by That’s the pile of bullshit that Jacob Weisberg dropped at Slate this morning. Small wonder that the majority of Americans now recognize a distinct liberal bias in the media. How could they not?
Weisberg:
If it makes you feel better, you can rationalize Obama’s missing 10-point lead on the basis of Clintonite sulkiness, his slowness in responding to attacks, or the concern that Obama may be too handsome, brilliant, and cool to be elected. But let’s be honest: If you break the numbers down, the reason Obama isn’t ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He does so for a simple reason: the color of his skin.
I guess it has nothing whatever to do with his utter lack of credentials, his ultra-liberal voting record (one that’s been deliberately crafted to avoid controversy in this election cycle), or his plans to significantly increase taxes and government spending.
According to Weisberg, not only would voting in John McCain as president be a vast conspiracy of racial discrimination, it would also be cause for a vote of no-confidence in the U.S. by the rest of the world:
To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn’t just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation’s historical decline.
Just curious, but what exactly is it about Russia, for instance, that the U.S. should want to emulate? Or England, France, or Spain? Or Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, or Venezuela? What drivel. There are very few nations that the U.S. could learn anything from, Australia and South Korea being two of that elite group. Far better for the U.S. to keep setting the pace and hope that the others will someday grow up and catch up.
Weisberg does make one decent point that I’ve touched on before:
We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation, and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their lives.
This is the only reason that a vote for Barack Obama makes any kind of logical sense given his lack of qualifications and the monopoly on power his election would give to the Democrats. It is also a powerful argument.
Weisberg says that 27% of whites say too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Count me as one of them.
Electing Barack Obama would remove one of the major crutches that black society relies on to explains its problems. It would also free African-Americans from the grasp of Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc., leaders who have profited immensely from racial divisions and who have done a lot to make sure those divisions continue. An Obama presidency would invalidate them by making their positions, policies, and authority irrelevant. Small wonder Jackson wants to castrate Obama.
I am sympathetic to that reason for an Obama vote, just as I’m sympathetic to those who say that we should elect anyone who’s not a Republican given the mess they’ve made of the last 8 years.
But Barack Obama’s race is not a legitimate reason to vote for him any more than it’s a good reason to vote against him. Similarly, voting for Democrats simply because they’re not Republicans is the last refuge of the ignorant and uninformed.
Neither has anything to do with race, despite Weisberg’s hysteria, and neither would be a good decision for America.
