Letters to the Editor
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@ RealityCounts
Aging does have some benefits. It would be nice if we could attain experience and wisdom without having to deteriorate physically, but I do like having a somewhat longer view to work from. ;-)
I agree with all that you said about Obama and his preacher. Most importantly, he will have to deal with his 20 year attendance at the church, which cannot be as simply dealt with as Farrakahan. And, of course, I don't know what lies in Obama's heart (or most any politician's). I will say that he is either a great actor and con-man, or there really is something to what he has said and done. My BS meter for politicians is pretty sensitive, and each time I've mentally set challenges for Obama on either policy or campaign management issues, he's acquitted himself better than any of the other candidates (IMHO). I know he's only human with shortcomings and defects, but he really seems to have a clear vision and the maturity to chase it constructively.
(I need to sign-off, so don't take future lack of response on my part negatively.)
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billcap
I used my post to react to only one small part of your message, and not the whole thing, and that was unfair. I'm sorry. Sometimes I rush when I write my posts, which probably doesn't give me a chance to write as effectively as I should.
I used, without adequate context, your statement about the 90% as representative of what many people who have been less diplomatic than you have used to dismiss or to bash the black voters in this campaign. You did not do that in your post, and to answer your original question, do I think his race had nothing to do with it: no, I do not. But what I was arguing is that it is not the most important part of it, and I still argue this. I'll try to respond to you better....this isn't necessarily to contradict anything you've said, but because I just want to say what I was trying to get at.
My argument is that identity politics (her being a woman) with a winning message that appealed to women could have won her 90% of the women voters. The message part has been missing for me. I'm not saying that you can't talk about identity politics at all; but the way people do so can easily be an unintended slap. As a thinking human being, never mind my gender or my race: a couple of things have alienated me from Clinton's campaign that have zero to do with identity politics: issues like her vote to authorize the use of force in Iran, without real explanation or apology. And her seeming reluctance to distance herself from the use of torture. Although the candidates do, as you say, have agreement on most issues, their differences are not just personality, it is also the way that they have chosen to present themselves. Ie when Clinton put herself on the same military playing field as McCain, this distanced me from her. I have been drawn to Obama's message because he seems to, in his own words, want to avoid the mentality that got us into war in the first place. That is both pragmatic and idealistic. I like it. It matters to me.
I think it is only when people overlook the messages in these campaigns, or the real life accomplishments of the candidates, that identity politics seem reductive. I know you have made the statement that a black McCain wouldn't win 90% of the vote, but I wish that you would provide some more information to back up your 90% and the race connection that many other than you have made here....I mean black candidates in the past have never before (that I know of)won 90% of black voters (?) Have they? And what is the usual percentage of black voters who support the candidate with a message of racial reconciliation, among other things?
Without this information, it's hard for me to evaluate the importance of race in Obama's campaign. No I don't say that to be provocative, but honestly. I've been surprised at how many people who I talk to do not say that race is what made them choose him. Everyone I talk to has an "issues" reason...either a problem with Hillary's message, or a reason that they were drawn to Obama's message, or possibly both.
I'm sorry again if I seemed to unfairly target your post: butI have to admit that in part I don't understand. Do you agree with what I've said here? And do you see how when people make reference to identity politics without also fully giving weight to the other complicating factors affecting voters, that this makes me want to throw something at them? I should not have chosen you as my target (!) I think I was unnecessarily harsh. But hypothetically speaking--wouldn't you be offended if people assumed you didn't base your vote on the issues first, and everything else being secondary?
Identity politics matter most when they are only a starting point (acknowledging what we were born with whether we liked it or not) but certainly not the ending point of who we are. Obama is the first person I've heard this from who is also running for political office. It's not so much about his race as that I think he's right.
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Blondeone, you do pester, don't you. Don't blame me for what the "Long Fellow" did or didn't do.
As you so rightly say, Eddie (later Eamon) De Valera was born in New York and his paternity may have been Cuban Isn't serendipity a great thing, just as I was putting in a little reminder of JFK's intervention in Cuba. I gather you're a believer in the idea of "the sins of the fathers" because I must have had something to do with Eire's neutrality during WW11. One of my mother's relatives was a tail-gunner in the RAF and flew over Germany, I'm told, a woman relative was a nurse in Burma which was under threat from the Japanese. I don't want to know your family history but you came on, all snarling, at me about Irish neutrality although I was responding to a post from Uncle Fester, who never feels the need to be truculent or abusive. How was I to know that you were skulking out there, ready to have a go at me!
Incidentally, De Valera was a mathematician and looked on the war which started in September l939 between Germany and Britain with a cold and calculating gaze. Apart from knowing about my excrement - and that vulgar language offends my shell-like nun's ears - I must deduce that, in your all-knowing way, you also know that Northern Ireland was not neutral. I also hesitate to remind you that the U.S. did not enter the war against Nazi Germany in l939, not even l940, and did not react until attacked by Hirohito's Japan. I'm off to Vespers now and I'll offer up a little prayer for you and all your relatives, so that they can go around saying "Top o' the'mornin" on Monday.