Letters to the Editor
OhioPlayer
Published Letters: 31
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Amen!
[Read the article: Rev. Jeremiah Wright isn't the problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To quote from article "Today, after five years of a catastrophic war driven by patriotic vengeance, it's still not acceptable to disturb the myth of eternal American innocence. As David Bromwich wrote in a recent piece in the New York Review of Books, "the uniformity of the presentation by the mass media after 2001, to the effect that the United States now faced threats arising from a fanaticism with religious roots unconnected to anything America had done or could do, betrayed a stupefying abdication of judgment." Stupefying indeed: Patriotism has proved to be a stronger opiate of the people than religion."
And in this presidential campaign we have two of the central archetypes of American mythology: John "Wayne" McCain and Hillary "Scarlett" Clinton. (Please note that both were thoroughly racist, that is Wayne and O'Hara.) And there is Obama who represents the tradition Kamiya writes about, perhaps even that of Teddy Roosevelt with his "Walk softly and carry a big stick."
Last week Obama explained black perspective of patriotism (Good Morning America) comparing it to difference between Sousa marching band and jazz. Someone on dailykos thread suggested that country music was "white man's" jazz. I responded that interestingly, since its inception country music had never evolved beyond its original form, whereas w/in its first 50 years of existence, jazz had developed into several different forms.
Someone else responded w/ sarcasm that calling white folks "simple" would "really help". My response is that to the extent that white working-class folks can not - or WILL NOT - understand that their ECONOMIC interest are linked to black folk AND that Clinton does NOT best represent their interests, then YES, they are simple-minded. After all, "stupid is as stupid does."
And again, note that it has been - and continues to be - working-class white folks who buy into the above mythology wholesale. For this reason - and some others related, i.e. has anyone thought for a moment that Obama's background may assist him in eliminating Bin Laden? - Obama as president would go a very long way toward disabusing this nation of its patriotism/racist mythology.
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Fundamental mistake
[Read the article: Hillary's bridge back to the 20th century]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Folks who think Hillary Clinton can "fight" on their behalf to make the economy more like it was during the 90s make a fundamental error in judgment. Although the 90s are not that long ago, the world has changed - and will continue to change - in ways such that the Clinton approach to problems probably will not work. Just look at how she's run this campaign, very top-down and clunky.
Voting based on nostalgia is very dangerous because when things do not work out according to voters' expectations - and again, by definition they probably won't - then the level of disillusionment is much worse.
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What a crock!
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton's big, brass ... fortitude]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I certainly believe that women can have fortitude - guts even "balls" - ; hell I believe that women tend to have more fortitude than men. With that said, I think Clinton has nothing close to fortitude - narcissistic and untrustworthy - but this meme that Clinton is "tough" is the biggest crock of shit. And all these folks who buy into it are being duped royally; they are projecting their own "toughness" onto someone not deserving of this honor. As Bill Maher has said Obama is the "Jackie Robinson" of politics. No question it was tougher for Robinson - as it has been for Obama - to play through all the bigotry. Clinton playing the mix of Scarlett O'Hara and most any John Wayne character - both deeply representative of American exceptionalism and mythology - comes nowhere near what it truly means to be tough.
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Clinton would NOT win Ohio
[Read the article: Can Democrats learn to talk about race?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know this for a FACT. The state has SIX cities each with a high concentration of blacks. In 2004, Bush increased his take of black vote in Ohio from 9% (2000) to 16%; this was his margin of victory. Kerry's failure was that he did not sufficiently motivate the black community to increase turnout. Thus, if Clinton were the nominee - and by definition this would mean she secured it by some tortured logic, e.g. "broader coalition" - then certainly black folks would vote for her but turnout would be dramatically lower. Not to mention that she would lose Independents to McCain as well as the conservative base closing ranks to support McCain because they loathe Clinton. She'd be ice skating uphill. Btw, Obama won the MOST swing county in the state, Montgomery.
Lastly, there is NO comparison of Obama's "bitter" comments to Clinton's comments on "hardworking Americans, white Americans." Obama's word choice was poor, Clinton made a DIRECT link, equating "hardworking" with "white"; as though black folks are not hardworking, which is exactly what MANY working class white folks really believe. Her comment on King and LBJ was an example of poor wording; this most recent comment does not belong in this category.