If Barack is our candidate, how will we fight the the GOP racist attacks?

[Cyrano]

Assume that by the end of next week, Barack is our presumptive candidate.

Does anyone doubt that the party of racism, otherwise known as Republicans, will throw every piece of anti-black hatred, innuendo, and made-up crap imaginable at him?

Barack knows it. And so do we.

There's no way it can be ignored. So my question is, how do each and every one of us fight this despicable tactic that has already begun?

[Vinca]

1. How can they play the race card when McCain's daughter is a black girl

from Africa? The poor thing was the target of the 'pukes in 2000 and I doubt McCain would stand for anything remotely close to a racist attack on Obama.

[Cyrano]

3. McCain won't do it directly. Virtually the entire GOP will do it for him.

[blondeatlast]

8. Like the local radio hate-monger who did it yesterday at a campaign stop--McCain

seemed to think nothing of it (more deytails in my post below).

[blondeatlast]

6. Ah, but he let one of his surrogates make anti-Muslim and racist remarks

yesterday when introducing McCain at a campign stop--and there was no righteous idignation shown by anyone but Keith Olbermann, to my knowledge.

He was a Radical RW local hate-on-the-airwaves monger--but not a word of apology or condemnation from Bush III.

[Political Heretic]

7. I've been thinking about this - I think the answer is:

Because anyone bringing it up (i.e. us, meaning democrats) would look worse doing it than they did race baiting in the first place.

So I'm afraid they'll be free to subtly introduce racist attacks and not get called on the irony.

That said, I think the best way to combat them is head on. I really feel that is the best tactic for the entire general. We saw what happened when Kerry was too slow to punch back (no disparagement intended, it was just a tactical mistake). I believe that he should respond just about like he responded to McCain today with his THIS IS THE NEWS comback.

Hard, firm, but ISSUE BASED.

Now, this is what Hillary tried just recently, and it wasn't very good. But tone and skill in delivery is everything. You've got to look like a fighter AND look like a presidential leader at the same time. So far Obama seems to be doing that well.

[fujiyama]

11. Just a correction

The adopted daughter is from Bangladesh, which is in the Indian subcontinent, so she's not exactly black.

And while McCain and his family were targets of such attacks in '00, he has played kisseypoo over the last 8 years and sold his family out in the process. Also, while McCain wants to look dignified, he knows who it's important to kiss up to - mainly the media.

I'll never figure McCain out. I really want to think there is a part of him that is decent and honorable, but the way he's behaved over the last 5-6 years, I don't know...

[aasleka]

19. You fell for it, His daughter isn't black she's from Bangledesh

[Vinca]

22. I doubt the racist right wing of the Republican Party will appreciate

the differentiation, but I stand corrected.

[blondeatlast]

2. Just keep pointing out the racism and never back down or apologize.

Never, ever back down--call them out and make it stick.

[Radical Activist]

4. Give them plenty of rope and let them tie their own noose.

Ok, a noose analogy is bad in this context, but my point is that I don't think we have to worry too much. Just let them act like racist assholes and we'll take the votes of white moderates who are repulsed by the ugly side of conservatism. Just be ready to point and laugh at how ugly the racists in the GOP are when they reveal themselves.

The trick is not doing it too often. People will burn out and ignore accusations of racism if every little comment is called racist even when most white people can't understand what's racist about it.

[Name removed]

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[Cyrano]

9. They've barely begun. Their sewer of racist hatred is a bottomless pit.

[randr]

10. Same as ever except that

this time they will not be wearing hoods.

[melody]

12. Let them do it, stay positive, and let the reasonable people see them for what they are

Finally maybe.

[blondeatlast]

13. The party WON'T do it, but the surrogates will. I beg people on this board to read Brock's

"The Republican Noise Machine" now more than ever.

As the insider he was, he explains exactly how those same stupid phrases, code words, and sorry ass talking points seem to appear in 125 different media ooutlets virtually simultaneously.

Joey Scar, Glenn Beck, Rush, and Billow haven't had an original thought in 25 years--Brock explains where these damn things come form.

[rosesaylavee]

14. The more that garbage is slung, the higher his approval ratings will be.

WE will take the high road and stick to the issues. There are enough people in this country who have been on the receiving of racism or some other kind of ism that their sympathies will be with Obama.

McCain will be overwhelmed by the blowback if his campaign continues with those tactics.

[earthlover]

15. I dunno.... the same way the obama campaign has responded to Democrats raising the race issue....

...of course saying that the big bad Repubs will make race an issue as a justification for their making race an issue!

McCain won't attack Obama's race. He will be too busy trying to explain how his decision to go into Iraq led to the strengthening of al queda, the civil war in Iraq, the lowering of US prestige in the world, rising gas prices, and the weakened US economy and US fiscal deficit.

[devilgrrl]

16. Did you hear that Louis Farrakhan endorses him - that means Obama hates Jews!

:sarcasm:

You watch how that's spun.

[madmom]

17. I don't know, there are a lot of white people in the south (my family included, much

to my dismay) who will not vote for a black man, they wouldn't vote for a woman either.

[Forkboy]

18. Nice to see a thread being used to actually think about how to deal with this.

I was expecting another "concern" thread. It's great to be wrong.

I think we need to just fight back every single time we see it, and forcefully. If we hear someone say it in person, speak up. Online, speak up.

I also have a feeling that a lot of that isn't going to work this time. I'm sure it'll work on a few, but I wouldn't be surprised if for every person that agrees with them there will be three who don't.

[Jane Austin]

20. Head on.

Next?

[and-justice-for-all]

21. Let the racist comments fly...

it just makes them look that much worse and much more bigoted then they already are.