By: MICHAEL ERIC DYSON
Professor, Georgetown University

Race Has Affected the 2008 Presidential Election

There is little question that race has affected the 2008 presidential election, though often through inference and innuendo.

Initially, Barack Obama’s historic quest for the highest political office in the land was rife with suspicion from white and black quarters.

Eventually, millions of black voters signed on to his campaign after relinquishing skepticism about his being black enough and after he proved in Iowa that he could win over white voters.

Educated white voters followed suit, though Obama has had a far more difficult time effectively wooing working class white voters.

That has to do in large part with the effective, if cynical, effort of conservative activists to falsely paint Obama as an unpatriotic figure who pals around with terrorists because he is secretly a Muslim.

The manipulation of the public image of Obama as a subversive presence who hates the nation rests on racially coded inferences about unreliable blackness as it tinges the face of American politics.

Few quarters in American life have been tolerant of the complex black identities that constitute African American communities.

Republicans — Backward, Bigoted, Racist and Nativist FILTH of America

As a result, a punishing and narrow range of stereotypes have obscured the fact that black struggle for social equality and racial justice was never antithetical to the best interests of the nation.

Because black people loved the nation so much, they fought hard to make sure that it lived up to the true meaning of its creed, as Martin Luther King said.

Barack Obama represents both the maturing of black American politics, and the increased willingness of significant portions of the white population to embrace a worthy black presidential candidate.

Whether that is sufficient to propel Obama to the presidency remains to be seen. Still I am cautiously hopeful that it is.

[Enlarge] About The Author: Michael Eric Dyson (born October 23, 1958, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American writer, radio host, and professor at Georgetown University. Dyson has a Ph.D. in religion from Princeton University. He is an ordained Baptist minister. Dyson taught at DePaul University, Chicago Theological Seminary, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Columbia University and Brown University, before going to the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. There he was the Avalon Professor of Humanities. Since 2007, Dyson has been University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, teaching courses in theology, English, and African American studies. A University Professorship is said to be the highest position that a faculty member can have at Georgetown. From January 2006 to February 2007 Dyson was the host of a daily syndicated talk radio program, The Michael Eric Dyson Show, which aired on weekdays from 10AM to 1PM (EST) on the Syndication One Radio Network (owned and operated by Radio One). He is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio, CNN, and the HBO TV program Real Time with Bill Maher. Dyson is best known for his commentary on American culture, particularly as it pertains to African Americans. Dyson uses the terms “Afristocracy” and “Ghettocracy” to describe a bifurcation in American black society. He is also a leading scholar on hip-hop music and the culture that surrounds it, as well as its roots in African and African-American cultures and influence on American popular culture. Dyson is well known to repeat his famous line, “Go Ahead. Axe me a question.”

Popularity: 6% [?]

SPLC Report: An ‘American Legion’ booklet, full of anti-immigrant falsehoods

America’s largest veterans organization has launched another campaign — a hard-line attack on undocumented immigrants that’s at odds with the legion’s mainstream image. As part of this effort, the legion, which purports to speak for 2.7 million members, recently issued a booklet that regurgitates discredited and often completely false information about how “illegals” are bringing crime, disease, and terrorism to this country, even as they wreck the economy for natives.

   An American Legion post in East Haven, Conn., opened its doors last year to anti-immigration
   activists including Walter Moore (with sign). (AP)

The legion’s 34-page booklet, A Strategy to Address Illegal Immigration in the United States, asserts that “poverty, political instability, disease and war” are “on our back doorstep” because of porous borders and the failure of the government to stringently enforce immigration laws. But in making its case, the legion repeatedly cites dubious sources, ignores well-known facts and makes baseless claims — such as the false assertion that the undocumented infected more than 7,000 people in America with leprosy during a recent four-year period…..[ more ]

NOTES: CNN’s Resident “Anti-Immigrant Nativist,” anchor Lou Dobbs, repeated and popularized false claims about immigrants and leprosy. When confronted by “60 Minutes” and numerous critics, Dobbs refused to correct his statements, saying his program did not make errors.

