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Are Voters Who Don’t Support Obama Racists? The Twisted Logic of Political Correctness
Guest Column | By KT McFarland | July 22, 2008
By Governor Paterson’s line of reasoning, is anyone who voted against Hillary Clinton a sexist who discriminates against women?
New York Governor David Paterson gave one of the keynote addresses at the NAACP's 99th annual convention at Cincinnati last week. According to one newspaper account he “suggested that the defeat of Senator Obama in the presidential election would be a victory for racism in America.”
Huh????? Is Governor Paterson implying that anyone who votes against Barack Obama is a racist????? Can’t someone vote against him because they don’t trust his flip-flopping on major issues? Or they worry a President Obama will join the ranks of Presidents Hoover and Carter and raise taxes during a recession? Or they think Senator Obama’s plan for immediate withdrawal from Iraq would snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Or they suspect his brand of “aggressive diplomacy” with Iran would result in an Iranian nuclear arsenal? Or they believe he’s too inexperienced and untried to be president in these precarious times?
Is this what political correctness has brought us to? That we are now a nation of people who are assumed to cast our votes, not on the basis of a candidate’s record or policies, but merely on the basis of his race and ethnicity?
If so, we can forget about America. Because our greatest strength, the reason for our vitality, our creativity, our energy, our unprecedented success, is that we are a nation of the most diverse people in history. That we believe through hard work and initiative a person can rise above the circumstances of his birth. That in America a person can be anything he wants to be.
Are we to take that extraordinary advantage, the quality that makes us the envy of the world, turn it on its head, and make it our greatest weakness? America will become a nation of broken dreams if we are a nation divided, balkanized into dozens of groups pitted against each other, divided by the color of our skin, or our gender, or the year of our birth, or where our grandparents came from.
In fairness to Governor Paterson, he did talk about the need for all Americans to move beyond race, and movingly about his own experiences as an African American. But his very premise, that Senator Obama’s defeat will be a victory for racism, is twisted logic. It is by very definition…well….racist.
Think about it. By Governor Paterson’s line of reasoning, is anyone who voted against Hillary Clinton a sexist who discriminates against women? Or anyone who votes against John McCain an ageist who discriminates against people over 65?
The fundamental principle of our democracy is that people vote. That means somebody has to lose. American voters hail from every racial, religious, and ethnic group. If you follow Governor Paterson’s logic, the most important difference between our two presidential candidates is race. Not only is that morally offensive, it is just downright wrong. And it is this line of thinking, this extreme political correctness, that pits American against American. It may have begun with the best of intentions, but political correctness has now become the very thing it was supposed to defeat.
Is it racist or sexist for a person to be sick and tired of political correctness? A number of journalists have remarked on the difficulty of applying the same scrutiny to America’s first serious African-American candidate for President lest they be accused of discrimination. So they have erred on the side of handling Sen. Obama with kid gloves. But no one disputes they traded the kid gloves for brass knuckles when it came to Hillary Clinton. She was running neck and neck with Barack Obama during the primaries, but the pundits chanted a constant chorus calling for her to get out of the race. Does that mean they are sexist?
Some people will no doubt brand me a racist for criticizing Governor Paterson’s speech, but it is about time someone stood up to say that political correctness has gone to far. It may have made sense years ago, but today stands in the way of us working together to solve our problems. Enough already. Let’s stop thinking of ourselves as African-Americans or Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans or Hispanic-Americans or Asian-Americans or native-Americans. Let’s all just be Americans.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor KT McFarland is a former top Pentagon official in the Reagan Administration and a frequent television and radio commentator on national security issues and foreign affairs.
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
27 Comments | Post a Comment
For one, I’d like to see the hands of all those who find such a comment from the Honourable Governor surprising after 20 years of increasingly fascist PC posturing. If such a comment surprised you, one wonders where you have been while professors have been denied tenure, students harassed, and politicians denigrated because they dared to express the anti-dogma common sense that occurs to anyone with un-biased eyes and ears.
It has been building to this for 20 years and the realisation that such behaviour as NOT voting for the Black guy will be considered racist is simply another statement of the obvious PC brain-washing that less disciplined minds have bought. Inculcating such anti-democratic thoughts have began in education decades ago and are simply bearing their fruit in the “ist” culture the USA has become.
