The mood shifts
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright demonstrates his grasp of history.
A few days ago I started to write a post. This was just after the media crucifixion of Geraldine Ferraro and after I’d seen the first video (above) of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s misogynistic and fact-challenged “spiritual advisor.” The post was going to be about double standards. Double standards for racism and sexism; double standards for how the media covers the Clinton and Obama campaigns. And how those two sets of double standards have wrapped around each other throughout this political season, a kind of double-helix nightmare. But then some stuff came up here in the Smoking Lounge that required attention, so I put the post on hold.
I may still write that post. But in the meantime, events have overtaken me. The Rev. Wright thing is going viral. On top of the Ferraro nonsense, the growing realization (among what remains of the reality-based community) that the Obama campaign is more Machiavelli than Mahatma, the immense resentment over how Hillary supporters and women in general have been vilified and dismissed — suddenly something shifted. A whole lot of people snapped.
Hillary supporters at DailyKos staged a walkout on Friday night: The Left Splits: Writers Flee DailyKos Over Clinton-Bashing;
Daily Kos Writers Strike;
Update on Daily Kos Writers Strike.
Taylor Marsh reports that she’s getting a high volume of emails from Democrats vowing they will never vote for Obama. And the comment thread on that post (over a thousand comments) tells the same tale.
And those are self-identified Democrats.
As for the rest of the country — by which I mean the general electorate — the Wright thing alone is enough to render Obama untenable in November. Look, I’m an old leftist, and things like “God Damn America” don’t shock me at all. It’s true, our nation’s sins are long and deep. Wright is right (heh) about many things.
But even I feel a bit sick to my stomach when I watch him preach. It’s the sexism that disturbs me. Women have never had to work twice as hard as men just to prove themselves? (I’m betting they don’t celebrate Women’s History Month at that church.) And we may not get passed over by cabs, but then we do have that tiny little problem with being raped and murdered. When I picture myself standing alone on a dark street in New York trying to hail a cab, I next picture myself lying dead in the alley.
The dude is also just creepy as shit. “Riding dirty,” helpfully accompanied by a visual demonstration? Crowing over “the chickens coming home to roost” after 9-11? Combine that with the stuff that does shock non-leftists — God Damn America, the KKK of America bit — and what we have here, kids, is what’s popularly known as “toast.” Anybody wanna keep talking about how Obama will turn the red states blue?
Actually, yes. The party leaders, the pro-Obama media, and of course the blogger boys are all in denial. They just keep serving up ever bigger pitchers of Kool-Aid. Maybe we need to stage an intervention.
20 Responses to “The mood shifts”
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tinfoil hattie says:
He had me until he lumped Hillary in with rich white men. Asshole.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:56 am EST -
tinfoil hattie says:
“Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons”? Never had to work twice as hard to get a passing grade??? WTF???
I’m so glad you have a “God” that knows what it’s like to be a poor black MAN, too.
I’d love to have a “God” who acknowledges women as people, much less knows what it’s like to be a woman.
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SKM says:
tinfoil hattie, that crap about Clinton never having had her people declared non-persons, etc. is where Wright lost me too. I believe I gave the TV the old half-arm salute at that point, yelling all the way.
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CognitiveDissonance says:
This man is truly toxic. It blows my mind that the big blog boyz cannot understand how radioactive this man will be to most Americans. I’ve read posts where they try to claim that this is how black preachers talk. (That sounds like a racist statement if I’ve ever heard one). Sorry, I’ve been to many black churches and never heard anything like this. Martin Luther King didn’t find it necessary to dispense hate to change our country. I can just see how the people of NYC will respond about his 9-11 tirade. Want to see a blue state go red? Just nominate Obama and it will happen. And Obama’s denials that he ever heard this stuff are really laughable. Most Americans won’t buy it for a minute. If he still manages to get the nomination, we are truly stuck with McCain. I can just see the endless reels of this man during the GE campaign, painting dems as unpatriotic America haters. If they did it to Kerry with absolutely no evidence, you know they’ll do it to Obama – particularly since he also has 2 members of the Weather Underground in his closet.
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Gayle says:
I agree completely with Violet and the posters above about Wright. As I listened to him, I found myself nodding at much of what he said (Tuskegee experiments, etc) and then turned off to him utterly when he started talking trash about women (using Hillary as proxy).
I think my experiences as a member of a marginalized group have made me more sensitive to others. Why the hell are so many minority men so freakin’ blind about women’s experiences?
Regardless of how I feel about Wright’s sermons, agree with this, disagree with that, I’m now somewhat amused to find the Obamaphiles are so delusional as to think this will pass. Talk about wishful thinking! It may well fade for now (the media and the lefty blogs are doing their best to minimize) but it’s not going to die.
The right will keep playing these tapes–and add whatever else they’re holding back for now– over and over on talk radio and on Fox and their various, well funded outlets. They will use Wright to define Obama as Anti-American and they’ll add the stupid Flag pin episode and Michelle’s comments “For the first time in my life , I’m proud of my country” and whatever else they can dig up to complete the portrait.
He cannot win the GE. Ironic considering how many people, (feminists included!) voted for him because they think HRC is too polarizing to be electable.
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Violet says:
The day I’m waiting for is the day the blogger boys finally apologize to Hillary. It’ll take years, I’m sure, but it must happen.
Those tools are actually blaming this Wright video thing on Hillary. Ezra Klein just casually mentioned that of course this was probably an oppo dump by the Clinton campaign. These boys don’t even bother to check; if they did they’d know that Fox has had these tapes for a year and Sean Hannity has been trying all this time to get something going.
