Social Sense
It's certainly a curious horse race! This is going to be one for the books. I hope those of us who are grandparents keep a folder for our children for use in high school and college to correct the politically correct reporting of the election.
I wonder if the sale of adult beverages and Prozac increases as the election goes on.
Pablo
Obama knows what he’s doing. Wright is the junk-yard dog, and Obama pretends to renounce his racist comments. Let us be clear: does anyone think that Wright did not have a large hand in Obama’s election to the US Senate? Wright is a guarantee that Obama will achieve the majority of the black vote. Obama won’t be the first racist in the White House, which only means that we haven’t progressed nearly far enough in race relations.
Hear! Hear!
This is such an excellent post. What else is there to say?
“We shall know them by their fruits.” ..so so true Mustang..this man is filth and so is Hussein who has supported him for over 20 years!
Hope you aren't holding your breath because he won't answer to it before getting the nomination. If he does he'll probably distance himself from Wright (probably planned) to attract McCain's moderates.
The only fly in the ointment would be a press with a memory. After he distances himself from Wright any Republicans who bring it up will be charged with racism and not addressing the issues. That's why McCain is already walking on egg shells.
And so McCain need do nothing. He needs to remain the man of reason. Not the pie in the sky guy. Nope. Not the "Lets have more programs and maybe another department or two in the cabinet." Nope. Less government and enforcement of the laws that already exist is the way to go. Less taxes. Free market, no protectionism.
I may be entirely lunatic here, but I believe a portion of the MSM will be shamed into doing the right thing. They will have to start asking tough questions. Those questions will be about just who Obama really is AND just exactly how more and more programs (see that last 40+ years) will move our country forward vice getting us stuck in a downward economic spiral.
Foreign Affairs: (gad, maybe we ought delete the second word as it means cheating on your wife to too many politicians) The velvet glove of offered friendship but the iron fist (and a strong well-trained military to back it up).
Education: Getting the Fed. Govt. out of this. Support for vouchers and charter schools. The NEA and AFT need to be scared out of their lefty positions. Public schools ought to respond to locals. Teachers ought not, in effect, be forced to join PACS.
Education II: More and more small private colleges ought to target parents and let them know that Big Name schools (private and public) that push lefty swill ought be spurned. Do not support idiot professors. Give your kids a real education at real colleges that present all sides of an issue and not just Amerika ought be guilt ridden and we deserve frogs and locusts.
Race: Have more and more courage to tell everyone in America that we are merit based. If, however, you do not do the tough and hard work of acquiring skills and knowledge, that is a choice you are making and it isn't society's fault. You may start poor, but if you remain poor in your base of knowledge, you are primarily the one who made that choice. The past, folks, is the past. Unless we want to have a present like the Balkans, we have to forgive what our great-great grandfathers did or didn't do. I am not guilty of stuff that occured one hundred, two hundred years ago. Are you?
Parenting: This is serious work. It requires love AND attention. Demand excellence from your kids. They will appreciate and admire you for it one day. Stop buying stuff for kids. Stop the idea of entitlement.
Whoops, these aren't Comments...this is rolling into a column. Sorry.
Obama and Hillary cannot walk away from things that they have embraced for decades. We ought to point that out. Again and again and again.
Barack Obama is the largest hypocrite to date. He is a walking lie. I do not trust him. I do not trust any person, Obama and his - any person that attended that so-called church that stood there one minute after the hateful, racist, unpatriotic, unchristian like remarks and comments made by Wright. That in and of itself speaks volumes to the fact that Obama and his wife are not of any substantial character.
Thanks for your kind comments. I am humbled.
Well, keep waiting. I took a look at the church's web site and expected to find shrines to Patrice Lumumba. Not that it would have bothered me if just a bit of Lumumba had rubbed of on "Barrack Joseph Lieberman Obama" but the ministry is rather conservative.
Self reliance, healthy families, pride, self respect. Hardly a message to fear. But Wright did have a sermon in which he named some faults of America that he felt should be sanctioned by God and I can't see that he was far wrong.
So keep waiting for an apology because you get none and are owed none.
The problem here is that Reverend Wright is a complex man that isn't going to be easily explained in the blogosphere or rabies radio or on a few phony Tim Russert sound bites. That's Obama's problem and I don't feel sorry for him. He used the shallow American media to pitch his vapid "Change" message that has all the substance of air and now he sees the reverse of that system.
The Bible says "Be angry but do not sin". The Reverend is angry, he's black so he scares you. Deal with it but if you have any intellectual honesty examine the whole message.
Ducky:
If you are honest, and I think you want to be, then you will note that I am highly critical of my government, both political parties, and many of our institutions. At no time, however, do I rely on the politics of racism to make any of my points in opposition to government policy, or its negligence, incompetence, or dishonesty. You may infer what you like, but I do not fear Rev. Wright, I simply detest what he stands for; he and all of those charlatans who have made a fortune from propagating victimhood and who are perfectly content to bask in their millions while so many of their “brethren” suffer from the economic slavery imposed by liberal ideology.