I’m very sorry to see this, but many of us predicted this and more as the statists took control of government decades ago.
I agree with both of you. It is racist to vote either for or against someone because of his/her color, but also it is not surprising that a minority person who is supporting a black person would attempt to sway voters by accusing his opponents of racism.
Yes, our educational system from Kindergarten through our universities is steeped in PC liberal indoctrination, and this has been the most divisive tactic ever forced upon our young people.
If you watch the empty-suited Obama try to pretend to be president while on this tour of the Middle East and Europe, you’ll see how he is being propped up by some 300 advisers, who coach him daily on how to talk, act and opine on all aspects of foreign policy. None of his words are his own. He doesn’t even realize it when he says something assinine like “Israel is the best friend of Israel,” or words to that effect, and then repeats it.
I would gladly vote for a conservative black or other minority, man or woman, because that person would more closely represent my own views on the issues facing this country. Obama is standing against what I feel the most important of those issues, and besides, his judgment and character are not on a par with what we expect for the leader of our country.
What baloney from Paterson!
Of course, it’s easy to accuse someone of racism, because the definition of the word is so elastic.
The trouble with accusations of racism, as Shelby Steele has observed, is that they are nearly impossible to disprove, and suck away all the energy needed for discussion of genuine issues.
I would have supported Michael Steele, Walter E. Washington, or Thomas Sowell as Presidential candidates. Possibly even Dr. Rice. And I would have reservations about General Powell.
I agree with your list of good conservative leaders. There are several others likewise well qualified, and one only has to recall the treatment of black conservatives by liberals to see how racism is festering among the Democrats.
Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, was treated abysmally by the liberals because of his color, and as Blogger 1947 mentions, Michael Steele in his campaign for U.S. Senator, had Oreo cookies thrown at him during a campaign speech. Those two black men have far better character and experience to lead than the junior Senator with delusions of grandeur.
Slinkie- I’d forgotten about Justice Thomas (shame on me).
What I do not understand about Mike Steele’s career is how he got bamboozled into running for that Senate seat in the first place. Given the 10-to-1 ratio of Democrats to Republicans in Maryland, and Ben Cardin’s longevity in the House, his election was a shoo-in, and Steele’s campaign a suicide mission.
Had he stayed on the ticket as LT. Governor, I think Bob Ehrlich would have won a second term, and that Steele would have stood a tremendous chance to win the governorship after that. As it was, Ehrlich picked an unknown female bureaucrat as his running-mate, and got his ass handed to him in the election. But Martin O’Malley, former mayor of Baltimore who defeated Ehrlich, has done such a miserable job that Ehrlich might stand a chance against him in 2010. All the pundits said that the Ehrlich defeat was a “referendum on Bush,” and I think Steele would have lent enough strength to the ticket to have overcome that. Especially since at his first election, the Ehrlich/Steele ticket trounced the putative winner, Bobby Kennedy’s daughter.
Steele frequently appears on TV in a point/counterpoint discussion with Parris Glendening, a former Democrat governor. He is so much smoother, smarter and more articulate than Ehrlich that it’s a good decision, and he usually ends up making Glendening sound like the out-of-touch academic that he is.
It may simply be that Michael Steele is “too good” for a career in politics.
With all due respect, Slinkie and Blogger 1947, I think Justice Thomas is disliked by liberals because he is ultraconservative, not because he is African American.
Regarding Paterson’s remark, didn’t Obama himself say the same thing? “There will be race riots if I am not elected President.” If that isn’t playing the race card, I don’t know what is.
Obama has set back race relations in the United States by many decades.
Equally as dangerous, he has tapped into a kind of fascist undercurrent in politically naive people, who worship him as a god. This is what Hitler did.
It is just as easy to hoodwink people who consider themselves to be liberal as it is to do this to conservatives.
Neither side of the political spectrum has a monopoly on gullible, naive, easily hypnotized people.
Any conservative black person is hated by the liberals, much more than a white person is. The same applies to a Hispanic conservative. Once a minority breaks free of the “victim” status demanded by the Democrat Party, he is reviled.
I have to mention also Condoleezza Rice, who was characterized as “Aunt Jemima” and President Bush’s “Brown Sugar” when she first joined his Cabinet.
