Well, hell. That sure didn’t take long, did it? A day after Obama wins Iowa, we see nervous folk of the Pantload and Corndog persuasion having figured out how he did it:
Because Democrats think Rodney King/OJ Simpson/Michael Vick are going to kill them in their sleep. My usual snark aside, this one’s damn important. Glenn Greenwald has more.
Over at National Review, Jonah Goldberg has a “theory” about what might help Obama win in the general election. After noting that Obama will be “the first serious mainstream black contender for the White House,” Goldberg warns (emphasis added):
I think it’s worth imagining a certain scenario. Imagine the Democrats do rally around Obama. Imagine the media invests as heavily in him as I think we all know they will if he’s the nominee — and then imagine he loses. I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become completely unhinged. I can imagine the fear of this social unraveling actually aiding Obama enormously in 2008.
I wonder: in Jonah Goldberg’s “imagination,” which (ahem) “certain segments” of the American population exactly will “become completely unhinged” if Obama loses and thereby spawn “social unraveling”? And who are the people who are going so deeply to fear this “social unraveling” that they vote for Obama just in order to keep those “certain segments” in line and well-behaved?
Goldberg, of course, doesn’t have the courage to say explicitly whom he means — he just implies it with ugly innuendo — but Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds helpfully fills in the gap, approvingly quoting and praising Goldberg’s warning (“He’s right”), and then adding that if Hillary “outmaneuvers” Obama to win, “that’ll probably alienate a lot of people and cause them to stay home in November.” Just to make sure the meaning is clear, he then links to one of his own prior posts warning that a Hillary win might anger “black voters” and cause them to abandon the Democrats.
Now, this is something that needs to be said pretty early. We’ve seen what the GOP Hate-O-Tron(tm) can do to a number of white male candidates (eunuch pussies!), female candidates (closet dykes!), families unable to afford health care (lazy slobs!), working-class folks who the economy has passed by (also lazy!), lower-class folks of all ethnic varieties (Mexicans!), and anyone opposed to the war (filthy hippy traitors!).
What do you supposed they’re going to do to a black man running for President, and one that would have not only a serious shot of winning the nomination but winning the Presidency?
As I said down in the comments, the lame Muslim smear tactics have been popping up for some time now (lately and sadly, by supporters of Clinton), and it will be only a matter of time before we see jigaboo flyers appearing in mailboxes of voters in Southern states, appealing to fears of the Black Buck chasing white women…oh, it’s all so predictable.
And, of course, none of it will be endorsed by the GOP, but it will all be out there polluting the process.
With enough race-baiting, the yahoos will become unhinged and the already serious threats against Obama will likely escalate (a subject you don’t hear much about in the MSM). The level of Secret Service protection he will need if he continues to succeed in the primaries will probably be unprecedented.
And she’s absolutely right. I mean you don’t have to look very far to see that racism still gloriously exists in America in 2008, the modern damn GOP is built on it. But I truly believe that besides the whole “backhanded bullshit disguised as political discourse” we’ll see from the more “refined” wingnuts, we’re also going to see some good ol’ fashioned outright bigotry if Obama should wrap this thing up here in February.
There are thousands, millions of people out there who will see Barack Obama as the ultimate threat facing America today. And they will stop at nothing to remove that threat, ya dig? I think of lot of America is going to be shocked at the coming violence, and I do mean the word violence. After all, the economy’s going in the shitter, unemployment is up, people are losing their homes, health insurance, dignity, everything…and they are going to be looking for somebody to blame.
That somebody should be Bush and his cronies. But I’m thinking that this anger will be directed towards one Barack Hussein Obama. All the hate and fear and anger that has been fed into the GOP machine to keep it it running is going to rupture like a pus-filled boil and spew some truly ugly stuff over America. Me? I say there will be attempts on Obama’s life, and I’m deadly serious about that. There may be more than one. The Hate-O-Tron(tm) has been priming a lot of people for this moment, and they are going to react.
Meanwhile, we can’t forget as Greenwald points out up there that poison comes in far more insidious…and Doughy, Corny forms. “You’re not voting for Obama just because he’s, you know…black, right? I mean that’s kinda racist too, isn’t it?”
So rejoice America! We’ve got 300+ days of what could be the most monstrously ugly campaign in the history of modern politics! Of course, it would have been that regardless of who the Democratic candidate is, but with Obama, this is going to take on a dimension America has basically closed it eyes to since the 60’s.
Race relations in this country are going to be sorely tested. And there are those who are deeply invested in those relations reaching the breaking point.
