Letters to the Editor
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"Race and the Republican Party."
While there are a goodly number of white Democrats who won't vote for a person of color, I would dare say there are over 90% of white Republican voters who would reject a black candidate. That's your story; "race and the Republican Party."
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@coloneblog
If it were only that simple...it is about CLASS and the criminal justice system!
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Too much anger and not enough understanding
Part of the problem in that Tuesday exchange (I listened to the video) was an apparent hangover from the long years of "civil war" with Republicans. Once offended, there's a natural reaction of anger that blocks each person's ability to understand the other's point of view. So yes, you're right that both had important points to make about the fall election. Neither really listened to the other.
I did not hear Donna Brazile as anything but incsensed about the "marginalization" coming out of the "hard-working Americans, white Americans" statement. I did not hear what Joan described as retaliatory to the objectional statement about eggheads and blacks.
My anger stems from the Clintons inexcuseable references to race in the past few months. Both know better. They apparently let ambition blind them to unintended (and preventable) consequences of using Republican attack tactics.
Last September I attended an Obama campaign speech in Peterborough, New Hampshire while trying to decide who was best qualified of the Democratic candidates to be the next president. (I ended up in the Chris Dodd campaign.) The most remarkable thing about that speech was the absence of any perception of race in his personal connection with the hundreds of people listening to him speak.
As a white, working-class American male, who happens to be struggling to finish his dissertation on the non-formal education used in the civil rights movement, I think Senator Barack Obama could unite all these divisions in the Democratic Party.
I've suggested to the Obama campaign that setting out the specifics of what he envisions for this country's future will help answer the honest questions that working-class Americans need answers to before believing Obama will be a president of all of the Anmerican people. This hangover from the Republican divide-and-conquer Rovian tactics has left millions skeptical about whether any politician has integrity. I hate to say it but Senator Hillary Clinton has blown any chance of recovering from the increasing numbers of people who don't trust her.
Some of the issues that would gain the attention of blue collar Americans: returning this nation to the rule of law, cleaning up the corruption of the Bush administration that has helped widen the gap between the rich and the middle class and made the poor so much poorer, ending the corporate influence on Congress and the White House, reforming the federal tax code, finding a way to create good paying jobs, establishing a national health care system that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, reestablishing the nation's international reputation will go a long way in strengthening our economy and the dollar, finding a way to actually reform our schools, restoring the original G.I. Bill benefits to veterans as an investment for national prosperity, and ending the Iraqi occupation and the ever increasing billions and billions we owe for it.
Senator Obama's visit to the House floor was an extraordinary event. He will have to find a way to lead us all out of this mess. Remember, it is not a question of seeing is believing. We need to believe before we can see.
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Can we learn to talk about race as Democrats
I have been reading some of the posts for this editorial. I think the answer is obvious. The answer is No. Although most of the discussion is on white and black voting blocks, the true issue is about being able to have the Democratic ticket (Obama) address a penetration issue in their approach to this campaign. As many have stated Hilary is pretty much out of the running here. Unfortunately many of the posters can not deal with any issue without talking about her. Whether she is around or not the penetration issue is still a problem. Sen Obama has had trouble with White and Latino working class voters. He could manage having a problem with one of these groups. They could be balanced out by the new young voters Donna was talking about. Unfortunately he is facing small representation with both of these groups. The campaign has done little to address the issue. These are critical to a successful campaign in the fall. Yet any discussion that there might actually be a weakness leads to attack and ridicule.
Just because you hate the person giving you feedback does not make them wrong. A mature mind would look for solutions to problems before they can exploited. In this campaign going forward, the referring to attacks by the opposition as racist will not have the impact they did against Hilary. Our party is sensitive to those issues. Remember that the Repubs did not even bother to make a token appearance at the NAACP sponsored debates. They will do as they did today and refer to them being called racist a vicious personal attack of the old school politics. If we need to find a way for Obama to connect with working class people that are not black. This more a class issue than it is a race issue. That may be why people are having such a hard time grasping the feedback they are being given.
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Clinton would NOT win Ohio
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.