a candidate almost exclusively out of racial identification, as the victims of a subtle institutionalized racism for which there is no cure other than to simply vote for a black candidate because he is black.
And is, of course, in Prof Kennedy’s words, given to “progressive politics, cosmopolitan ethos and pragmatic style.”
In other words, an authentic black man — a man of the left.
Up is down. Black is white. Sanford is Townsend.
(h/t HighMach)
Kennedy should give it a rest. I might have voted for Obama, if he wasn’t such a jerk and phony, and had real character and a centrist viewpoint. And a lick of sense.
And there’s that pansy thing.
Obviously, the solution is to forgo the election and simply appoint President Obama. Seeing as how flawed and unfair it has become, Democracy has to take one for the team. Would they shut up if we did so?
What most concerns me is the very real possibility that the Left will agitate for riots if Barry doesn’t win. They’ve been using the urban poor as shock troops since the 1960’s.
I keep hoping blacks will eventually figure out that their allegiance to the Democrats has been unmitigated disaster for them. I’m not holding my breath.
How bout if McCain was black and experienced and Obama was white and inexperienced?
I can safely say I would be casting my vote for the first time for a black man running for office. For people with brains, professor Kennedy, there are more important issues then the color of skin.
Also, I find it amusing Kennedy apparently thinks this is our ONLY chance to EVER elect a black president, as there will never be another black candidate in our lifetime.
How about the black candidates work their butts off and get back to that point? Not Obama but other qualified black democrats. Wait, “qualified”. Never mind.
‘Snowbilly’ has just replaced ‘shrimpneck’ as my favorite regionalization of the redneck/hillbilly archetype.
but Matt, they might not be black, the way Sarah Palin isn’t a woman.
I never heard “shrimpneck” before.
I wonder what lovely words Rev. Wright will call Sarah Palin.
Greetings:
96% of black folks for Obama is “overwhelmingly.” No, those are Saddam Hussein numbers. 67% would be overwhelmingly in a democracy.
Back in the joy of my youth, in the Bronx of the late ’50s and early ’60s, basketball became the preferred way to waste my time. Eventually, my skills led me and some friends to travel to other neighborhoods in search of new competition. Some of these neighborhoods were more “diverse†and less safe than my own. News of my travels reached my father and I was subsequently summoned to a “Denis, me boy-o” meeting in our living room.
My father had grown up in Ireland and came to this country in 1927, in time for both the Great Depression and World War II. He was a practicing Catholic and, to my knowledge, had no particular bone to pick with black folks. When he found out where I had been traveling to play ball, he shared the following advise with me; “right or wrong, don’t ever expect them to take your part against their own.”
It was good advice then, as now.
I must say that I admire the professor’s diligence, rationalizing Sen. Obama’s loss when the election is still about seven weeks out. He certainly is getting a jump on the competition with this election day pre-mortem.
“they might not be black, the way Sarah Palin isn’t a woman.”
What we need is the PROCRUSTEAN BED OF AUTHENTICITY.
I’d like to ask the good professor and others peddling the same line;
If I thought the other guy, sincerely thought the other guy, was much, much better, should I vote for a black candidate anyway solely because he’s black?
They can’t afford to say yes, and how on earth they’d say no escapes me.
So, I suppose Kennedy would be down with Ward Connorly for president, or at least as one of the Supremes, cause he’s black too, you know. Whenever I hear a Harvard faculty member telling me what to do, I think of Halberstam’s “The Best And The Brightest”.
So, Prof. Kennedy is cool with the idea of Michael Steele on the ticket in 2012?
Right?
And, am I totally amiss in reading “No Justice No Peace” in the subtext?
Of course the problem is White People. America will never be fair, justice can never be served as long as White People get to vote.
Discriminate Against White People for Fairness!
The Post was just tired of having E.J. Dionne Jr. write all these kinda articles. This easily could be him writing this word for word. Now this gentlemen is diversity.
So Kennedy fears that O! will fall victim to:
“a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.”
More likely that O! is already a victim of the much decried bigotry of low expectations , an unintended consequence (hopefully unintended)brought about by the entire twisted identity politics charade that is the stock-in-trade of the political left…
Time for some straight talk: The Democrats were so sure that 2008 was their year that they went for the whole enchilada and strove to nominate a compltetely unqualified, but ideologically amenable, candidate. They figured (incorrectly I pray) that they could seal the deal owing to the fact that O! was a charismatic black man. His glib charisma would make him endearing, and his membership in the ultimate identity politics victim group would make him unassailable…
What Kennedy is really peddling is more of the clap-trap that bullied the Democratic super-delegates into securing Obama the nomination; even though they knew that Hillary was the better candidate. Although this thinly veiled threat worked in Democrat settings, it will not fly with the majority of Americans.
