Thanks to everyone who sent me clips of McCain folks acting a fool at rallies and evidence of McCain campaign race-baiting. I know I haven't talking much about Ashley Tood, and Sammy Davis and welfare lately. I was outraged for awhile and now I'm just kinda "meh" about the whole thing. Part of it is because I think Obama is going to win. But the other part is that something about it just feels petty. There are white racists among the American electorate, and the lionshare of them are supporting McCain. OK, now what?
Anyway, there's been a pretty lively debate raging between Yglesias, Douthat, Judis and Feeny. It'll probably come as no surprise that I mostly agree with Douthat, if with a significant twist. It's not that I put it past McCain's people to race-bait, it's that I really don't care. I basically think it's to our disadvantage to ascribe mystical powers to words like "welfare" and "socialism." True, I've done my share of indicting. But, I really believe that the first step in garnering the votes of any group of people, is to see them human beings with all the complexities and myriad emotions weighing on them that actual people have.
This is why I think Barack Obama will ultimately prevail. McCain's whole style is crude--vote for me if you like beefy white guys with bald heads who talk tough. Vote for me if you hate socialists. Vote for me if you think Northern Virginia is a colony of the French. Vote for me if you hate welfare. Perhaps I am giving the voters too much credit, but I just think in these economic times, in this hip-hop era, with these two campaigns, the people are paying attention. Again, that doesn't mean that the McCain's aren't race-baiting. I guess I'm just stuck on "How would I know and why do I care?"
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
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"The best way to fight evil is to do good."
The kind of stuff being trotted out by McCain, and especially his supporters, had a lot of impact for a long time -- scary shit in the 1960s, maybe even through the 1990s. Now, I don't know. It seems, well, not only dated but musty and antique. Retro slurs (the socialism thing especially), more ritual than meaningful. The B-movie remake of a much better and scarier first feature. It's lost most of its force and power, and I don't think it can be realistically revived.
Ole Karl was right, the second time IS farce. And it's not even Brumiare, I believe.
McCain's whole campaign comes down to "I'm not Obama." That's nowhere near enough of a message. That's what Kerry tried (essentially) in 2004, and although "Not Bush" was good enough for me, it wasn't good enough for the electorate as a whole.
For McCain, this negative stuff is all there is--there's not a positive, affirmative message to go with it.
I am going to be very interested to see how undecideds break. I've been hearing on my teevee that many pundits think they'll break McCain, but not by enough. I'm not so sure...they've not been given enough of a reason to vote FOR McCain, and if they haven't responded to the we-hate-Obama message by now, I'm just not convinced they're ever going to.
Here's the really ironic bit: if he WERE really a socialist, I'd be happy. Instead, he's likely to be just another centrist Dem, who will be a greater disappointment us leftists than to the moderate Republicans who are backing him now, and truth be told, to the maniacs who will through shit at him through the bars of their cages through his entire time in office. I'll be pleasantly surprised if he governs even center-left.
Ashley Tood is the best subliminal typo ever.
I do think McCain is trying not to use race, but he's trying to make a sophisticated "other" argument that is totally missing much of his base. The more flagrant race/religion/waterboarding stuff has come from the state parties.
Heh, that one was on purpose Deborah.
Oh, to not care. It may be a generational issue, but it bothers me enough to care, particularly if a race is won with race-baiting tactics. Okay, McCain probably won't win, but if he does and these are the tactics that assist him, it tells me that the majority of my fellow citizens can go along with that program. It may be something they don't personally believe in and would never practice in daily life, but race-baiting is not something they would not vote for McCain over. I believe it should be a deal-breaker. Again, it may be generational. You've proven in your writing that you are just not as racially paranoid as I am, and for that I admire and envy you.
TNC, you're such a latte-sipping elitist, I bet you drive a Volvo and listen to Enya.
"You've proven in your writing that you are just not as racially paranoid as I am, and for that I admire and envy you."
You're not paranoid, we're just different. There's a place for calling these folks out, even if it isn't mine.
I mostly agree with you. Except that when Obama wins (I started saying "when" instead of "if" this week. It feels good.) he's going to face an opposition that is not rooted in diagreement with his policies or ideology, but primarily in hatred and distrust. This fanning of the flames is going to make things very difficult and dangerous. Calling them out on their bullshit is important.
Dan, while you're of course right, Obama has shown himself to be good at disarming all but the most entrenched opposition. Provided he does a good job in office, I suspect the group you're talking about it will be much smaller at the end of four or eight years than at the beginning.
