Thought Docket

In today’s Washington Post, the subhead for the letters to the editor was: Tuesday’s Election. I was greeted with the inane, but expected:

“For the first time, I felt that my vote was truly necessary to ensure the success of my chosen candidate.”

“Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving me back my country.”

“Finally, after eight long, dark years, I don’t have to apologize for being an American.”

“America’s vote was an indictment of the Republican Party’s policies for the past eight years.”

“…first step toward restoring America’s image around the globe.”

And then I ran into this gem, courtesy of a Mr. Paul D., of Fairfax:

Eugene Robinson’s Nov. 4 op-ed column, “A New Kind of Pride,” reminded me why I am proud to be an American and gave me hope for brighter days ahead.

However, I’ve spoken with a lot of supporters of Sen. John McCain who listed many reasons for not liking Sen. Barack Obama, never mentioning his race. They twisted themselves into convoluted and illogical justifications as they tried to make a case for Mr. McCain, but it did not take much to unravel the rationalizing. When I challenged them on the issue of race, their vehement and animated denials told me that at best they were kidding themselves and at worst they were lying. So it came down to the real, unspoken and unadmitted reason that they wouldn’t vote for Obama: He is black, making him still unacceptable to too many people.

To have such a close election in the face of so many obvious positives about the Democratic ticket and so many negatives about the Republican ticket shows that as far as we’ve come, there is no denying we still have a long way to go.

Thank goodness we now have a diagnostic tool for determining whether someone is racist.  Quick, issue an addendum for the DSM-IV.  Any case for McCain is “convoluted and illogical” and “rationalizing”.  The writer, apparently, is so macrocephalic that he can “unravel” a case for McCain with ease. The writer claims an ability to sniff out racists with ease: challenge on race and conclude racism when a denial is issued.

A straightforward and logical case for McCain and against Obama was very easy to make. I won’t offer a case here; the election is over and Senator Obama won. But the notion that Senator Obama is in some way a post-partisan, a person that compromises, and a person that finds common ground, is simply not supported by his record or the company he keeps.  Certainly this is not to say that Obama cannot or will not govern as a post-partisan.  But if President-Elect Obama is to govern as a post-partisan, if he is to remain faithful to his rhetoric, he had better not surround himself with race baiters such as the writer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.