Telling folks that they are racists if they choose not to vote for O! might work in Democrat circles, but it’s not going to fly with the rest of the electorate…
I wonder what Kennedy thought about the Marylanders voting for a white guy, Ben Cardin (D), over Michael Steele (R), a black guy, in the senatorial race a couple of years ago…
Methinks he didn’t hand-wring, gnash teeth, or lose much sleep over that one…
I wonder what Kennedy is going to think when Deval Patrick gets tossed out on his ass.
“Go ahead, cry me a river. Make it a big one.”
Free OJ!!!!
A death threat wouldn’t convince me to vote for Obama, Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.
I would enthusiastically vote for Michael Steele, JC Watts and Ken Blackwell.
See, I’m a bigot ‘cos I hate stupid race-hustling lefties. This is an easy game.
will race-baiting intensify?
Why yes, it seems it will – ask Joe Biden:
Bob Reed’s nailed it. Obama truly is the very model of a modern Democratic candidate. He beat Hillary because he offers the ideal bargain for white Dems: vote for me & you will be washed clean of your racial sins. They haven’t grasped that large swaths of the country do not think this way & cannot be shamed into it.
Anybody seen the vid of John Fund on Real Time with Bill Maher? Classic example. Rather than matching Janeane Garofalo’s frenzy with one of his his own, he smiled and encouraged them all to continue slandering Palin. The only panel member to recognize that he was smiling because he was genuinely pleased to see them discredit themselves was ROSEANNE FUCKING BARR! Salman Rushdie, the panel’s resident intellectual, called Fund smug. It had no effect, because Fund’s not a leftist twit who feels guilty about being born American & white. Garofalo & Maher preferred the “you’re lying and you know it” gambit. Nope, still smiling. Presented with an opponent who rejects their premises, they were left to flail angrily & act like children.
The Left in my opinion will continue to sink into gutter politics and incoherent fury. Most of them cannot examine their premises nor adjust their tactics. Be of good cheer, wingnuts! Reality has a way of asserting itself. The side with the better arguments always wins. It took 80 years for the USSR to collapse, but collapse it did. Today’s drum-circle & giant-headed puppets Left will fail as well.
Memo to myself: do the dumb things I gotta do
Touch the puppet head
OK sorry. Had a moment there…
“…vote for me & you will be washed clean of your racial sins.”
The joke would be on these voters – white America will NEVER be forgiven, no way, no how.
Of course this guy is all weepy in advance b/c he has to preserve himself, you know? Get in your well-meaning-white-guy bonafides NOW peoples! NOT ME I Voted for O!
But really, the whole subject seems to have a sinister edge, like “Vote for O and don’t be shot” or whatever. And if that kind of thing occurs, well, no there won’t be another O for a long while.
Me, though, I have greater confidence I guess. This kinda polispeak strikes me as ham-handed and doubtful of the black population’s ability to handle the results. I mean yes, some are gonna say dumb things but most I think are gonna be proud that O got the nod and broke the ceiling, regardless of what happens now. A lot matters on how O himself talks about it after, of course.
If the Left were filled with such incoherent fury, then why do your pretend to know so much about their fury?
Before today there was $800-billion in the U.S. Treasury till. Now $400-billion has been spoken for in backroom guarantees facilitating the survival of America’s largest financial institutions. Easy math, only 400 left.
Speak of the USSR falling if you want, but God has left out the side door of the museum years ago the last I heard. What’s in Russia’s till today. A lot more than ours. Drum circles and giant puppets, might you re-think just whose attic is full of ’em.
What are those Repub arguments? Snowmachiners! Drill, drill, drill! Bore into a reserve of God-values at the hundredth meridian! Sweden will burst into flames one day, promise, just watch!
Whatever.
“I keep hoping blacks will eventually figure out that their allegiance to the Democrats has been unmitigated disaster for them. I’m not holding my breath.”
Here’s how I put it: why do blacks allow the reactionary left to treat them like political lawn jockeys?
“Sanford is Townsend”… hmmm. maybe he has a point…:
“This lying, and cryin’, is upsettin’ and gettin’ nowhere
It don’t stack up, so slack up and pack up
I just don’t care
Don’t let the screen door hit you, on your way out.
Don’t you drown when your dream boat runs onto the ground…”
J (class of ’77)
And please ignore the talking pile of shit.
Thank you in advance.
SarahW-
…”but Matt, they might not be black, the way Sarah Palin isn’t a woman.”
BRAVO!
If America was a morass of racial intolerance, shot through with institutional racial and sexist bigotry and class hatred across all professions, races, and elasticities, well, shucks, the Democrats might have a case.
The last bastions of institutional racism in the country are government and education. Oh, and the entrenched opportunists and careerists that have no other talent but manufacturing grievances to exploit for their own benefit.