I've been wondering lately what things would look like if the Rs were running the first black candidate and the Ds were losing. While I think the Rs do have a base that is more nasty when it comes to race, I hardly think the Ds would be totally pure on the subject, especially since we have our own low-information voters. And I say that as a loyal D.
As for crossing party lines because of it, while I'd be appalled and humiliated if my party did it, I'd still probably hold my nose and vote D because there is more at stake. Like the Supreme Court. I suppose it would depend on how good the D candidate was and how awful the R too. There may be quite a few Rs that don't like the turn the race has taken but still think the overall R policies are more important.
I enjoyed Stephen Colbert's guest the other night...the actualSocialist Party candidate for president, who wanted nothing to do with Obama--and incidentally was a beefy white white guy.
TNC is right.
Everyone that has the sufficient IQ points sees it.
The old carny shill is just not going to work anymore, the GOP has scammed votes from its base with racism, classism, fear, and identity politics since Nixon at least....but it's over.
Their base is in shrinkmode.
I don't think we are postracial as much as we are multiracial and multicultural.
Its the hybrid vigor of both our genetics and our memetics that makes us strong.
That is the genius of America.
We are all part of the same crewe in the Hiphop Nation.
TNC,
Why no: "post-racial?" How do you know and why do you care?
Seems like you're of two minds here and there. As far as taking the high road, ignoring them because "they are who we thought they were" or not making too much out of coded race-baiting/otherisms... Well, when people can do that without discriminating, Obama included, I'll sign up for it (see again Obama's politically expedient bouts with Cosbyistic pathologizing Blackness up to and his efforts to distance himself from Rev. Wright and his own race speech).
Otherwise, there's no reason to be so gracious, for me at least. Obama doesn't have much choice especially since there's this whole MLK school of thought and almost reflexive pragmatic attitude you often revert to.
"and listen to Enya."
Wait a sec, I listen to Enya and I'm voting for McCain. I don't have a Volvo, but my wheelchair is from Sweden I think.
I do agree he's done a poor campaign that's not given anyone much reason to vote for him. Well except "I'm a war hero" and "It's not just Democrats who dislike me or Palin, many Republicans hate us too!"
Zak, having trouble digging up the youtube clip of that...you have a link?
@Thomas R:
Your post is quite intriguing, we know a lot about you in very few words, but I have no clue as to why you are indeed voting for McCain, or does the campaign have no influence on you?
Can you give us one or two reasons that you could use to explain your vote?
I'm personally in the tank for Obama since he announced, but I can give you lots of reasons to vote for him, and the campaign has made those reasons for me all the more powerful.
So I'm very intrigued...
In meatspace I say this all the time, so I should say it here: Obama (and the Democrats) are about to face the challenge of sustaining a victory. I learned about this from maybe the last of the old-fashioned political city bosses many years ago. Ya may not like Boss-ism as such -- but I don't know as there is any real alternative to the mechanics of it, which a successful Boss had to understand.
This guy ran a good-sized city for decades, long after virtually every other city's political machines had been broken up (and not always for the better: the point is these mechanics are like physics, they happen no matter what). Leaving aside all questions of good or bad, I interviewed him about the simple question -- how did he do it? How was it that he had managed to keep his political machine functioning after virtually everybody else had concluded the model failed?
He gave three answers. First, he said, be transparent. If critics and voters don't like what you're doing, you need to know that -- and the only way to know, is when THEY know it, too. Cuz they will probably find out where you're unpopular before you do, unless you work at it. (See, W, America's first 21st century President.)
Second, accountability is mutual: if your guys are supposed to turn out 10,000 vote pluralities in some ward and are only generating 500 vote victories, be sure that the guys under them know this is why contracts and services are harder to get. The way for the top to be accountable to the bottom is for the bottom to hold the guys in the middle accountable to the top.
And most important: beat your opponents - and then GIVE them something.
In that order. Too often, Democrats compromise to avoid a fight, and when we DO win one, we over-reach.
He told me in the end, this was the key to his enduring majorities. When times got tough and the machine had strong opponents, or rivals appeared as rebels, he made sure to engage 'em early, and whup 'em bad -- but then, he insisted that after they had been decisively defeated, they got SOMETHING, from the clear victors, that demonstrated the effective path toward their legit goals was within the machine, and not against it. You had to really work at being a jerk before this guy would isolate you. He always held a door open.
