Obama and the Bigots

[Emit]

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: March 9, 2008

The ugliest prejudices in this campaign season are not directly about race. Barack Obama’s skin color may cost him some working-class white voters, but it’s also winning some votes among blacks and among whites eager to signal their open-mindedness. Sexism seems more of a factor. Americans have typically said in polls that they are less willing to vote for a woman than a black, and Shirley Chisholm (a black woman who ran for president in 1972) always said that she encountered more prejudice because of her sex than her race.

Yet the most monstrous bigotry in this election isn’t about either race or sex. It’s about religion.

The whispering campaigns allege that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim planning to impose Islamic law on the country. Incredibly, he is even accused — in earnest! — of being the Antichrist.

Proponents of this theory offer detailed theological explanations for why he is the Antichrist, and the proof is that he claims to be Christian — after all, the Antichrist would say that, wouldn’t he? The rumors circulate enough that Glenn Beck of CNN asked the Rev. John Hagee, a conservative evangelical, what the odds are that Mr. Obama is the Antichrist.

~snip~

Likewise, with countless people today spreading scurrilous rumors that Mr. Obama is a Muslim, the most appropriate response is a denial followed by: And so what if he were? Granted, that’s not politically realistic as a comeback. A 2007 Gallup poll found that 94 percent of Americans said they would vote for a black candidate for president and 88 percent for a woman. In contrast, a Los Angeles Times poll in 2006 found that only 34 percent of respondents said they could vote for a Muslim for president.

~snip~

To his credit, Mr. Obama has spoken respectfully of Islam (he told me last year, on the record, that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset”). If he were to go further — “and so what if I were Muslim?” — many Americans would see that as confirmation that he is a Sunni terrorist agent of Al Qaeda who is part of a 9/11 backup plan: If you can’t reach the White House with a hijacked plane, then storm the Oval Office through the ballot box.

This is a case where Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain should take the initiative and denounce the fear-mongering about Mr. Obama as hate speech. The wink-wink references to “Barack Hussein Obama” and lies about his going to a madrassa are the religious equivalent of racial slurs, and Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton should denounce them in the strongest terms. This is their chance to show leadership.

When Mrs. Clinton was asked in a television interview a week ago whether Mr. Obama is a Muslim, she denied it firmly — but then added, most unfortunately, “as far as I know.” To his credit, Mr. McCain scolded a radio host who repeatedly referred to “Barack Hussein Obama” and later called him a Manchurian candidate.

~snip~

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/opinion/09kristof.html?scp=4&sq=Obama&st=nyt

[Emit]

1. here's another link to the op-ed in case you can't get to the NYT

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/09/opinion/edkristof.php

[dkf]

2. McCain denounces and rejects smears on Obama while Hillary promotes them.

Say what you will about McCain, he has more honor than Hillary does.

[UALRBSofL]

5. It can't be any worse the Obama painting

Hillary and Bill as racists every other day. This is his MO.

[Emit]

9. Did Obama really paint Hillary and Bill as racists every other day?

[dkf]

11. Of course not. In any case, Bill and Hillary use race like

Reagan and Nixon did, but they themselves are not inherently racist.

[Emit]

12. You mean as a political tool?

I'm a political neophyte -- that, and given my age, Nixon was before my time and Reagan, well, let's just say those were my younger college years, and only knew enough at the time to not vote for him.

[dkf]

19. Exactly. Bill and Hillary will do whatever works, no matter the

divisions they create, the dislike for others that they nurture, or they people they hurt.

They use polls and psychological tricks, to build fear and to depress hope, if it suits their needs.

And they will attack rules that are not in their favor while using them to the nth degree if they are.

They are the ones who make politics all about them, not about us.

[NDambi]

16. Oh please...Bill just used code words again in Miss.

He said Obama wins those "urban" areas...

[Horse with no Name]

17. saying "urban" areas is now racist?

oy veh...seriously...wtf is suburban?
Urban and rural HAVE ALWAYS been used as descriptions.
Seriously...this fucking race baiting has.got.to.stop.

[NDambi]

18. ii see it how i see it..you can do the same

c'est la vie

[Horse with no Name]

20. so how do you explain my saying that BUSH won the urban areas

in Texas?
Can you NOT find anything ELSE to direct your fake outrage?
You are either VERY new to the political process or you are just race baiting.
Take your pick.
Urban and rural are descriptions that have been in the political vernacular for YEARS.
It is NOT a slur on obama.

[NDambi]

26. I took my pick..I told you, I see it how I see it and you can do the same...

Nothing you can say or do will change that...call it fake, call it faux, but thems the facts...live with it..or ignore it and move on...

10 seconds left in the game, you have the ball..you gonna play or pass..lmao..

[Horse with no Name]

31. So you admit you are race-baiting

Nice.:puke:

[xmas74]

28. I'm rural.

And that post sounds as if rural is automatically white-bred and racist.

That's offensive to the African-American farmers, the Latino factory workers and the anyone else living in a rural area.

Rural=small town mentality. Urban="big city" mentality. Doesn't matter what your ethnic background is-there is always a difference between small town and big city. You can tell the kids moved from one extreme to another.

Nothing racist about either term. Both just value greatly different ways of life.

[knixphan]

39. urban has been known to be common code for black

[xmas74]

27. "Urban" is not racist.

I call myself a "rural" person because I live in a rural area. We are a heavy agricultural county-most kids belong to the F4. (And it doesn't matter your ethnicity-everyone belongs to the F4.)