If Obama’s POLICIES and RECORD made any kind of favorable impact, he’d be a shoe-in. His policies are… platitudes, and as near as I can tell, he doesn’t have a record that he didn’t order whole-cloth from the Identity Politics and Liberal Wishful Thinking Casting Agency. I don’t believe HE believes a word he says.
Where’s the problem with skin there, prof?
I’ll say this: I bet the next presidential election starts less than a year from the first primary. If the Dems have any sense (well, have any sense by THEN) they will overhaul their primary system to make the states “winner take all”.
thor seems to be even less coherent today than normal. Not that coherence is really all that desireable…
. . . and the WaPo published this article now?
. . . as O! sinks in the polls?
. . . because of the Wilder Effect?
. . . shame the public into voting for a socialist?
“Ain’t I a . . .”
“Shut up and bring me my waffle.”
Speak of the USSR falling if you want, but God has left out the side door of the museum years ago the last I heard. What’s in Russia’s till today. A lot more than ours. Drum circles and giant puppets, might you re-think just whose attic is full of ‘em.
What are those Repub arguments? Snowmachiners! Drill, drill, drill! Bore into a reserve of God-values at the hundredth meridian! Sweden will burst into flames one day, promise, just watch!
THE PEOPLE’S POET HAS SPOKEN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZnnkJxoC8
FEAR HIS JUSTICE!
Heh! Brilliant.
Here. Allow me:
If the Left were filled with such incoherent fury, then why do your pretend to know so much about their fury?Before today there was $800-billion in the U.S. Treasury till. Now $400-billion has been spoken for in backroom guarantees facilitating the survival of America’s largest financial institutions. Easy math, only 400 left.
Speak of the USSR falling if you want, but God has left out the side door of the museum years ago the last I heard. What’s in Russia’s till today. A lot more than ours. Drum circles and giant puppets, might you re-think just whose attic is full of ‘em.
What are those Repub arguments? Snowmachiners! Drill, drill, drill! Bore into a reserve of God-values at the hundredth meridian! Sweden will burst into flames one day, promise, just watch!
Whatever.
Ahem. Isn’t voting FOR someone based only on race just as bigoted as voting AGAINST someone based only on race? Methinks the emperpor has no clothes….
Oh my. You mean the Dems will holler racism if Obama loses? Now there’s a surprise.
This law prof knows there’s no way to prove the racism, so he has to redefine racism. No secret racism decoder rings necessary, because it’s “low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.”
In other words, special invisible racism that us racists don’t even know is there.
When Sarah Palin runs for prez in 2012, I hope she picks a black running mate so we can not vote for her.
“Hey! NO FAIR!”
“Fuck you.”
*…â€Âbut Matt, they might not be black, the way Sarah Palin isn’t a woman.â€Â*
Sarah, yep I know and its depressing. As a man and an American, I’m much more in favor of a working mom in elected office (who understands families), is smart and photogenic and well spoken. The fact that she’s a hunter just seals the deal for me. Of course, its a nightmare on the left, who expect their feminists angry and unshaven, oppressed in a man’s world and unable to succeed because the patriarcy is keeping them under heel. And interestingly enough, its not just woman that do the family thing – if they choose to forgo family for a career, I’m fine with that too – Condoleeza Rice is an excellent example of a woman who succeeded on her merit rather than through some affirmative action type program.
This is a variation on the theme that all European whites are racist and, once having been enlightened by this irrefutable fact, must seek within themselves their racist hearts. Lost in the circle jerk is the perfect justification for something that cannot possibly be quantified but is presented as some kind of secure truth.
Nobody asks for proof because no proof can possibly be given It is an assertion of pure opinion energized by a racial worldview and not open to interpretation or questioning.
Does thor ever comment on topic anymore ?
I suppose it’s too late to inform the scary smart law prof that O! is half-black. Thus the heft of his argument, such as it is, is only 50% persuasive from the outset. As long as scary smart law profs can commerce in identity politics and pontificate on authenticity of race, I feel more than justified in pointing out that with a white mother, O! is insufficiently authentically black and not worthy of my vote.
Of course most people won’t understand Prof. Kennedy’s point of view. Its a retarded academic’s thing.
The question is not whether Obama should question racism among white voters, but rather that white voters should be questioning Obama’s racism.
#14 Richard Aubrey:
You say you think the other guy is ‘better’, but that really means that you think ‘white=better; black=worse’.
Code words, you know.
#46 MAtt, Esq.:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
“Comment by Matt, Esq. on 9/15 @ 2:36 pm #
Does thor ever comment on topic anymore ?”
Just ignore the talking pile of shit.
Just ignore the illiterate human scumbag.