That's gonna be the challenge facing Obama and the Dems: word.
I'm not saying that the Michael Goldfarbs and Joe the Plumbers of the Republican Party, much less the Ashley Todds, ought to have the slightest cred or influence in Congress next year.
But I AM saying that folks who don't want to be associated with these knuckleheads should be presented with a real choice, which means something they want vs something they don't.
Bluntly, the Blue Dogs and moderate Republicans (okay, IF any) ought to be brought into the tent, pissing out. When they get small stuff now and then, we get big stuff steadily.
My big beefy (almost) bald white guy husband who talks tough (about comic books usually) was a McCain supporter, but turned on McCain in one day this summer when he found out that
1. McCain left his first wife after she was in a debilitating car accident as well as cheated on her with Cindy.
2. McCain called his wife Cindy the c-word (in front of reporters!).
From that moment on, he no longer had any use for McCain. At all.
When McCain asked "who is the real Barack Obama?" there was nothing sophisticated about it and Sarah Palin doesn't belong to any state parties.
Seriously, Obama's star has been rising in full public view of everyone since the 2004. Sarah Palin, apparently only known to an element of the right until weeks ago... somehow she is someone people "know" and can assume to "view America like 'we' do" but Obama, out of campaign necessity, has to make the point over and over again for no other reason than race.
I mean, if we take McCain's word for it, the way people are taking his word on not race-baiting when he apparently approved this message and tried to run a reverse-racism play with it... if we take McCain's word for it, he don't care 'bout no washed up terrorist. He also apparently doesn't care about Obama's Republican associates with the Woods fund, etc.
Exactly how anyone can separate OTHERING from Obama's race and the not-so-quietly kept White fears of Blacks plotting amongst themselves or any of America's enemy to exact historical revenge... Well, color me disinterested in that useless mental exercise.
Racism without racists is something else but if Dollar Bill McCain wasn't enough, if folks couldn't see how the whole socialism angle had a deep, historical racial context... well, given the expressed intent to plot out the dots for voters to connect them...
What the hell do you think Obama's opinion on the Warren court or the SCOTUS general capacity for "redistributive" social/economic justice is about?
Connect them dots and its nothing but the classic Black vs. White "culture war" with Obama's opinion being no different from the dreaded "Black candidate", Jesse "Palestinian" Jackson especially included.
Ain't a damn thing "sophisticated" about it. It's blatant, clumsy and telegraphed. Rev. Wright isn't needed for that. Nobody has forgotten him anyway.
McCain's whole campaign comes down to "I'm not Obama." That's nowhere near enough of a message. That's what Kerry tried (essentially) in 2004, and although "Not Bush" was good enough for me, it wasn't good enough for the electorate as a whole.
---
Ding ding ding! I would add the caveat that the "not Bush" strategy was slightly more sensible, given that Bush's popularity was just beginning to erode. But why would people vote for you if not for a viable alternative?
I want to be heretical for a minute. What if McCain wins? Gasp. I know thats a scary thought and one most people don't want to consider. But as I have said before I am a realist and I know that 8 years ago and 4 years ago Democrats thought for SURE that we would be winning the White House. But lets just play devils advocate for a minute. What if all of this race baiting and scurillous accusations and guilt by association works? What will that really say about our country. Now Coates I respect your position saying you don't care whether its race baiting, but I for one DO care because we have to all get along in this country after next Tuesday. McCain is trying his dead level best to disqualify Obama by framing him as a n-word and for any that don't see it my advice is to open your eyes. If McCain wins there is going to be a shock to the system for many people in this country. It will reaffirm the racial divide we have in a way that has been dormant since the reading of the verdict in the OJ trial. If Obama wins there will be a significant minority of people spurred on by McCain and Palin venom that believes Obama is going to ruin the country and any one who voted for him will be seen as complicit. And those people may be led to try to exact "justice" to protect their country. If you dont believe me got to freerepublic.com and browse around for a minute. Its a wonder the secret service hasnt shut that website down by now. But even if they do that won't change the tenor of the country from these last few months. Lets be real about this for a second. When you see people on those youtube clips from outside McCain and Palin rallies calling Obama everything but a child of God they don't look like they come from the backwoods or the trailer park. They dont walk around with tin foil hats. They arent chewing tobacco and brandishing a rebel flag. Most of those people look perfectly normal and I would bet if you met them in another setting you would have no clue that they would say they would "never vote for a black man" or "I dont want a black man running the country" It would be different if all of these videos were shot in the hills of appalachia but so far videos have come from Las Vegas, Colorado, Pennsylvania and other places where you don't normally associate this kind of hate with. So what exactly is fueling this hate? Is it really just racism rearing its ugly head? Or have John McCain and Sarah Palin been feeding this beast and implicityly trying to stoke racial tensions. Let me go through a few of the "code" words
terrorist
rob
welfare
socialist
marxist
communist
naive
uppity
real American
celebrity
share your wealth
sex ed for kindergarten
anti-semite
dangerous
radical
Once again these code words are going to make a difference on November 5th on how our country gets along going forward no matter who wins on November 4th. I for one am fearful of what might jump off next week
Do not fear, sgwhiteinfla.