I see the two as completely different. I see "urban" as being big and busy, with lots of hustle and bustle, a heavy emphasis on trends and small spaces for people to live. I see "rural" as wide open spaces, slower paces , country hospitality and a bit behind on the trends.

"Urban" and "rural" have nothing to do with anyone's ethnicity. They are about areas that people live in and the way they live in those areas.

[maddiejoan]

30. WTF??

How the hell is an urban a racist code word??

[NMMNG]

32. Everything is whatever they want it to be when they want it to be it

That way HRC and her supporters can be eviscerated for it.

Then when the Obamas/their minions do something, no matter how heinous, these guys poo-poo it and tell us we're hysterical and have no senses of humor.

Forget it. You can't win with them and there's no use trying. They're playing a-la Orwell now.

[maddiejoan]

33. What gets me is this

Everytime there's a primary, and the votes are coming in, all I hear Obama supporters say is:

"Hold on --the urban votes haven't come in yet"

[Horse with no Name]

34. That fool poster just said he was race-baiting

as a tactic because it is working.

[NMMNG]

36. Don't you get it?

If you speak to or about Obama and you aren't black, you are race baiting.

Get with the new program honey.

[NMMNG]

35. Exactly

Black is white, white is black. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery.

All Hillary does is pure evil and whatever Obama does is pure as the driven snow.

[Emit]

10. He was hit pretty hard by the Bush/Rovian tactics in 2000, IIRC

Recall the anonymous push polls that asked voters whether they'd vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child.

Let's hope he remains decent with his campaign in the general, and takes the high road. I think he may have been warned, because one of his advisors has gone on record as saying he would resign as a McCain advisor and sit it out on the sidelines if McCain goes up against Obama. He didn't give details, but, he implied things might get ugly.

[JerseygirlCT]

3. Absolutely. It's a horrible, bigoted campaign to appeal to the

basest of fears that have been carefully groomed by the Bush adminstration for years.

[jalynn]

4. oh look

a McCain endorsement from dkf

[jlpohio69]

6. You just endorsed McCain....traitor!!!! (n/t)

[JerseygirlCT]

7. ???

I don't understand.

[Emit]

8. nevermind

I see you were posting to DUer dkf above

[Berry Cool]

13. You know, it's not even just the tinfoil hatters who believe this crap.

It's ordinary, average people who were told by somebody's brother's uncle's sister's husband's cousin's best friend's coworker's friend, while chatting over lunch or drinks or whatever, "I wouldn't trust that Obama guy. Did you know he's a Muslim? And you know what else? He turns his back when they play the national anthem, and he won't put his hand over his heart for the Pledge of Allegiance. Doesn't that make you wonder?"

And their reaction is "Really? I didn't know that."

Or, if they're skeptical, but really like the person who said it, and it's a pleasant social situation and they prefer not to make it unpleasant, they say "Oh?" and leave it at that. Unchallenged, unquestioned, and everyone goes away from the situation with that being the last thing they heard.

Their minds are forever changed by it.

It plants that little seed of doubt. And, really, that's all it takes.

Because how many are really going to follow up on it after that? Versus how many, the next time they get in a social situation and start talking politics, will say "You know, someone told me Obama is a Muslim?"

[Emit]

14. Yes, I agree and it has happened in my own family

I was just posting a similar comment about, sadly, my own mother, bless her heart:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4989232&mesg_id=4991739

[Berry Cool]

15. Join the club. I got a sister who's the same.

And another one not happy that Obama didn't say enough during the debate to distance himself from Farrakhan. As if he could control who supports him.

[Emit]

21. My sister's been sending me crap emails about Obama for three months

she even went to his church's website and wrote them a letter asking if a person had to be AA in order to belong to their church. She forwarded me the response they sent her in reply, and yet, she still can't get over it all. In all honesty, one of her customers had asked her about the Obama is a Muslim thing, and she was trying to refute it, so when she went on line to prove he was a Christian, she came to his church's website and came away from it with the same attitude my mother had -- that it was like a black supremacy thing.


Her husband is an HRC supporter, but I don't even think she voted in her primary (she's in Florida). All I can tell her is, don't vote for McCain in the GE -- just sit it out if Obama gets the nod and you don't feel comfortable voting for him.

[depakid]

22. It's not Farrakhan I'm worried about

it's a pastor from a church he attends in Chicago.

The far right has already made forays into that.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,256078,00.html

Expect to see a LOT more.....

[Emit]

24. Mom?

Is that you? Here on DU? :rofl:

[depakid]

25. Just sayin....

This is the kind of shit they're going to throw.

And rest assured, it'll be worse than this....

[Emit]

29. It doesn't seem to have affected him too much so far

He's drawing record crowds and has given what many perceived as the inevitable nominee a big run for her money.

I'm curious if their gonna go hard on the 'Obama=antiChrist' thingy. I'd like to see a national discussion on that on shows like Russert's Press the Meat and whatnot. :rofl:

[QC]

23. Obama was all too happy to cater to bigots when he thought

it would net him a few votes, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for him now. Live by the sword and all that.

[democrattotheend]

37. What the hell are you talking about?

[Critters2]

42. McClurkin. nt

[Emit]

38. What?

What are you talking about? Link?

[Critters2]

43. ...

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/obamas-gospel-concert-tour/

[knixphan]

40. ????

[saltpoint]

41. Here's to kick a post that among many genuinely insightful points raises

the hope of a world where human beings are judged by the content of their character, to steal from Dr. King's famous address.

I like the idea of that world, even if it can't be quickly or easily achieved, because brave men and women sacrifice all the time to make it a realizable goal.

That strong heart and that clear brain are afoot in the OP's argument. Bravo.