The Democrats have always been the party of racists and racial divisiveness. They can’t stand the thought of losing their power over the minorities by allowing them to break the mold.
Did not LBJ sign the civil rights legislation into law, knowing it would hurt the Democratic party’s support?
Who called Condi Rice “Aunt Jemima” and “Brown Sugar”?
As far as I am aware, liberals were dismayed at her affiliation with President Bush because his policies are pro-special interests, pro-big corporations, which hurt poor and middle class people, regardless of race or ethnicity.
Certainly LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but it was only after a very long battle with most Democrats in both the House and Senate opposed to it. It was a Democrat that kept the bill fillibustered for nearly two months to prevent a vote on it, but finally it passed with a majority of Republicans and a pathetic minority of Democrats in favor.
I think it was Democrat Ted Rall who did the terrible cartoons of Condi Rice, and the liberal web sites thought they were hilarious. It had everything to do with her being a conservative black, especially one who had achieved so much without the help of Democrats.
This country has fluorished thanks to its great corporations. They provide more jobs, better benefits to workers and pay huge tax bills to cities and states. Of course, they donate more to Democrat causes than Republican, but that doesn’t stop Dems from hating them. I understand Obama plans to tax them even more, and then he’ll lead the cry that they are leaving for other countries at the cost of American jobs.
Like it or not, the big companies are owned mostly by American workers and their retirement plans.
Tara, you are right, that Thomas’ conservatism is why the leftists hate him. But the same is true of the other black conservatives I mentioned.
You couldn’t hope for a person who is more representative of the urban black experience than Michael Steele--raised by a single mother. It just happens that he turned out the way his mom wanted him to, and some view him as a traitor to his race for having succeeded.
Can you point me to an article with Obama predicting race riots if he’s defeated? I am sure he thinks that, but I don’t recall reading of him saying it, although I’ll admit I don’t exactly hang on his every word.
I think we will see a repeat of 1968 this November, regardless of who is elected. If Obama loses, especially by a close margin, the results are predictable. But living here in Baltimore, I am also aware that there is a certain sub-group of urban black people who are going to feel especially “empowered” to do violence if he wins. As though his election would be a Get Out of Jail Free card…
BTW, Tara...I don’t agree that big corporations necessarily hurt middle class and even working class people. As long as a company’s stock is publicly traded, everyone has an opportunity to buy a share of the so-called obscene profits.
As far as poor people being hurt by corporations, I don’t think they are on the radar screen. What big company would be bothered, one way or another, with a socioeconomic segment from which they cannot make money? For instance, if I am a book publisher who makes a huge profit, how does that hurt people who are functionally illiterate, or choose not to read?
Tis the color of ones Heart that determines Humanistic stimulation. The Heart of the entire PNAC Bush Admin is as Black as a Moonless Night. Just as so many Conservatives and Liberals are. They are ALL the ‘Man behind the screen’ of Cowardness and Greed. They warrant little more than having the collective of Humanity empty their bladder on them.
Find a copy of the documentary titled The Corporation. It was made recently, perhaps a year or two ago. Watch it carefully.
You do not realize that the corporations own our government.
We are not living in a democracy.
You are blissfully unaware of the state of affairs here.
That is exactly what they want.
Fred, I hope you get back on your meds and feel better soon.
Tara, the American corporations are owned totally by the stockholders, some by individual shares and some through large brokerages. Anyone who has money in the bank, CD or a retirement account at any employment, owns stock in America’s corporations. They are the backbone of this nation’s economy, and when any block of businesses fails our economy suffers in a chain reaction.
Rather than mistrust and spread propaganda, it is better to appreciate the greatness of this country and the freedom each of us has to enjoy the blessings our representative republic allows us to own.
The Democrats would prefer a socialist type of country, where a huge behemoth of central government takes over more and more of our individual rights and responsibilities, leaving an ever increasing number of Americans dependent upon government for their needs. This is actually the opposite of what our founders envisioned, and the opposite of what has made this country the best in the world.
If you think about it, one is never completely free as long as one depends on others for one’s needs. The government does not have any money; it can only take from us and give to others. If you think the corporations own the government, then realize that we, the people, own the corporations and we also own the government.
Fred - Please do not bring this sort of puerile nonsense here. On this discussion group, people have been able to express grave differences of opinion without name calling and weird abstractions. If you cannot contribute anything other than your message above, I would take it as a personal favor if you would limit yourself to just lurking, or even go somewhere else.