The election result is gonna do the republican leadership like the extinction event at the K-T Boundary did the dinosaurs.
In order to evah come back to power they will need will need to become a unity party, a cuz of TEH DEMOGRAPHICS.
So instead of a leader that uses racism, classim, fear, and identity politics to scam base-votes, the GOP will have to come up with leadership that invokes the better angels of the base, tolerance, unity, etc.
The whole GOP ideology will have to change, driven not by the need to "do the right thing", thass weaksauce for them, but by the need to ever win again.
Matoko is EXACTLY right -- and it's a process progressives and Democrats should encourage, over many elections that defeat the GOP until they finally get it right.
There are plenty of examples of the McCain campaign using racist tactics, so it's somewhat pointless to debate whether this particular spread-the-wealth argument involves race-baiting.
Ditto for weak examples of "coded racist appeals" like the paris hilton ad, or "that one," or cutting an ad with too many white women in it, cutting an ad with too many black men in it, disrespecting community organizing, calling Obama "disrespectful," bringing up Obama's ties to a (white) domestic terrorist.
I realize some people have claimed those are examples of racists tactics, but that doesn't mean Ross has to use those particular examples. Why not cite the ad with the muslim music in the background? That one arguably is an example of a coded racist appeal. So I sort of feel in this way Ross cops out. And, really, he takes a pass on concluding one way or another if the McCain campaign *has* or hasn't used coded racist tactics. Maybe that's because he uses such silly examples.
I think it's intellectually dishonest to not acknowledge the McCain campaign has deployed racist tactics. Saying that doesn't mean you still can't argue that those tactics are weak and won't work, etc. Get my drift or am I blathering?
I'm 55 and so have been straddling generations re: race issues. My two cents is that McSame's race-baiting IS an important issue for many of us to bring up now, because it is an illegitimate campaign strategy. It's like tampering with the vote, it is not acceptable. It is solidly in the territory of hate crime and provokes hate crimes. If we as Americans don't censure it now and really humiliate McSame for their race- and- ethnic-fear-baiting now, it will continue to be used as a campaign strategy by Republicans for elections to come. It's just completely unacceptable.
"I basically think it's to our disadvantage to ascribe mystical powers to words like "welfare" and "socialism." True, I've done my share of indicting. But, I really believe that the first step in garnering the votes of any group of people, is to see them human beings with all the complexities and myriad emotions weighing on them that actual people have."
Republicans have been race-baiting for so long that they don't need to even discuss it openly. The South is their stronghold and they cater to their constituents. Attitudes towards race, esp in the South, have not changed as much as we think they have. You don't need to say black at all. Its not pc. They've packed all the meaning of yesteryear into liberal, state's rights, values, culture war, etc.
My feeling is IF the Republicans had put forward a better candidate, it would have worked. As I've said before McCain is not a natural leader due to his poor communication skills, erratic judgment, and indecisiveness. A stronger leader could have run a nationalist (for patriotic americans in the hinterland) campaign and won.
It also might have still worked if McCain had not chosen Palin. The experience argument was working. He neutralized it with his VP pick. Suddenly, his ticket was the most inexperienced and risky. It energized the base, but alienated non-neo/theocons.
Hicks writes: "It may be a generational issue, but it bothers me enough to care, particularly if a race is won with race-baiting tactics."
I'm 47, and it bothers me, too. I wonder what the cut-off is?
I'm also sick and tired of seeing these tactics work. Even if they don't work this time, I suspect they'll be used again. And again. I'll be caring each time I see it, but I suppose there could come a time when they'll be so ineffective I'll stop.
