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How much are the attacks on the president motivated by racism?
Are they really meaner today than in the past and, if so, is it because he is our first African-American president? Wasn’t Barack Obama’s election supposed to signify we are in a post-racial period in America?
Those that charge the president’s critics are motivated mainly by racism offer numerous examples, such as posters at anti-Obama rallies and even statements by public officials and talk show hosts. They cite Congressman Joe Wilson yelling, "You lie" at the president during his address on health-care reform before both houses of Congress. Yet, is it really possible to quantify the racial motivation of the president’s critics? And, as John McWhorter asks in his online article for The New Republic, should we care?
Understand, I am not saying race isn’t an element in the attacks, but is it helpful to act as if that is what the attacks are all about? The idea Wilson felt free to be rude to the president because of his race is readily subscribed to because he is from South Carolina. Suppose for a moment, instead of being a Supreme Court justice, conservative African-American Clarence Thomas was the president. Do you think Wilson still would have been rude? Do you think Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck would be making racial comments about Thomas? Do you think the same people who marched on Washington a couple of weeks ago would have been protesting the likely right-wing policies of President Thomas? I doubt it. Again, this is not to deny racism exists out there among Obama’s critics, but the more critical component of their outcry is what they perceive as radical liberal policies.
Are our memories so short we don’t remember the tough criticism of past presidents? You don’t have to reach back to the Civil War era, when Abraham Lincoln was portrayed as a baboon, to recall some of the vicious attacks on past presidents. FDR was the object of intense hatred when he used government to rescue the country from the Depression. When John Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, the atmosphere in that city and the surrounding region had been outright hostility. Lyndon Johnson was taunted by chanting protestors with "LBJ! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today?" Does anyone doubt the incredible hatred the right has of the Clintons? George W. Bush was mocked and reviled. Public discourse has been tainted by the loony tunes of both political extremes since the beginnings of America.
The president himself has been reluctant to portray his critics as mostly racist. He received 48 percent of the white vote when he defeated John McCain. He knows crying "race" plays into the hands of his critics because it makes him look as if he is crying "victim," which would only turn others against him and take the focus of the debate away from the issues. In the main, the president has the issues on his side. He realizes a desperate Republican Party, helped by right-wing talk-show hosts, has greatly distorted the debate. The way for the president to win is to expose their lies to the sunlight of truth. Getting bogged down with charges and counter-charges about racism is a sure political loser.
It is true, to a large extent, the Grand Old Party has been hijacked by right-wing nut cases, but let’s also remember this party always has opposed social progress. From Social Security and Medicare to civil rights and women’s rights, and now gay rights, Republicans have been the Party of No. It is no different today, only more so when it opposes meaningful health-care reform because its interests lie mainly with the health insurance industry. Republicans, who claim to be worried about the ballooning federal debt were not worried when President Bush signed a federal drug program into effect without paying for it. They were not worried when Mr. Bush handed the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans a tax cut. They were not worried about the budget when he led us into a phony war in Iraq. They fiddled while the Bush administration turned a budget surplus into a yawning deficit. Excuse me if I find their cries of wolf today just slightly ironic.
Sure, some of President Obama’s critics may be racist, but what is more important is they are the same folks who have been wrong on the most important issues of our time for a lot of different reasons.