Tara - Slinkie has said all that needs saying in rebuttal of your rant about corporations. It has been a few years since the last time I re-read E.F. Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful,” and I certainly agree in principle with what he wrote in that book.
BUT: consider a world completely devoid of large companies. For starters, we would not be having this discussion, because there would be no computers, no telephone system, no WorldWide Web, no national power grid, no automobiles, no mass transportation, and in the net effect, no free time. People would be reduced to living at the subsistence level, traveling only by foot or horse cart, and grubbing the soil for their own food.
Amen, Blogger! This thread has devolved from its title, so I will unsub from it. Thanks to all who participated in good faith.
Slinkie
Yep Slinkie. Time to let the trolls have their day. I appreciate the discourse, while it lasted.
Color me gone, too.
Wow!!! What twisted logic!!! Hmmm, if I don’t support SenatorObama, I must be a racist? I’m a black man and I don’t support Senator Obama because I disagree with his stance on many issues. Maybe he should look at the stats to see what accounts for the more deaths in the African American community thank heart disease, drugs or accidents combined - a.k.a - abortion.
Vince, I’ll bet your friends do not consider you an Uncle Tom, either. Black people are horribly misrepresented in the political arena, IMO.
Excepting the tiny minority of jerks of every color and shade, take two American men of approximately the same age and education--one black and one white--and ask them what’s important to them. You’ll get almost identical answers, except matters of taste (clothing, music, food) or philosophy (should the government save us from ourselves, or shall we be self-reliant?)
The politicians and the media would have us think we live in a system of undeclared apartheid.
I agree w/ you Vince. I’m sure there are “some” folks who won’t vote for Obama b/c he’s black and “some” will vote for him b/c he is black. But its crazy to say that if you don’t support Obama, you’re a racist. If you don’t support Mccain, are you a racist? I’m a black woman and I don’t support Obama or McCain. What does that say about me? Actually majority of my friends don’t support him either. I think the media really underestimates the number of black conservatives and independents there really are.
Onevoice - I don’t think it’s a question of the media “underestimating” the number of black conservatives, independents and libertarians. I think it is a deliberate and ongoing distortion on their part.
Both politicians and pundits like to speak of “black interests” and “white interests” in politics. In reality, these race-based “interests” are nothing more than the career ambitions of people who bring little else to the game other than the ability to incite people’s emotions.
My black neighbors may differ on matters of taste in food, clothing and music (or they may not), and they may differ on what they view as the role of governments, but at the heart of things, every decent person wants a safe, welcoming place to live and work, an adequate income matched to the amount of work they do, enough to eat, a bit of free time and freedom of choice, and to feel appreciated.
Maybe racism is primarily caused by the very people who constantly wine about racism. Think about it. With few exceptions, in almost every city, town and hamlet in America, there is a black (colored- NAACP) ghetto. No other race or group of people that have come to America have continued to have and live in ghettos. All other groups have assimilated into American life and made something of themselves (ref. Bill Cosby). Why are there more blacks in jail than anyone else? I guess that’s because they commit more crimes. That’s not racism, that’s what happens when people commit crimes. If they would stop the criminal activity and make something of themselves, and get rid of the ghettos, then their lives would become like everyone else’s in America and they would thrive. I’m so sick of “PC” and the “Race” accusations every time a black person gets in trouble for something that THEY did, or just because someone doesn’t like someone else. The blacks are the only people who constantly call themselves ni er. I can’t spell it because I’m white and that would be racist… If you don’t show respect for yourself, then others won’t respect you. They are the cause of most of their problems and only they can fix the problem. “If the truth hurts, then let there be pain!”. I have no problem with black people but many of them still seem to have a problem with me (white people). Fix it or shut up.
Tim, that’s an accurate assessment.
Many black people in the USA have imposed a form of apartheid upon themselves.
It may be either that these are people with a pathological need to feel victimized, or that assuming the role of victim is a convenient excuse for continuing failure.
The fact is EVERYONE fails at certain points in their life. Some see a failure as a final defeat, and others as a learning experience, a challenge, a step that needs to be taken towards some larger goal.