Please ignore this illiterate human scumbag.
Thanks in advance.
Did anybody else catch the NPR piece with “Meechelle Norris” and the white guy on “how our cultural constructs affect our attitudes about race” or some such stuff? They took 13 voters, Caucasian, African-American, and Latino/a, and asked them who they intended to vote for and why, after a lengthy discussion of their personal experiences with the Other. Lessee now. There was an old white woman (quavery voice and all) who didn’t want to vote for Obama NOT because of his policy positions, but because she was afraid he was a secret Muslim. (That’s the mainstream old-white-person position, of course.) There was an old black woman who would wade through red-hot lava to vote for Obama, but believed he’d be effectively castrated as a President because “they” wouldn’t let him get away with anything – he’d be spied on, wiretapped, hogtied at every turn.
At the end, “Meechelle Norris” (I refuse to look up the spelling of her name; it’s a waste of valuable bytes or something) announced, in a voice deep with portent, that “most of the white voters supported McCain” and “all the people of color supported Obama.” I can’t effectively express the inflection, but it gave me the distinct impression that the message (of course) was that the “people of color” were the clear thinkers whose experience of race led them to judge the candidates on the content of their character, but that only a couple of the white folks were able to put aside their unconscious creeping racism sufficiently to permit them to vote “correctly.”
I should point out that they drew this ever-so-representative panel of voters from Pennsylvania. Which is in play. Why do they even pretend to be National Public Radio?
Oh, I forgot to add that undoubtedly it was my “cultural constructs” that made me read “Meechelle’s” mind the way I did. Undoubtedly. And of course (just to belabor the point) that the whole flippin’ thing came off as a preemptive explanation for a Dem loss in November. Might as well put the narrative in place now…
I think Republicans should begin countering this excuse right now with something like, “Barack Obama just isn’t black enough. Now, give us a Dolemite / Sarah Palin ticket and we’d be all up in that shit…”
I’d vote for Michael Steele before I’d vote for Obama. Hell, I’d vote for Harold Ford Jr. before I’d vote for Obama. Or Joe Biden.
I like it, Jeff. I’m going to start telling everyone that I can’t vote for O! and cleanse myself of my onerous guilt because he’s not black enough to do so. I can’t erase decades of racial injustice by voting for The One simply because he’s half white. In short, he’s not the real Messiah we’ve been waiting for because he isn’t black enough to forgive my manifest sins.
I feel a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Thanks.
I keep hoping blacks will eventually figure out that their allegiance to the Democrats has been unmitigated disaster for them. I’m not holding my breath.
Dumb niggers just don’t know what’s good for ’em. They should listen to those conservatives who’ve been so kind to them over the years. Like Strom Thurmond, for example.
“Barack Obama just isn’t black enough. Now, give us a Dolemite / Sarah Palin ticket and we’d be all up in that shit…â€Â
Word. I mean, when you get right down to it, Obama was just barely blacker than John Edwards.
Dumb niggers just don’t know what’s good for ‘em.
Seriously, I mean Obama got their kids summer jobs!!!
Maybe if McCain gets elected he can get rid of MLK day as a national holiday.
“That Obama has dropped in the polls precisely after the Republicans’ nomination of Sarah Palin to the VP slot”
Actually he dropped in the polls once it became clear that he had political mentors like Bill Ayers and spiritual mentors like Jeremiah Wright.
“I’ll say this: I bet the next presidential election starts less than a year from the first primary. If the Dems have any sense (well, have any sense by THEN) they will overhaul their primary system to make the states “winner take allâ€Â.”
Actually, I rather wish the Republicans would make their delegates proportional. We could ahve done better than McLame, Palin Veep choice notwithstanding, although it should be all primaries only, the whole “caucus” system is a crock.
What the Professor apparently hasn’t realized is that when you call everyone a racist who doesn’t agree with you, when you assume the worst motives on every decision that doesn’t go your way, eventually, everyone just assumes that racism is just a whine. At best, they will simply ignore you; at worst, they may figure that since they’ll get tarred with the label they may as well get whatever benefits accrue to really being one.
It’s kind of like everyone calling the US an “imperialist warmonger looting everything.” Sooner or later, we may get tired of it and either stop helping the ingrates, or just going ahead and acting that way. Or both. At least we’ll get cheap gas out of it.
If 96% of black people vote for Clinton, they are stupid.
If 96% of black people vote for Obama, they are racist.
This is the kind of shit that is so attractive to black Americans: Come on you stupid porch monkeys! Vote republican you fucking lemming niggers!
I can’t wait to switch parties. Woot woot.