Semper Fi
Obama and Hillary cannot walk away from things that they have embraced for decades. We ought to point that out. Again and again and again.
Our collective memory makes it necessary to do exactly as you suggest. It would not be necessary, however, if we were properly raising and educating our chldren.
Mike:
If a white minister, in an all-white church, spoke the messages circulated by Rev. Wright, all of us would denounce them as racist and inflammatory rhetoric. Now, it is true that Rev. Hagee in San Antonio does belch anti-Catholic nonsense, but his brand of idiocy does not mark American society as one continual example of white racism. The one incongruity to Rev. Wright, in my opinion, is that while many (but not all) whites do harbor racist ideas, most (but not all) blacks are emphatic racists precisely because of people like Wright. We cannot “get beyond” the past if we live it every single day.
I think Tad (above) has spoken correctly; McCain must maintain the moral high ground and must not become party to race games.
Thanks for stopping by.
AC:
Hope you aren't holding your breath because he won't answer to it before getting the nomination. If he does he'll probably distance himself from Wright (probably planned) to attract McCain's moderates.
I agree with your prediction; and no, I'm not holding my breath. What Obama has going for him is our collective memory queue, which is measured in nanoseconds.
Semper Fi
Race: Have more and more courage to tell everyone in America that we are merit based.
Tad, what you are suggesting will send racists into bankruptcy. Do you really want that on your conscience?
Pablo, if we continue to trivialize election campaigns, then I fear we will never begin to take political issues seriously. Elections are not athletic competition, simply because the stakes are much higher than a winner’s cup. In fact, we might argue the stakes are critical. On the other hand, I suppose such analogies are what most voters understand. I do not think this bodes well for our future, mi amigo.
Semper Fi
If Obama truly were to repudiate the racist ideas expressed by Wright, Obama would resign his membership from that church.
I'm not holding my breath for Obama's resignation. It seems to me that Wright has been one of Obama's mentors. Who are others of his mentors?
Wright may have done Obama's campaign some damage--but probably not enough. We'll see when the Democratic National Convention is held this summer.
See this essay at NRO.
All . . .
How many of us realize that we are not living in a perfect world? I suppose the answer would be, most. And so we should perhaps ask ourselves, what can we do — truly do — to make a better place for our loved ones, for the children and grandchildren who will inherit the place we made, as imperfect as it is. The list might go on for several pages, and while we can debate the merits of programs that do more to economically enslave Americans (of all colors), and make the case for what a poor investment education has turned out to be, here is what we (normally) would never find on such a register: Racial segregation.
By driving a wedge between Americans, how does he soothe the pain of the past? By segregating our dreams and hopes for the future — one set for whites, another set for blacks — how does he serve God? The answer is, he doesn’t serve God. He serves his own racist ideals, and he perverts the word of God.
I listened to what he said on tape today. I wish I could say that I am shocked; but I am not. Wright is simply another in a long line of race baiters — white and black. Wright is no history scholar, as he is incorrect in several of his assertions. I will admit that he is clever by omitting certain salient facts, but if there is one thing that did appall me—it was his claim that the government infected black people with HIV viruses. How can anyone with an ounce of brains give him any credibility after such a statement?
Folks, this is how sick men and women manipulate black Americans in order to achieve their own goals and aspirations. Wright is one of these; so are Farrakhan, Jackson, and Sharpton. And I must say that if Barack Obama seeks to represents all Americans — if he is to become America’s president, then he must categorically repudiate this kind of racial hatred. Otherwise, he is not a viable candidate. And let us be clear here — what we have seen over the past two days is not a Clinton dirty trick. This is a demonstration of black racism in a so-called church of God filled with odious hatred, to which Mr. Obama has belonged for twenty years.
Semper Fi
Author John McWhorter has repudiated the kind of thinking espoused by Wright. I recommend his book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America.
From a review of the book, at Amazon:
Are African-Americans using past racial injustices as an excuse for not working to take advantage of contemporary opportunities? McWhorter, a linguistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks he has the answers to this question and othersAand he points the finger directly at the black community. Starting with the premise that white racism is no longer the threat it once was, McWhorter singles out "the cult of victimology" and the glorification of white racism as a major cause for several social crises afflicting African-Americans....
The book was recommended to me a few years ago by a very wealthy black couple, whose son was busy crying "Poor, pitiful me," never mind that a new computer was in every room, ever bathroom had a jacuzzi, the house was a mansion, etc.
"the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America because we pressured Israel to give away parts of the West Bank."
James Inhofe -- who happens to still be a Republican U.S. Senator -- blaming America for the 9/11 attacks on the Senate floor in 2002
Of course he didn't get the attention that Reverend Wright is receiving. Fact is there were a lot of statements about the reasons for 9/11 from both sides. Most were foolish and said in a very emotional moment but we never seem to remember what came from the right and their religious fantasies.
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