There is a good chance the 2008 election for the next American president could turn on Barack Obama’s patriotism. In fact there are already doubts about his love of country, like his not wearing a flag pin.
Towards the end of Hillary Clinton’s run for president, she appealed to white voters more and more nakedly. The over-45 white vote is Barack Obama’s biggest weakness, like it or not. Expect John McCain to take advantage of it too.
The easiest and safest way for McCain to say “Vote for me, I am white” without seeming to be racist about it is to play up his war record. He never has to say a bad word about Obama, trusting that enough whites will fill in the blanks on their own: Barack Obama is not a true American, he does not truly love America, you cannot trust the country to him.
True, Obama has never served his country in war like McCain did. But America was at peace in the early 1980s when he would have served. Meanwhile both Bill Clinton and the present George Bush avoided fighting in the war of their time, and yet no one has doubted their patriotism for one second.
Unlike John Kerry, Barack Obama has never given anyone reason to doubt his patriotism. There is no speech he gave in his university days, for example, where he said “God damn America”. He had a pastor once who said that, but Obama himself has never come close to saying anything like that.
Black patriotism is different than white patriotism, but it is still patriotism. To me it seems truer and deeper: it is not a sunshine patriotism built on sugarcoated lies.
Does Obama love his country? Of course: everyone knows his getting shot and killed is all too possible. It is why Colin Powell did not run in 1996. If putting yourself in harm’s way to serve your country does not prove a love of country, then nothing does.
Why is Obama’s patriotism constantly doubted? After all, no one ever doubted Hillary Clinton’s patriotism.
Because he is black.
The New Yorker’s sick attempt at humour on their cover last week shows the Obamas in the White House. He is dressed like a Muslim, she is dressed like a black revolutionary. The American flag is burning in the fireplace.
Where does that picture come from?
There is a part of white Americans that fears black men. It is the part that makes white women hold their handbags closer, the part that makes whites move out of a neighbourhood when blacks move in.
It is that part which fears Obama. In the back of too many white minds is the fear that Obama would use power to get back at whites for all the evil they have done to blacks. Payback time.
That is why they notice things like his flag pin – or lack of one. That is why his patriotism is even a question to be asked.
See also:
The potshots at Obama’s patriotism, or alleged lack thereof, are classic Republican (note that I do not use “conservative” and “Republican” in the same context, because there is virtually nothing conservative about the Republican party these days) dirty trick politics.
Bush43 was essentially a draft dodger and yet, when running him against John Kerry, a decorated war veteran, the Republicans managed to figure out a way to impugn Kerry’s “patriotism” by virtue of an act of young man’s war protest involving one of his own medals. The process was so effective that it was given its own name, in the way of modern nouns being transformed into verbs: Kerry was “Swift-Boated” out of the election.
For many Republicans, elections these days boil down to abortion, gay marriage, and shrill jingoistic chest thumping, and they are quick to engage in name-calling (queer lover; baby killer; America-hater) vs. anybody who does not toe their line on these issue.
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” For many Republicans, elections these days boil down to abortion, gay marriage, and shrill jingoistic chest thumping, and they are quick to engage in name-calling (queer lover; baby killer; America-hater) vs. anybody who does not toe their line on these issue. ”
this would come as a surprise to those who harbor concerns about immigrant labor, government spending, and crime.
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“this would come as a surprise to those who harbor concerns about immigrant labor, government spending, and crime.”
I would assume that any thinking person concerned about these issues would not be a supporter of the Republican party. As to immigrant labor, Bush43 has been prepared to allow a wide open door because he knows it benefits his big business supporters to maintain the steady supply of cheap labor. As to spending, beginning with Reagan, the republicans have time and time again been responsible for record government spending. The only real reduction in the past few administrations occurred under Clinton. Crime (like education) is and should be primarily a state and local issue, not a federal one, though the Republicans, in their zeal to grow big government, have increasingly tried to federalize law enforcement (and education).
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Abagon, not that it undermines your central point but Bill Clinton’s patriotism was repeatedly impugned both during the election and after he became President.
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Really? I do not remember that. What is an example?
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There was the revelation of a letter he wrote while a college student where he expressed his disdain for the military and his desire to avoid serving in Vietnam if he could do so without jeopardizing his future prospects. There was also his role in Eugene McCarthy’s Peace candidacy in 1972. This was when the GOP was attacking the
Democrats as the party of “Acid, Amnesty and Abortion.”
These were cited repeatedly by rightwingers and provided plenty of grist for their mills. So much so that even after Clinton’s victory there was a T-shirt popular on the right emblazoned with a hammer and sickle, depicting Clinton with the legend: “Thanks Comrades!”
This particular right wing meme never really went away but it was swamped in the public consciousness by the subsequent flood of propaganda aimed at painting Clinton as criminally corrupt.
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I believe that John Kerry is a patriot – that he did his duty but then protested against a dirty little war of imperial overreach. He is a far more honourable man than Bill Clinton or Bush the Younger. But the whole thing about the medals – or was it the ribbons? – made too many people have doubts about his patriotism.
Obama, on the other hand, has nothing questionable like that in his past, yet he is still doubted. And the doubts arose long before he was the probable Democratic nominee, when he still looked like a pie-in-the-sky long shot. Like back in November – which seems so long ago now!
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The Republicans are very good at giving people a bad name and making it stick. Unfair as it is, it is a fact of life that any Democratic nominee has to be able to overcome.
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Yes, for the most part, black and white patriotism is completely different. That is not to say that it is nonexistent—especially considering Blacks have faught in every war from the American Revolution, Civil War, World War I and II, to today’s current conflicts.
I think you are defiantly right about this. I saw this video some time ago on Macon D’s blog:
http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2008/06/hide-their-feelings-about-race-behind.html
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Aba:
I think my comment may be swimming somewhere in your spam filter.
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Thanks. I got it out.
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Indigo:
I couldn’t get to the video, but decided to write anyway. What I am remembering is that the media was all over the electorate when Obama was first in the running because he was supported by so many whites! In fact they were bemoaning the idea that he might have more white supporters than black ones.
The color of the outer coating is so unimportant considering that it is his gray-matter, which makes him a candidate for progressives. Now, if we could only activate the rest of the gray-matter surrounding us …
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Good post, gets at some of the buried crap in the collective white psyche. I’ve been thinking for a long time that Obama’s really going to get those worms to start crawling out, and it’s definitely started happening.
BTW, maybe Indigoblu’s link to my page will work this way.
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Off topic, but I absolutely love, love, love your blog.
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I’m flattered. Thank you.
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To indigoblu and Macon D: Wow, that is a pretty strong video! Ripping the calm white mask off indeed!
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