Curmudgeon –
In theory, I agree with your proportionality statement. In practice, the electoral college is decided on a mostly winner-take-all basis. I am ALL OVER closed primaries. The parties are selecting their candidates; this last year was quite a bit of “too clever by half” sabotage voting exercises on both sides of the fence (hey, if one side uses gas, both sides will eventually issue masks and suits to their troops. The civilians in the middle get duct tape and visqueen) and I propose that the effect accomplished nothing but to poison the ethical standing of the electorate and skewed, badly, the primary process.
I’m looking for transparency and simplicity. And if a national political figure from either party will stand up with an honest plan to bring some restraint to the “endless campaign” cycle, I’ll contribute to that person’s PAC or campaign chest.
Even if that person ends up being Howard Dean.
My two cents on the near future: race is going to lose place to responsibility for the coming financial shinolastorm, which is going to be a pretty equal-opportunity disaster when the chips truly land on the table.
I realize you’re speaking of Bill here, but how did Hillary do with blacks against Obama?
The rest of your comment is just idiotic. Or maybe racist. Whichever. At any rate, it is a tactic you use an awful lot, and it doesn’t work. I know who I am and I know my own soul. If it makes you feel better to think everyone who takes notice of the race loyalty of blacks to a black Dem candidate is really just stifling an urge to scream NIGGER, by all means, have a good feel.
You know, the two ugliest words in the English language are “cunt” and “nigger”.
The only people I ever hear use those terms in conversation are trying to impress upon me how hatefilled and narrow minded I am.
Funny, that.
Come on you stupid porch monkeys! Vote republican you fucking lemming niggers!
Is that from “Blazing Saddles?”
Mr. Taggart: I know how we can run everybody out of Rock Ridge.
Mr. Lamarr: How?
Mr. Taggart: We’ll kill the first born male child in every household!
Mr. Lamarr: Too Jewish.
“Sanford is Townsend.”
Yo what about Lamont?
had John McCain been black and Obama white — the result would have been different.
That doesn’t make any sense at all. I mean not a goddamn bit of sense does that make with respect to his thesis here. That’s how dumb people think I think. He teaches at Harvard?
#67
NOooooo? But don’t you find the numbers a little bit knee jerk? Shows a certain depth of, maybe, willful uninquisitiveness. Doesn’t it strike you as being a sort of “plantaion” mentality. Playing into a stereotype, sort of?
Barrack is not half white, he is an oreo… for blacks he is the crunchy cookie part, for whites he’s the creamy middle part….
And with Biden on the ticket… he’s kinda like a double stuff. (or is biden more like the milk… sort of like a whitewash of goodness to dunk the cookie in, to smother it and make it more palitable)
So blacks aren’t being racists… the are being cookie-ists…
And I can understand how some might get real depressed when McCain wins… no one likes to see a cookie crumble, or go soggy and sunken to the bottom of the glass of cold, white, milk. Forever out of reach, only to be reclaimed after all the milk is gone. It’s a tragedy, really, a cookie conundrum.
Damn the creamy center, I say, damn that creamy white center to cookie hell!!!! And the milk with it!!!
/sarcoff
I just don’t get it.. if you’re white and vote McCain you are a racist, but if you are black and vote Barrack, you are… historical?
“Nigger”? “Porch monkeys”? You lefties are the only ones using these vile terms. I suppose you believe that your fealty to the One has granted you some dispensation for bigotry. Not so; those words merely underline your crudity and small-mindedness. I actually feel sorry for you.
TmjUtah #68: I absolutely agree that there must be closed primaries in all 50 states. “Open” primaries are an open invitation to political chicanery and sabotage voters of one party urinating in the other party’s voting pool.
However, once we have closed primaries in all states, why not have proportional delegates? This would make running for president (and in a way, Veep) more of a real horse race and less of a coronation ceremony once the convention comes around.
#67 Lisa:
Then why does Sen. Obama have that level of support in the African-American community? Is it all ‘local man has done good’? Is it ‘I like his policies?’ or is it something else?
Racisim can go any which way, so long as the person makes his or her decisions on race first. I support Sen. McCain. Is my support for him based upon his race or not? I say no; I think the old warhorse is what the country needs. I didn’t make that decision based on the color of his skin, I made it based on his record and his life, a life that is evident in his face. There is a hard core of steel in Sen. McCain, a hard core that few can match. And I doubt this country’s enemies can find anyone that can match that steel. Sen. McCain has already seen Mr. Putin and his ilk.
However, once we have closed primaries in all states, why not have proportional delegates?
If you do that, you might as well scrap the Electoral College altogether.
The presidency was never intended to be decided by the popular vote. For good reason.
“They” believe what “they’ve” been taught by Leftists. Black people are the Left’s greatest success story.
Comment by N. O’Brain on 9/15 @ 1:36 pm #
Here’s how I put it: why do blacks allow the reactionary left to treat them like political lawn jockeys
The Left’s 40 year indoctrination has to be undone. Actively.