There’s a whole industry built around motivating people, and the customer base largely comprises salespeople who work on commission. Maybe, just MAYBE, when a person is put on probation, that probation ought to include some exposure to Tom Hopkins, Zig Ziglar, or one of the other professional motivators.
Tim, Um ok. If you want to call someone a ni**er go ahead. If you want to spell ni**er go ahead. Say it out loud, maybe you’ll feel better. My husband has white friends who say it all the time. I don’t live in the ghetto, I wasn’t raised in the ghetto, nor do I know anyone in the ghetto. So that lifestyle that those people chose to live, doesn’t affect me. And besides, if a neighborhood has 200k homes and is predominately black/hispanic, people will still label it a ghetto. That’s just how some folks are. But anyways, what you see on TV is not a representation of me, or my family,or anyone I know. And, I have never called anyone a n*gger. Stop watching so much TV and stop putting a one size fits all on black people. We are just as diverse as you. My dream is for “some” black people to stop pulling out the race card when it’s not warranted. And the other other part is for “some” white people to stop playing w/ the deck of denial. lol, good night....
Anita, it is a pleasure to hear such a reasoned response as yours.
I think many people are too readily deluded into thinking that these two parallel universes known as “black America” and “white America” exist.
As a white guy in a neighborhood that has been integrated for the entire 33 years we’ve been here, I see a handful of rednecks of all skin colors. But mostly there are more things that unite us than separate us.
The idea that “white America” is a monolith means that Michael Bloomberg is the same as me, and that I am the same as my former tenant, an alcoholic who steals from her children and will prostitute herself for cigarettes or beer. I reject that notion.
The idea that “black America” is a monolith denies the existence of people as different from each other as: Shelby Steele, Ice-T, Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama, and my neighbor Sam, an emigré from Nigeria who came here with most of a medical degree completed, switched majors to pursue a CPA, got his citizenship, currently works three jobs, and whose wife drives a tractor-trailer.
The troublemakers in our neighborhood mostly hang together, and they are also a racially diverse group.
Among all the people of all ethnicities that I know, the proportion of folks with PhDs is greatest among my black friends and acquaintances.
Funny, isn’t it, how bums hang out with other bums regardless of race, and decent working people hang out with other decent working people, regardless of race.
I stand by what I wrote in #24: that everyone experiences failure in their life, and how their life ends up is dependent on their willingness to fall down, stand up and try again.
I believe Tim makes a good point when he observes that the people who seem to complain the most about “racism” are often the cause of their own problems. All stereotypes have at least some basis in truth.
There are people who have made tidy fortunes for themselves by spreading the lie that “who hurts one of us hurts us all.” In that respect, I have to put Al Sharpton into the same general category as David Duke.
I don’t normally respond but I will today. Anita, I truly am not specifically targeting blacks as a whole. I would vote for Colin Powell in a heart beat if he would run for president. If more people were like him, there would be much less trouble in the world (Ok, so he is one of my hero’s. My only one actually). My comments are not at all a “one size fits all” or referring to “stereotypes”. But facts speak for themselves. So, if my comments don’t reflect on you or anyone else who doesn’t fit those comments, then don’t be so thin skinned about them and be proud of what you have accomplished. This is not an attack. However, much of what I have stated is true and only those blacks involved can change their own situation. So without bias, my previous statement “If the truth hurts, then let there be pain” is appropriate. I’ve never had a problem with blacks and I work with many engineers who are black and of other races. I’m just highlighting the obvious. Oh, bye the way. I agree with you on the watching less TV comment. Best Regards.
July 23 at 7:58 am | #1 | Link
If I dislike communists or socialists ideals then what ever color presents these ideas or goals doesn’t matter. I fight against the ideas not the person. MLK stated that the character is the issue not the color of a person’s skin.
The Bible doesn’t get into the culture of the people neither does the Constitution, they both deal with the behavior of the people and how we ought to treat one another. Communism and socialism are not the fruits of Christianity. That is why I’m not in favor the Obama and his governing ideas.
I’ll vote for the person most likely to have an upright character, proven to abide by the Constitution, proven to be a protector our freedoms, proven a fighter for smaller government, and has a heart to be ProLife. If they’ve proven these things to me then they will most likely be able to govern and lead “We the People”. Obama appears to be none of these. Oh did I say the person had to be of a certain race? NO, I didn’t!!!