Patterns of Bigotry: Hillary's Wreckage

[Better Believe It]

June 5, 2008
Patterns of Bigotry
Hillary's Wreckage
By SHARON SMITH

A 2007 Gallup poll showed 94 percent of U.S. respondents saying they would vote for a Black presidential candidate, while 88 percent indicated they would vote for a woman. A Newsweek poll released on May 26th showed roughly 70 percent of voters agreeing that the country is ready for a Black man to serve as president, up from just 37 percent in the 2000 election. The political landscape has at long last shifted sharply away from the racist and sexist bigotry that have kept the popular majority so divided historically, ignoring their shared interests--and thereby allowing the political status quo to continue to flourish.

But this seismic shift in mass consciousness was nowhere to be seen in the Democratic primaries in recent months. On the contrary, as Hillary Clinton’s quest for the Democratic nomination succumbed to the momentum of Senator Barack Obama’s, the multi-millionaire Clinton ludicrously posed as a populist spokesperson for that minority of stereotypical rural, racist whites who steadfastly refuse to vote for any Black candidate -- complete with photo-ops swilling shots of whiskey and posing on the back of pickup truck. As New York Times columnist Bob Herbert noted, “There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to the South. Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way — any way — back to the White House, have leapt aboard that sorry train.”

Before embracing a classic “Southern strategy,” the Clintons seem to have paid close attention to polls such as one conducted by the Los Angeles Times in 2006 that reported only 34 percent of respondents said they could vote for a Muslim for president. Even prior to the January Iowa caucuses, at least two Clinton staffers forwarded an email reading, "Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy. Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level." Clinton summarily fired the two staffers, yet the campaign theme remained, even as right-wing bloggers circulated rumors, as the Washington Post reported, claiming that Obama is “a ‘Muslim plant’ in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible.”

In this process, Clinton has shifted the parameters of election year politics backwards by several decades--away from the most urgent issues facing voters, which include falling living standards, lack of healthcare and the Iraq war—to a debate over whether a Black person has a democratic right to become president over the persistent opposition of a minority of white racists who happen to be “swing voters.” She has deliberately stoked the mistaken and racist fear that Muslims threaten the principles of democracy.

Please read the entire article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/sharon06052008.html

[Saturday]

1. How nice. Yet another bashing Hillary thread.

:sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

2. hardly anything else. Look at the screen page.

[cliffordu]

4. Aww....

Darn it.

[pbca]

6. Don't Worry

The primary infighting on DU ends at 12 noon ET on Wednesday, June 11.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6285770&mesg_id=6285770

[Kittycat]

3. When she concedes and releases her delegates, maybe it will stop?

[Divernan]

18. When she re-programs her racist supporters' mindsets - which she has no intention of doing

The whole point of this article is that the pair of world-class narcissists known as bill & hill have nurtured the dormant racism of poor whites throughout this campaign, and the fallout from that vile act will be about as easy to clean up as the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Clintons' racist campaign is a gift of evil which keeps on giving, as we see from the more virulent HRC supporters, aka The Ignored, spewing their hate on DU. It was one thing to create and nurture these amoral zombies - quite another to return them whence they came.

[Psyop Samurai]

20. You got it... Very well said, indeed. nt

[Ian David]

7. Too fucking bad. Until she concedes and starts being gracious, you'll have to suck it up and deal.

Boo fucking hoo for you.

[ampad]

10. Now ignore knows how we felt

When they kept posting Rev. Wright threads non-stop. The only difference is that this is Hillary's doing and not something that came out of another person's mouth.

[Ian David]

12. Exactly. It's not our fault that their candidate won't allow us to move forward in unity.

That leaves two choices:

They can either stop supporting her, finally seeing her for the self-centered, selfish, egotistical piece of flaming shit that she is...

... or they can put their big-boy or big-girl pants on and suck it up.

[Stephanie]

16. Don't forget the dozens of "Whitey" threads

[gabeana]

5. great article, I am amazed that he won, here are some more excerpts

"In a rare report on the uglier encounters faced by Obama campaigners, the Washington Post described on May 13th, “For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.”

Tunkhannock Borough, Indiana Mayor Norm Ball wrote a letter to a local newspaper explaining his opposition to Obama with anti-Muslim racial stereotypes. "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country,” he wrote. “There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him. No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."

Obama supporters in Kokomo, Indiana (an historic bulwark for the KKK) have been chased by dogs and treated to a steady stream of racist invective. Obama’s Vincennes office was vandalized on the eve of the Indiana primary, spray painted with slogans such as, "Hamas votes BHO" and "We don't cling to guns or religion-- Goddamn Wright" as they proved otherwise."

funny how the Clinton supporters on this post never respond to the merits of the article, These hill supporters are cry babies

[Captain Hilts]

8. Just stop this shit. nt

[Ian David]

13. Yes, Stop this shit. Make her concede graciously and stop this shit.

Until then, fucking deal with the animosity that Hillary Fucking Clinton is creating.

Too fucking bad.

Whaaa!

[EFerrari]

9. The Clintons made a calculation about which votes they needed more,

the black vote all over the country or the "hardworking" white votes in stretegic venues.

[EFerrari]

11. Wow. This is a very well written article, whether you agree with it or not.

Worth a read.

[ampad]

14. K/R

[Stephanie]

15. Thank you very much

That is exactly what I was looking for last night. :hi:

[Divernan]

17. Hillary's brother, a deadbeat-dad, plays prominent role for hypocritcal faux feminist HRC supporters

(More from OP's link)

One of Hillary Clinton’s scandal-ridden younger brothers, Tony Rodham, briefly escaped the DNC melee at a nearby Irish bar, where he seethed over a beer, as his pregnant wife and small children waited for him to finish. There, he told a Los Angeles Times reporter, “I’m just here to make sure Americans are represented by one vote for every person.” (Rodham apparently does not appreciate that most democracies require more than one candidate to appear on the ballot, in contrast to Michigan’s, where only Clinton’s name was on offer.)

Rodham described himself as a “yellow dog Democrat, all my life” while threatening, “If my sister doesn’t end up with the nomination, I gotta take a look at who I’m gonna vote for.” Lest there be any confusion about Rodham’s political motives, his commitment to women’s rights is highly suspect. His first wife, Nicole Boxer (daughter of California Senator Barbara Boxer) was forced to sue him in court last year to retrieve $158,000 in back alimony and child support payments he had failed to deliver since they parted ways. Nevertheless, he played a prominent role in Clinton’s fracas at the DNC, which consciously pitted the interests of ‘60s generation white feminists against the African-American candidate.

[Better Believe It]

19. This Is The Kind Of Right-Wing Racist Propaganda Hillary's Campaign Gave Birth To

Thanks Hillary.

http://hcsfjm.com/