Too bad, that, baldilocks.
Seriously, though. Give me a Dolemite/Palin ticket. Pro-business, pro-drugs, pro-women (if she want to be a ho, let her be a ho), sympathetic to tax cutting…
Plus, platform shoes!
ONCE YOU GO BLACK YOU’LL NEVER GO BARACK!
SarahW @9:
I know I’m a day late on the follow up here… But a shrimpneck is redneck who has traded in his tractor for a shrimp boat. They can be found throughout the Redneck Riviera, as well as Lousiana and Texas.
Lisa is a perfect example of the success of Leftist indoc. She can’t tell the difference between those who fear O’s totally Leftist ideology and policies and the small minority (no pun intended) of those who don’t want a black man in the White House. It’s too inconvenient and it takes too long to think such things through.
It’s easier to ascribe racism to all of O’s opponents. (For someone like me, jealousy is the diagnosis.) Martyrdom has its attractiveness.
#79 S,B,and P –
Me too. And further:
Closed primaries. Winner take all. Photo I.D. required for voting. A requirement that the secretary of state oversee direct, immediate, post-election audit by county clerks of 2.5% of all absentee ballots cast and 2.5% of voter registrations submitted within thirty days of the election cutoff date.
I want federal intervention, in the form of pre-organized task forces from the DoJ civil rights section, in any city that is identified as a probable fraud case. Yes, yes, the constitution calls out the states as the arbiters of their elections. RICO makes any criminal conspiracy a federal cas, and the time is long, long past that we should have torn down machines from coast to coast and border to border. I want felony convictions of the people writing the checks. I want the machines taken down regardless of party. (Full Disclosure – I don’t know of ANY county or city that has a reputation for historical Republican malfeasance. The Dems… Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Washington, Boston, New Orleans… but I support equal under the law, wherever the light needs to be shined.)
You can’t buy a beer or cash a check without state identification. Hell, you can’t get state or federal assistance without identification. So let’s just cut the crap and get some integrity back into our elections before they are totatlly discredited.
I’ve got a list somewhere on my other comp that lists all the people I’ve heard of or jousted with, mentioned either in media or that I have come across on my journeys across the web, that have advanced objections to positive I.D. at polling/registration sites. It’s my own modest attempt at identifying threats to the republic, so that I can recognize them when they pop up in other media reports or venues.
I don’t know of ANY county or city that has a reputation for historical Republican malfeasance.
Well, Alaska had a nasty Republican machine for a long time — but Palin has taken a bite out of that. Machine politics is definitely more common in Dem areas, though.
I agree with you about voter ID.
Personally I plan on voting the Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012.
I’ll write it in if it’s not on the ballot.
“If you do that, you might as well scrap the Electoral College altogether.
The presidency was never intended to be decided by the popular vote. For good reason.”
SBP: Apples and Oranges. I am talking about the primary candidate nomination process, NOT the general election. Within the Republican or Democrat party primary elections, the rules are not constitutionally mandated in any way, shape matter or form.
Absolutely — voter ID is a must. Of course, the Demunists will simper that the “undocumented American” and “deceased American” communities are the victims of institutional racism.
But seriously, folks, the primary process has nothing to do with the electoral “college” (better known as the 12th Amendment)
Curmudgeon, I support all or nothing expressly because I want the parties done with their inner angst before convention.
We don’t have campaigns anymore so much as we have gaffe avoidance exercises. I think that the Dems are done for a decade or two after this, but I would like to see a return to issues and character defining races if at all possible.
Obama has been the Seinfeld candidacy. Not because it is any kind of daring or groundbreaking – but because in the absence of any substance but with the willfull complicity of media, it was possible to almost get away with it. He’s actually less qualified than ANY candidate the Dems ran… even Kucinich… but here he is in the hot seat in September.
What is labeled the Democrat party didn’t have any issues beside BDS, set on a canvas of contrived grievance and a laundry list of populist tropes. This was a pointless exercise but for the media attention, which turned it into Serious Political Theater.
And up was coughed the O! dude. A…no, THE perfect fit for the philosophy on display.
Really. People who write history books a decade from now are going to be doing quite a bit of rueful chuckling, I think.
SBP: Apples and Oranges. I am talking about the primary candidate nomination process, NOT the general election.
Sorry, I misinterpreted what you were saying.
Yes, the parties can institute any rules they want, although I’m not sure that any system can be made completely immune to moonbat fuckwittery.
“Curmudgeon, I support all or nothing expressly because I want the parties done with their inner angst before convention.
We don’t have campaigns anymore so much as we have gaffe avoidance exercises. I think that the Dems are done for a decade or two after this, but I would like to see a return to issues and character defining races if at all possible.”
