Letters to the Editor
anonny
Published Letters: 124 Editor's Choice: 13
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Jackie Robinson
[Read the article: Racism on the trail]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Of course Obama has to play down and ignore the racism directed at his campaign. Just as Jackie Robinson had to ignore the intense racism directed at him when he broke the color barrier in baseball. It's his only plausible option if he wants to win, and for the author of this piece to suggest otherwise is wrong.
Let's understand where we are today in the US. Not that long ago lynching "colored" was legal in states in the South. In 1948 a Presidential Candidate, Strom Thurmond, won several southern states with a campaign that was explicitly based on the preservation of Jim Crow laws, including legal lynching. Today such an open expression of pure racial hatred is no longer acceptable, but the underlying feelings are still common, even amongst our highest elected leaders. For example, in 2002 Trent Lott toasted Thurmond by saying that the country would have been better off if Thurmond had been elected president.
There are different degrees of racism. At the most modest level it is just an uncomfortableness with hanging out with people of other races. Probably the vast majority of people feel such minor racist feelings from time to time. At the more extreme levels racism involves real hatred and a total lack of empathy for people of other races. Today in America we still have a large percentage of the white population -- perhaps 10-30% -- who feel hatred for blacks, even though they may work and socialize with blacks. The exact percentage is impossible to nail down because people are careful to guard their true feelings in public. But they do exist, and they are a core constituency of the Republicans.
The solution is as it was in 1948 -- to have black people of great character break the remaining racial barriers, with the support of the vast majority of whites. Obama does not to talk about or address the racial attacks on his campaign to prove that his detractors are wrong -- he just needs to win.
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W Va is the Bible/Hate Radio Belt
[Read the article: An early look inside the minds of West Virginia voters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]W Va is an area where during the day it is almost impossible to get any radio that is not pro-Republican, either from a religious p.o.v. or from a talk radio p.o.v. It is in these areas where the under-the-radar talking points have the most affect.
By "under the radar", I mean the unofficial campaign to portray Obama as the Muslim Anti-Christ. I am not making this up. There is a very active campaign with this theme, using local talk radio, email chain letters, and church whispering campaigns.
These charges are so crazy that even Drudge won't pick them up .. but at least 10% of Americans have heard them, probably a lot more.
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@ chiefpayne
[Read the article: The president's great sacrifice]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You have to understand, politicians start wars and soldiers fight them...simple as that. I have been in for 22 years so I guess I'm used to it.
I've read similar statements before. Many of them in the German language.
On the other hand, some of us believe in the sixth commandment.
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"Peace in our Time"
[Read the article: "Hardball": Barack Obama is no Neville Chamberlain ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After returning from his meeting with Hitler, Chamberlain read a statement in front of 10 Downing St that included this infamous sentence:
"My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time."
The year was 1938.
Even all of the stupid predictions made by the Iraq War supporters before the war don't compare to the degree of wrongness in Chamberlain's statement. But, as with the pre-Iraq War predictions, there was at the time he made that statement massive evidence to indicate that his prediction would be horribly wrong. Germany's intentions were obvious. All Chamberlain did was buy time -- for Germany -- to increase its military force before WW2 started.
There are all kinds of useful lessons to take from Chamberlain's stupid error. One is to understand your foe, and his/her intentions. Another is to not sign an agreement that you do not have the power to enforce. A third is to recognize when conflict is inevitable, and prepare accordingly.
BUT, none of those lessons equates to "never talk to your enemy". Always be willing to talk -- you never know what sort of options may come about as a result. Chamberlain's error wasn't that he talked to Hitler -- it was that he believed what Hitler told him.
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This is Obama's strength
[Read the article: Obama Strikes Back]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Never forget that the election is decided by the low information voters in the middle -- the so-called "centrists" or "moderates" who just aren't that interested in the details, but who do have a sense of how well (or not) things are going.
This is where Obama will shine relative to McCain. Both men are very good at sounding reasonable and "balanced" in controlled media situations, but in a debate situation McCain will appear militant to the point of war-mongering, while Obama will appear moderate, reasonable, and rational. There may have been a time (late 2001?) when the apolitical middle would have preferred McCain's take-no-prisoners approach, but the apolitical middle is now weary of a neverending war that has no apparent purpose, and is cynical about the motivations of the war's promoters. They are looking for new leadership, and in a debate situation McCain will make it clear he represents 4 more years of the same.