Writes: Harold Meyerson
It’s John McCain’s America. Barack Obama only lives in it.
….. McCain’s first post-primary ad proclaimed him “the American president Americans have been waiting for.” Not the “strong” or “experienced” president, though those are contrasts he could seek to draw with Obama. The “American” president — because that’s the only contrast through which McCain has even a chance of prevailing.
Now, I mean to take nothing away from McCain’s Americanness by noting that it’s Obama’s story that represents a triumph of specifically American identity over racial and religious identity. It was the lure of America, the shining city on a hill, that brought his black Kenyan father here, where he met Obama’s white Kansan mother. It is because America is uniquely the land of immigrants and has moved beyond a racial caste system that Obama exists, has thrived and stands a good chance of being our next president.
That’s not the America, though, that the Republicans refer to in proclaiming their own Americanness. For them, “American” is a term to be used as a wedge issue, a way to distinguish their more racially and religiously homogeneous party from the historically more polyglot Democrats.
The Republican attack against Obama all but ignores the issue differences between the candidates to go after what is presumably his inadequately American identity. He is, writes one leading conservative columnist, “out of touch with everyday America.” His reluctance to wear a flag pin, writes another, shows that he “has declared himself superior to an almost universal form of popular patriotism.”
Should the election turn on the question of “What are you going to do for America?” rather than “Are you a real American?” Republicans are doomed.
What remains for the GOP is a campaign premised more on issues of national identity, aimed largely at that portion of our population for which “American” is synonymous with “white” and “Christian,” …..[more]
From Library Journal: A Republican campaign policy of “malign neglect” toward African Americans helped elect Republican presidents in every election from 1968 through 1992, with the exception of Carter in 1976, says Mayer (political science, Georgetown Univ.). After Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, no Democrat won a majority of white votes. Mayer skillfully investigates the impact of race on presidential politics, without overemphasizing its importance compared with the economy and international relations.
He is especially insightful in showing how Jesse Jackson hindered the hapless campaigns of Democrats Walter Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1988 and how Bill Clinton was elected to two terms with overwhelming African American support.
As African Americans continue to gain more wealth, economic class, not race, will frame policies and issues, Mayer concludes. This excellent overview joins a number of recent investigations that discuss the connection between race and the presidency: DeWayne Wickham’s Bill Clinton and Black America, Dean Kotlowski’s Nixon’s Civil Rights, and Michael Gardner’s Harry Truman and Civil Rights.
Mayer’s is the only book in memory that discusses race and all presidential elections of the last 40 years. Highly recommended for academic and most public libraries. Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA
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