But that’s just it! If you don’t make presidential primaries proportional (again, I am NOT talking about the general election), you get “gotcha” gaffe baiting “primaries” and state party delegations that go all for one candidate even if he or she barely squeaks out a plurality (For example, Florida where McLame got 35% I think).
Me? I want real convention ferment, not these bogus front-loaded primaries leading to the staged coronation ceremonies we have been getting as of late.
It’s true. Blacks have been totally indoctrinated by leftists. They sent them all to camps in the 60s. Otherwise they’d totally vote for people who sell Obama Waffles.
http://www.obamawaffles.com/index.html
How indoctrinated they must be not to realize that such people have their best interests at heart.
I think Jane Hamsher should blackface Obama. That would be funny and poignant.
Meanwhile, back in the day….
Baldilocks. I think Smedley is saying he understands black people better than you do.
He probably took some courses, and owns a couple Miles Davis albums. On vinyl. So, like, step off, sister.
Really? What are they running for?
I apologize, baldilocks. Clearly you’re the spokesman for your race. Because of the individualism.
When you need a black man photoshopped into blackface, you call Steve Gilliard. What’s that you say? Oh.
I did not know that people did not know that.
No, Smedley. You’re the spokesman for her race. You need to be, ’cause she don’t know no better. Now you just get her in line with the other 96% who know what they’re talking about.
The sad thing about racism is it doesn’t seem to bother white america that it exist. If Obama lost due to uninformed white voters trying to block a black man from being president, I don’t think muchof white america would even care. which is sad because mccain is overwhelmingly the wrong choice based on the issues and the weaker running mate.
Racism should bother everyone in my opinion not just the people being discriminated against.
What’s this “racism” thing y’all are talking about? And where can I get me some?
“Speak of the USSR falling if you want, but God has left out the side door of the museum years ago the last I heard. What’s in Russia’s till today. A lot more than ours. Drum circles and giant puppets, might you re-think just whose attic is full of ‘em.’
Russia has so much money in the till because they squash assholes like you who say “NO DRILLING! LET THE ARABS AND THE REST OF OUR ENEMIES FUCK US IN THE ASS!”
Yup. The left loveslogic!
I don’t know. Do I appear to be cranky today?
not any more than usual. ;D
I chalk it up to the full moon.
“Comment by Lisa on 9/15 @ 5:04 pm #
If 96% of black people vote for Clinton, they are stupid.
If 96% of black people vote for Obama, they are racist.
This is the kind of shit that is so attractive to black Americans: Come on you stupid porch monkeys! Vote republican you fucking lemming niggers!
I can’t wait to switch parties. Woot woot.”
Lisa,
Woot! Woot!
Your logic is impeccable.
96% of any group voting in one way only is a dead giveaway that there are not racial overtones to their thinking. I mean, how could a white racist like me think that a black (half black) man’s words mean anything? How could I dare, as a “white racist” judge a black man on his words and history? HE’S FUCKIN’ BLACK, SO IF YOU DON’T VOTE FOR HIM, YOU ARE A RACIST! How cool is that idea? I should vvote for someone because of the way they smell? Riiiiight!
Black Bots! Blacks have some clear complaints, but don’t dump your shit on my bedroom when you don’t even know what I look like, much less how I live my life.
Idiot.
I’m sorry.
Fucking idiot!.
There. Is that better?
Yup. The Dog is way cranky right now.
Hi, maggie.
Yeah.
But sometimes I really try to not be cranky. But right now doesn’t appear to be one of those times, does it?.
Are you, by chance, a distant cousin of the Palin clan in Alaska?
Yup. The left loveslogic!
Oh fuck you Lost Dog. You could probably find the same stats for Irish people who voted for John F. Kennedy. But that is not racist because well…just because. I don’t give a flying fuck if you are cranky. You just dont like admitting that the stupid shit you vomit out is RACIST. Deal with it like a man and stop crying.
Nice job turning your site into a cesspool of class and race resentment, Perfesser.
But that is not racist because well…just because.
Mainly because the Irish aren’t a race.
Nice job turning your site into a cesspool of class and race resentment, Perfesser.
Oh, give it a rest, Lisa.
One person drops the n-bomb (and is promptly called out for it by the other commenters) and suddenly this site is a “cesspool” of “race resentment”.
Right.
Also, note that the first person to use the n-word in this thread was Smedley. Who is an Obama supporter.
Lisa waves the victim flag vigorously.
Epic. Fail.
“…Nice job turning your site…”
That just makes no sense whatsoever, Lisa. Why would you even begin to go down that line? Unless you can point to something you actually think Jeff did, which I doubt you do think.
There are plenty of comments in this thread you can call out for cesspoolishness and race resentment if you choose. Why not do that instead of picking a fight with Jeff?
