Politics Of The Past

Brent Staples writes in his OpEd piece in the New York Times: "The throwback references that have surfaced in the campaign suggest that Republicans are fighting on racial grounds, even when express references to race are not evident...In a replay of elections past, the G.O.P. will try to leverage racial ghosts and fears without getting its hands visibly dirty"

Today, here on this blog I say Ja'Cuse to Mr. Brent Staples.

"In the Old South, black men and women who were competent, confident speakers on matters of importance were termed “disrespectful,” the implication being that all good Negroes bowed, scraped, grinned and deferred to their white betters.

In what is probably a harbinger of things to come, the McCain campaign has already run a commercial that carries a similar intimation, accusing Mr. Obama of being “disrespectful” to Sarah Palin. The argument is muted, but its racial antecedents are very clear. "

It is he and like-minded groups of people who are holding this nation back. This is insanity at it's best. It is 2008 and yet politicians today are being held accountable for what they say today as if it were said in the 1960's.

Mr. Obama's main arguments are always that people that oppose him are disrespectful. Mr. Obama is very sly and smart, a gifted master manipulator. The GOP is not paying attention. I hope they wake up soon. If the Republicans want to win this election they are going to need to study the politics of the past first, and make sure to avoid many key words when attacking back.

Oh that Mr. Obama is so darn smart. He chose certain words and phrases on purpose so that when the GOP comes back with the very same words pointing out the hypocracy of Mr. Obama, as was done with the Sarah Palin situation, Mr. Obama and his followers can scream racial bias.

Sneaky sneaky sneaky. Leveraging racial ghosts and fears.

It's time to live in the present and stop racial fear mongering. In the words of Eckhart Tolle : "When you are present in the moment, you break the continuity of your story, of past and future. Then true intelligence arises and also love."