As the world now knows, President Obama over the weekend lowered the boom on David Paterson, the governor of New York. And that as such, there's all sorts of racial undercurrents to be established, expounded, embellished, exploited and then ground into fine particulate dust.
I don't even know what the word 'racist' means, and thus no expert at identifying racists, but that some of the president's loudest detractors appear to be congenitally obsessed with the fact that he's black is pretty clear. Just go to any political blog and read some comments. Or look at some of the pictures from the recent Tea Party march on Washington.
It's also clear that there exists another loud group of people obsessed with the race of those obsessed with the race of the president--and thus say, do and think equally bizarre and irrational things. Like one mouse chasing the other in a treadmill, but going in different directions. Neither of these groups appear able to get beyond the president's race, or my race, or your race. Most are not cogent, and many not lucid. Unfortunately, race appears to have consumed their minds and souls.
I try not use the word 'obsessed' non-clinically. I even looked up its definition and found it's all centered on "intrusive thoughts" and "repeated behaviors." As in: 'I need to go to Home Depot to pick up a gallon of Rouge Road Ranch deck stain, but the president of the US is black. And maybe a racist himself. And not even an American citizen [cascading intrusive thoughts], so instead of staining the deck, I'm gonna watch Glenn Beck trash that other black jerk, Van Jones.' Or: 'The US is in the process of reconfiguring its entire health care system, but some of those white people protesting in Washington might be racists [intrusive thought], so instead of reading the health bill, let me trash these white jerks on Keith Olbermann'.
See, it's all about intrusive thoughts and repeated behavior. Who knew it was this simple, right?
The president, of course, knows all this. And also knows that constructing any type of narrative around this for his--or one's own (like Paterson)--benefit is a deeply dangerous and non-productive endeavor, and thus keeps his mouth shut. He's not about to jump into the Snake Pit with these people. He's smart like that. He not only ignores their best thinking, but spurns it. Time and again. But that's why he's president, and his helpers aren't. In fact, none of his helpers even work for him. But they've nonetheless managed to become his burden.
The president knows this is all dangerously simpleminded because there is no endgame for him here--except sagging poll numbers and a premature end for his presidency. Because the president understands that the game has already been played, and that he won. And also that it's not good to get mixed up with broad-stroking anyone who just voted for him with a callow, played-out and counter-productive pejorative. This is probably because labeling anyone as racist--especially by dint of a couple thousand white people on the Washington Mall, or because of some congressional loudmouth--is a big non-vote-getter.
More precisely, labeling the Tea Party protesters as ipso facto racist because of the unanimity of white faces, may be a little off-putting to white voters from say, Davenport, Iowa or Franconia Notch, New Hampshire--both lily white states that Obama took and will need in 2012. Even to those white voters who think the enraptured Tea Party people have completely lost their noodles, it still doesn't work for the president. This is because nobody holds a monopoly on thin racial skin or racial ennui. Here's the president's fear made manifest:
“As far as African-Americans are concerned, we think most of it is,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), when asked in an interview in between sessions how much of the more extreme anger at Obama is based upon his race. “And we think it’s very unfortunate. We as African-American people of course are very sensitive to it.”
I don't even know where to begin with this. (Although I did read a columnist the other day who wrote that Johnson's quantum mechanics makes him King of the Jews.) But here's how Johnson's world view works out: Let's say Eric Holder's investigation of the CIA--a very, very big and controversial thing--vehemently upsets the people in Davenport and Franconia Notch, so let's ensure it becomes a wedge issue by not only calling them racists for hating Holder's investigation, but also that because of their opposition, every black person thinks they're racists too, (even the president, since Johnson speaks for all black people).
Great strategy. Kind of like the guy who drives his new car off the lot with the salesman and dealership owner barking at him, "By the way, we think you're a real asshole if you ever complain about the stereo or even think about not buying your next car from us--because we're sensitive about our kids starving."
People like Johnson would kill the president via a thousand cuts if he doesn't stop them.
The other thing the president knows is that the Conservative obsessives--Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, et al.--collectively could not prevent him from being elected and thus don't possess the power to prevent him from being successful or getting reelected. You don't need a calculator to figure out that the Conservative noise beast, to be effective, needs to be fed a steady diet of stupid thought, act and speech. Which the president's helpers are in the process of supplying.
Here's Exhibit B: It's called Getting the Media to Track Down the White Racist Amongst Us:
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said that it's not enough for African-Americans to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protesters, and that the media must look into their views.
"I want those people talked to; I want them interviewed," Waters told the liberal Bill Press Radio show in a podcast. "I want journalists to be all over those rallies and the marches with the birthers and the teabaggers."
The "birthers and the teabaggers," she says. Nice. Hey, maybe Waters will send her journalists after me for implying that she's a forensically clueless liability for the president.
The unfortunate thing is that I didn't go out looking for these type sound bites, they found me, like they're finding most people. And I can't even remember the last time I watched FNC (although I did channel surf by Glenn Beck the other night because I thought I might catch this wing-ding non-contemporaneously sobbing again)--so they're not coming from Fox.
This means that people like Mad Max are getting into the Moderate bloodstream. And thus present a problem for the president with the Moderate voters who elected him.
