By Ron Beasley
Fervent supporters of Barack Obama like to say that putting him in the White House would transform America. With all due respect to the candidate, that gets it backward. Mr. Obama is an impressive speaker who has run a brilliant campaign � but if he wins in November, it will be because our country has already been transformed.
Mr. Obama�s nomination wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago. It�s possible today only because racial division, which has driven U.S. politics rightward for more than four decades, has lost much of its sting.
I have seen this happen in my lifetime. When I graduated from high school in Portland, Oregon in 1964 the city was still segregated. The blacks lived in North and Northeast Portland. My west side high school had virtually no black students. A few years later I had moved from the city and was raising a family and working in the suburbs. I was working next to and sometimes for the blacks I had not seen when I was growing up. It went even deeper out there in the burbs - I had black neighbors and my son's best friend was black. Krugman claims the transition that took place in the US was the result of a lowering urban crime rate. I think that simplifies that issue. I think the most important reason is that the races got to know each other and came to realize we weren't that different.
Krugman is correct - this is bad news for what now passes as the conservative movement. Through Lee Attwater and Karl Rove the Republican Party converted bigotry into political success. But racism is not dead in America. Obama will probably not carry Appalachia. There are still people who will vote against a black man even if he better represents their interests.
This brings us to Larry Johnson and his hate filled band at No Quarter. Hillary has thrown her support to Obama and even Taylor Marsh and other Clinton supporters have said they will do the same. But not Johnson and the rest of the crew at No Quarter. Someone asked the other day: "can we call them racists yet?" about the No Quarter crew. Good question!
Update
Via John Cole - Even Laura Bush has more integrity than Larry Johnson.
Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn�t patriotic enough � First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama�s February remark that she was proud of the United States �for the first time in my adult life� was misconstrued.
�I think she probably meant �I�m more proud.� That�s what she really meant,� Bush said from Afghanistan.
�You have to be really careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,� she said.
I would have liked to have read Steve Gilliard's views on Obama, sadly no. RIP.
ReplyDeleteI used to like Larry Johnson when he was commenting on L'Affair de Plame and talking about intelligence issues. But he really came unglued with his Clinton support. I find myself wondering about some of his previous work and opinion now because of this.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to this guy?
Hi Anderson,
ReplyDeleteIn 2004 Johnson voted for Bush. In 2005 he was still regidstered Republican. In 2006 he repudiated his Republican roots but didn't become a Dem - he insisted he was neither, just "an American". Now, he's said he'll vote for Barr instead of McCain only because McCain is too Bush-like.
It's pretty clear Johnson was never a Dem, always a Republican, at heart and that his co-traveller status was always about a personal grudge over the Plame affair. Clinton is a good friend of Wilson and Plame, thus his backing Clinton.
But now that push comes to shove, he's hoisted the Jolly Rodger.
Regards, C