Even feminists routinely repeat the canard that Clinton is a racist as if that’s an established fact. Are these people so blinded by Obamamania that they can’t see they’re being punked? Do they simply refuse to read the serious articles by careful observers describing what’s really going on?
I don’t think I will ever forgive the leftist blogosphere for what they’ve done to Hillary. It is shameful, shameful, shameful.
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Gayle says:
“Are these people so blinded by Obamamania that they can’t see they’re being punked? Do they simply refuse to read the serious articles by careful observers describing what’s really going on?”
Some are genuinely enthralled by Obama. They’ve put so much stock into him, they can’t see the ugly reality yet.
Then there are the ones so riled up by the truck-loads of anti-Clinton propaganda that have been dumped on them by their trusted blogs these past months, they’re more than willing to blame her for this regardless of all evidence to the contrary.
Some, probably many, would rather go down in a loss with him than help Hillary now.
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Gayle says:
Oops, Sorry Violet.
I was thinking about the casual contributers (blogger/posters) on the big sites and you were asking about the proprietors themselves.
I haven’t read Klein since he left Pandagon, so I haven’t the slightest clue where he’s coming from. I do know most of the big blogs were pushing Edwards hard a few short months back. Kos was all but crowning Mark Warner the nominee last year– so, no, I don’t think too many of them are real Obamaphiles.
I do know a lot of the big boy (and girl) bloggers have been anti-Hillary since she announced her candidacy.
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Shainzona says:
What really blisters my bottom is the fact that Obama has – singlehandedly – trashed years and years worth of good things that both Bill and Hillary Clinton have done for the AA community. They should get credit for moving us forward as a nation in our race relations instead of being called racists. Unbelieveable. I mean, un-f*cking-believable.
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Violet says:
tinfoil hattie and SKM, I meant to comment earlier that when I first saw the video I also had a little personal rage freakout when Rev. Twit started in on how white women “fit the mold.” Never any problems being a woman, nope, none whatsoever. I don’t know if the man is just stupid or blinded with hatred of women or both.
But I forced myself to calm down to write the blog post. So I’m telling you a secret here about how much it fucking PISSED ME OFF.
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Gayle says:
Shainzona,
Yeah, that’s what finally tore it for me, too.
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Nadai says:
The day I’m waiting for is the day the blogger boys finally apologize to Hillary. It’ll take years, I’m sure, but it must happen.
You’re a lot more optimistic than me – unless you’re talking Pluto years. I don’t see any of these guys apologizing in my lifetime. Even when they’re wrong, they’re wrong for the right reason, which is just as good as actually being right.
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Shainzona says:
nadai….this really choked me up. You see, I’m 62 – have had some health problems and don’t know how much time I have “left”.
I so wanted to see women’s rights move FORWARD. And now, at this time in my life, I’m not sure that any of my marching and donating and writing has had any effect.
My heart is so sad.
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chris says:
Shainzona: yeah, me too. suddenly the Clintons are grand wizards or whatever they’re called of the KKK??? it’s absolutely shameful. equally shameful is the fact that the democratic party would allow this to happen after all the Clintons have done for the party. how many other two term democratic presidents have we had lately? if ever there was a time for a third party to gain momentum, this is it. bunches of us no longer feel welcome by the party we have supported for so many years.
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Virginia Ray says:
Violet, you are so funny I laugh out loud and snort through my nose.
But seriously. it is good that Wright has brought this stuff up — I know most of what he is saying is believed by many if not a majority of people of color. Some of it is like myths underlying the culture. I hear it a lot. We should give Wright the respect of answers.
But what their relationship says about BO is that, like the Roberts confirmation decision which I thought was VIOLET’S most brilliant post ever, Obama is brain dead to politics outside that superficial way so many liberals of the left just accept what they hear without critical analysis or distinctions.
A real abuse explodes into the probable abuse which then becomes the myth. Since Obama is not going to answer Wright as to what is real and why something is probable but without evidence or improbable. Feminists should answer Wright.
We all know this is there in the African community especially the Black Muslims in Chicago and also the Nation of Islam in the black community. It is time to look at this strange relationship between the male left, black culture and academic anti semitism with strong support for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian war with Israel and Lebanon. What do feminists have to say to the Rev. Wright?
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octogalore says:
Violet — like many of your posts, I identify strongly with what you said about rifts with others in the liberal blogosphere. My mom, 65 and an Obama supporter, just told me this morning how “annoying” it was when I forwarded her your post about Obama’s early support for Roberts. This, from a woman’s whose major concern has been elections to the Supreme Court and implications for women’s issues.
I’d love your thoughts on the following: http://octogalore.blogspot.com.....quacy.html, which was inspired by posts of yours, Donna Darko’s and Echidne’s.
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donna darko says:
Nothing trumps anything. Women and minorities should stop it.
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Lauren says:
Come ya’ll! can we say ‘Womens’ Boycott’? Isn’t it time we make a list, for example, of the businesses that support the Daily Kos, all the blogs who diss HC, and then we boycott them.
Vote with your dollars! -
atheist woman says:
What a spot on post. It is ridiculous that people are calling him racist (in regards to whites, I have no knowledge about possible antisemitism) but hell he is sexist. On an unrelated side-note, it was interesting that he said that Hillary did not know what it was like to be raised a black child by a single woman. Why is being raised by a single parent such a big deal? And did he conveniently forget that Obama’s mother was a *white* woman?
Jesus was a black man? I was under the impression he was an Arab. -
Pizza Diavola says:
And we may not get passed over by cabs, but then we do have that tiny little problem with being raped and murdered. When I picture myself standing alone on a dark street in New York trying to hail a cab, I next picture myself lying dead in the alley.
YES.