Lou Dobbs is a major media Bigot. A Racist, Xenophobic Extortionist of NAZI proportions — in the mode of Dr. Joseph Goebbels — “Minister for Public Enlightenment & Propaganda in Nazi Germany.” Lou Dobbs’s anti-immigrant campaign is very similar to that conducted against Jews in NAZI Germany…..[ more ] [ Lou Dobb's NAZI Propaganda ]

Popularity: 10% [?]

That McCain never chose Mitt Romney, a seasoned politician/businessman, raises a big red-flag.

Consider this: Joe Biden other than Hillary Clinton was perhaps most sharply critical of Obama during the long and arduous Democratic primary.

Biden said of Obama:

…but guess what, this did not prevent Obama from choosing him as his partner. Obama has “correctly judged” that he needs Biden’s expertise to run America — an indicator that he will surround himself with the best minds to run the country, unlike Bush who looks as dumb as his decisions — engineered by “daddy’s designated chaperone,” the heartless “darth vader” Dick Cheney.

In the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, Obama has demonstrated that he will never stop trying to reach out to his political enemies. By selecting Biden, he has shown how he will govern — Even when faced with bitter opposition from members of his own party he will always try to reach a compromise, and he will seek consensus in governing.

Biden will not be a “yes-man” to Obama, instead he will be a forceful and “loyal” advocate for the Obama administration, unlike the temperamental, “erratic egotist” McCain, who cannot stand a younger more polished, taller man (Romney) as his vice-presidential choice. Romney, by far, would have been the better choice for McCain — to help him work the American economy, which McCain has said he knows very little about.

Even the “Barracuda” who looks more like McCain’s daughter, will not be able to twist McSAME’s made-up mind when it is dead-set….in the same mode as the STUPID Lying BUSH.

Right-wing SNAKE Pat Buchanan sums it up eloquently:

McCain is a rigid old-school gambler, and that’s why he chose a “harmless and easily controlled” 44 year old far-right conservative, who supported Pat Buchanan over George W. Bush in 2000.

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Palin’s right-wing extremist ideology summed up:

• She thinks global warming is a hoax.

• She backs the teaching of creationism (Intelligent Design) in public schools — in opposition to Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is accepted universally by the scientific community.

• Palin opposes abortion even in the case of rape and incest. — Unless it is her own daughter(Typical Republican Hypocrisy). Like McCain she wants to overturn Roe V. Wade. She is also a member of the radical anti-choice organization Feminists for Life.

• She opposes Gay Marriage, Domestic Partnerships and all benefits attached — Unless her own daughter/son is gay(Another typical Republican Hypocrisy)

• Palin is pro-guns and is a life-time member of the “gun-running” NRA(National Rifle Association)

• She wants ALL IMMIGRANTS kicked out of the Unites States. (McCain has been a bumbling yo-yo on immigration lately — he has one foot in the “Latino Vote Pot,” and the other in the far-right Nativist ‘Snake-Pit’)

• Palin is Pro-Death Penalty — Read: DNA Testing and the Death Penalty

The fear is that McCain unlike Obama may not lead with CONSENSUS, and will not tolerate criticism just like George Bush. He will lead with a tight-knit JUNTA just like George Bush, the latest in a long list of “RIGHT-WING AMERICAN DICTATORS.”

Like Bush, McCain seemingly follows his GUT and not his HEAD, therefore his decision making process is likely to be as flawed, straight-jacketed and as dangerous as Bush’s.

Using the words of Robert Kennedy, “past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation,” Obama correctly said that McCain has refused “to learn from the failures of the Bush years.”

America beware — A McCain presidency would definitely be a third term for Bush.

A McCain Presidency Would Be A Third Term For Bush

REFERENCES:

1. 6 things the Palin pick says about McCain — He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters — and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election — and very sick of the Bush years. McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.

2. McCain’s ‘Hail Sarah’ Pass — His choice for veep is all but set up for failure in the fall.

3. An All-Out Battle for Women’s Votes Begins.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Here is what set off Lou Dobbs — CNN’s in-house nativist/arsonist ‘compost thrower’:

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said that race is still an issue in America.

She said yesterday that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national “birth defect,” that denied black Americans the opportunities given to whites at the country’s very founding. Read the full story

Popularity: 35% [?]