It is cool that Obama has been able to run as though HE doesn't care, though. His message by doing so is clear. He doesn't have to care, because he's the better candidate and the better man.
Race baiting is only a part of the problem; it's obviously going on, but what's more sinister is how much a large portion of the populace wants to collectively otherize all those they they've had under their thumbs with their silly know nothing nonsense that covers up how their Mickey Mouse sorceror's apprentice kills people and spirit at home and abroad. Even conservatives that don't agree with them are fair game.
Most of it in this election is trash talk that doesn't count for much in a losing effort, and I suppose if one has a Hindu mindset that all life's a war and then you die, even when there are lives at stake and blood being spilled, as long as one is up to facing it, facing it down isn't such a problem. Biden really did lay it out there: the bully puts you down; you get back up and punch back. It's good to have a champion, however, on your side, not on theirs.
TNC,
I really enjoyed your article. I'm 51, and being Cape Verdean and Puerto Rican (African and Latino), have experienced and gotten over my experiences with racism in America (from black, white, and brown people) and have arrived at that place where I don't care. What my experience has taught me is that people there are always going to be people tethered to those idiotic beliefs of the past. If our goal is to make a better corner of the world for our people(i.e. Americans), then we need to drop that bag of bricks from the past and free our hands to work for positive change.
P.S. I enjoyed this piece so much, I'm putting a trackback in my own blog. Keep up the good work. You have a new RSS subsrciber.
I'd add to you final questions: "and what am I really gonna do about it?". I think you are right on the money in not wallowing on this.
The only tactical advantage I can see in pressing this is that it works the media refs a little and might put McCain off balance, but at this stage the press is just overloaded and confused and McCain is locked into whatever track he's going to ride.
Got to win it, got to win it. I'll be in Grant Park tuesday, looking to see this end right.
Hey, I'm a beefy white guy with a bald head and I'm voting Obama.
So Obama's winning because McCain's style is crude. No, no, no. He's winning because it's a Democratic year. He could win with a crude style if he wanted to, a crazy Gore populist style, a boring policy wonk Hillary style - any style would have done.
"He's winning because it's a Democratic year."
I agree it's a Democratic year but let's not take things too far.
Barack Obama has the run the best race any Democratic nominee has run since JFK in 1960. I can't count the number of times that Old Man McCain &Friends have tried to smear Obama and my first instinct was "Obama needs to whip up an ad that smacks them in the face". I was convinced that the Dems biggest problem was they didn't play the black arts well enough. They had Karl Rove, we had Bob Shrum. Our ideas were better but we just couldn't articulate them. Their policies are crap but ours look like crap.
But Obama knows better. He and his people know what to do. No Drama Obama is right. His campaign ship is so tight, it's a freaking submarine. You can't get angry because they'll turn you into an angry black man. But if you don't fight, they'll beat you like they beat Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, Mondale and McGovern.
But here we are. McCain's swinging an axe, trying to split open your head open but his aim is far off. Obama sports a tactical knife; once to your lungs so you can't scream, then once to your heart and you're all done.
Of course, the political weather helps the Dems immensely, I'm not denying that. Bush put America in a hole and McCain's answer is to "start digging up, my friends"! But saying it's just that, saying that Obama could have run his campaign any way, it robs him of the due, (or dap if we want to be cool), that he deserves.
I mean, the man's name is Barack Hussein Obama, he's liberal, not from the South, no military experience, a US Senator...and black. Aside from the fact that he's actually a Christian, not a Muslim, how many more millstones do you want to see around his neck and still expect him to win? Eight years ago, if I described Obama to you and said he’s being favored to win the White House, you'd be waiting for the punch line. Just being a US Senator from the north would be enough to have the pundit’s tongues wagging with, "not sure it can happen, he doesn't have that Southern twang that works so well for the Dems".
Nuada writes: "Eight years ago, if I described Obama to you and said he’s being favored to win the White House, you'd be waiting for the punch line."
What sort of odds could you have gotten against this on September 12, 2001?
This is a weird-ass country, isn't it? This time in a good way. And while it may not make up for all the badness, it sure feels good right now.
As a beefy bald white guy in good standing, I'd like to warn you not to associate John McCain with us - It's as defamatory as OJ being taken as a representative of all blacks.
Doctor Jay,
I have a (old, battered) Volvo and listen to Enya. I'm not voting for McCain, but I also can't vote for Obama. I'm going to be writing in Harold Ford Jr., I think (as he's a Conservative Democrat.)