The education of Andrew Sullivan continues. As far as I can tell, Sullivan’s conservatism took its first big blow when the GOP decided to aid the reelection of Bush/Cheney by placing gay marriage referendums on numerous state ballots. It was further eroded, severely, by the party’s reaction to revelations of officially sanctioned torture. Now he is further dismayed to see the raw fear-based racism inherent in the modern conservative movement.
For me, this is an epiphany of sorts. Not that I have changed my mind about the things I wrote in “The Conservative Soul.” Not that I have stopped believing in limited government, individual freedom, personal responsibility, pragmatic change. But I have come to believe that large swathes of today’s conservative movement truly are hateful…
…I am immensely grateful that McCain is the nominee, because he is a far bigger man than many in the “conservative” movement today. To read the Corner today was to be reminded that some are immune to the grace and hope and civility that Reagan summoned at his best; the anger and bitterness is so palpably fueled by fear and racism it really does mark a moment of revelation to me.
As we can see from the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe editorials, the Volvo-driving, latte-drinking, elite opinion makers were tremendously impressed by Barack Obama’s speech on race. Yet, as Sullivan’s readers point out, much of white America is not listening, not impressed, and not inclined to look beyond Obama’s mixed race or his connections to the urban black community. And the GOP understands this perfectly.
“It was a speech written to mau-mau the New York Times editorial board, the network production people and the media into submission. Beautifully calibrated but deeply dishonest,” said GOP media consultant Rick Wilson, who crafted the ad in 2002 tying then-Sen. Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden. “Not good enough.”
“He wants the authentic black image but he also wants to keep all his safe, suburban Obamacans in line,” said Rick Wilson. “Well, you can’t have both – they’re mutually exclusive.”
“This is a guy who associates with some real haters,” he added.
The weapon (with video) is just sitting there, waiting to be used. Here’s a preview:
Among the e-mails Anuzis received was a link to a mash-up video splicing together Wright’s most extreme comments, Michelle Obama’s statement, footage of Obama not putting his hand over his heart during the anthem at a political event and images of Malcolm X and the two black Olympians in 1968 who raised their fists in the “black power” salute set to the iconic rap song by Public Enemy “Fight the Power.”
The video, titled “Is Obama Wright,” is described as being produced by something called “NHaleMedia,” apparently just a dummy Web site set up to produce anonymous and home-made videos.
One factor in this is the attitude of John McCain, who told Sean Hannity yesterday that he knows Sen. Obama and he knows that Obama does not share the views of Louis Farrakhan. One upside of the enforced comity of the Senate might be that McCain and Obama will carry some of that comity into the presidential race. And perhaps Sullivan is correct that McCain
is “a far bigger man than many in the ‘conservative’ movement today.” But, even if McCain takes the high road, we live in a new age of YouTube and viral email, and no campaign can control their supporters.
Michael Crowley touches on the unfortunate reality:
What Obama said from the lectern in Pennsylvania today sounded like what you’d expect him to say, in less polished form, in a frank scotch-on-the-rocks conversation. I especially admired his keen analysis of how the media treats “race only as spectacle–as we did in the OJ trial–or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina–or as fodder for the nightly news.” That’s one reason it’s sure to be a hit with elite commentators, not to mention racially super-enlightened liberal Democratic primary voters.
But those weren’t the people Obama needed to reach today. His target audience was working class white voters–Reagan Democrats with a historic tendency to let racial prejudice and fear override their other social and economic interests, and whose view of Obama the Jeremiah Wright controversy threaten to permanently warp.
Crowley doesn’t mention one other group that Obama sought to reassure, and it was reflected in the make-up of the invitation-only guest list for the speech. Any association with Farrakhan, no matter how tangential, is potential poison with a large portion of the Jewish community. And with Joe Lieberman defecting to attend the Republican National Convention, there is some question about how well Obama can do among the more conservative (and even not so conservative) of that community.
But, in sheer numbers, the Jewish community is a minor consideration compared to the larger white community. And Crowley wisely worries:
But the question is whether working class voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania and West Virginia and elsewhere believe, particularly in a stalled economy, that racially perfecting the union really ought to be a central goal of the next president. I would like to believe so. I’m not convinced they do.
No…I do not believe they do, either. Not enough of them, anyway. I don’t think we can wish away the sad reality that Obama’s race and his pastor and his church and his name and his faith are all going to be used by everyday citizens that support McCain. McCain may, or may not, keep his own campaign clean, and he may, or may not, direct his surrogates to take the high road. But this will only have a marginal effect on the volume of the racist and fear-based attacks on Obama.
I had a sad experience yesterday that, while anecdotal, gives saliency to the point. I had just left the Constitution Center after watching Obama’s uplifting speech. I was walking through The Gallery, which is an urban shopping mall on Market Street. I decided to sit down on a bench and see if I could get a wireless signal. An elderly white woman sat down next to me and was silent for a little while. Then she said, “That’s where my tax dollars go.”
I looked up at her, not knowing what she was referring to, and asked, “excuse me?”.
She nodded at a group of young early-20’s black people (some with a baby carriage) walking by, and repeated herself.
The people she was referring to were nicely dressed and appeared to be enjoying themselves as they window shopped in the mall. I think I just mumbled something like “Mmmn” and returned my attention to my laptop. Then the elderly woman said, “Do you know that Hillary is coming here today?”
I nodded, “Yes. I just came from seeing Obama.”
She frowned at this news and then said, “I’m very excited to see Hillary. She knows how to deal with [she swept her hand around to indicate the mall crowd] this.”
I excused myself.
Race is going to be an issue in this race, and we can either worry about it or we can go to work to make sure tolerance and enlightenment prevail. Obama’s speech accomplished a lot, but he is no miracle worker. Let’s not forget that.