Hi, Lisa. I think you can be grumpy cause of that comment. I ignored it cause I wasn’t sure what it meant or if irony was involved but then I started thinking surely yes but then maybe no and then I got busy with other things. Let us have a good day and not speak of this again I think.
Wow liberalism has really taken over academia. Let me get this Straight “Dr.” Kennedy, I am and always have been conservative so if I vote for McCain because I agree with him more on his positions than I do Obama I am a racist? Being a woman had Hillary won the candidacy and I still voted for McCain would that make me a sexist. What the left in this country does not understand is that MOST Americans have principles by which they live and they vote for the candidate that best represents those principles. If Condie Rice ran for president I would run to the polls to vote for her, not because of her skin color but because of her ideals. Conservatives are not racist, we hold to our beliefs unlike liberals.
Cry victim Slart? Didnt I just tell someone else to man up and stop their whiney-boy routine? I guess that is “crying victim” in your book. Interesting.
Happy I kinda dug this site for a while. Maybe I might like it again after the election and the shallow and cynical “culture wars” get put back on the shelf. But for now, let us part with smiles and fond waves.
See ya PWers.
Well, Lisa, you seem to have this tendency to, when things get a bit heated, here, suggest that what we’re really thinking is that you’re a stupid nigger.
But we’re just too shy to say so, apparently. Me, I just think that occasionally you’re an asshole. Not an unforgiveable sin, or else I wouldn’t still be married.
Bye. Come back when you don’t feel so put-upon.
oh. Bye, you. Just know when you come back you will be remembered as a good egg I think. These are dyspeptic days of dyspepticness. I blame the media. Glad you hung out while you did. JD and me and a lot of others are really fond of you, and the others are really fond of you too they just don’t always show it.
I like Lisa just fine. It just annoys me when she has herself being a nigger in the eyes of others. It pretty much sprays shit on everyone.
At least she’s equal-opportunity with the shitspraying.
“…institutionalized racism for which their [there] is no cure other…”
— An Institutionalized Grammarian
I think she does that when she can’t refute anything anyone’s said, but feels a need to oppose it anyway. It’s sad, ’cause I generally respect her, but she’s definitely got that “hidden racism” generator running on overdrive.
If, during the primaries, 96% of whites had voted for Hillary, would it have been valid to ask if their preference was racially motivated? I’ll bet that the percentage will be nowhere near that in the general election, yet if Obama loses, many people will blame “racism”.
#110
No. Lisa. It would be just as stupid. The mindset that says we’re gonna vote for -ethnic candidate of your choice- because he’s one of us-ethnicity of your choice-is just stupid. And as you know stupidity has no ethnicity. It’s a culture of its own. Judging from the neighborhoods BO was organizing, he isn’t going to better the lives of those blacks that are going to vote for him just because he’s black.
Buh-bye…
and the others are really fond of you too they just don’t always show it.”
And why are we fond of her again? She uses that tact far too often. It’s her failsafe.
And to the Kennedy’s of the world, racism will always be the number one reason voters fail to elect a black candidate. As Baldilocks said, the investment (indoctrination) is too big.
Thanks Lisa, I really enjoy conversations that include references to how I’m evil scum.
Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. It’s a pain to wash.
It’s true. Blacks have been totally indoctrinated by leftists. They sent them all to camps in the 60s.
And ever since then. The camps are better know as public schools.
#
Comment by Smedley on 9/15 @ 9:20 pm #
I apologize, baldilocks. Clearly you’re the spokesman for your race. Because of the individualism.
Fuck you, asswipe.
Sorry for the uncharacteristic vulgarity but I’m not in the mood for liberal condescension today.
It wasn’t anything he didn’t earn, baldilocks. We’re all about equal pay for equal work, here.
If the shoe fits, balidlocks….
Smedley is an ass. Fire at will.
#130 baldilocks:
Or any other form of condescension. You earned your stripes, as it were, and walk the walk. You don’t owe anyone anything.
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I wish I knew the difference between there and their. Then I could be whole. A real boy.
Lisa —
Come back any time. But others have it right — everytime an argument that redounds to some sort of black group dynamic is made here, your reaction has been to assume the voice of those making the arguments, and those folks you pretend to speak for are always calling you lazy and shiftless and whatnot.
I make the arguments I make with no code words. If you don’t wish to deal with them on that level, I can’t help you. If you do, you are of course welcome to do so, and I’ll respond to the best of my ability.
But what I won’t do is be run-off by someone whose rhetorical trick is to suggest I harbor some secret racism with respect to blacks. I don’t. And that’s that.
[…] as with Professor Kennedy’s preemptive accusation of massive institutionalized racism having derailed the Obama campaign, if in fact the campaign is […]