Aren't they, though? I mean, isn't that like the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION for why they aren't all falling over themselves to vote for Barack Obama? (Actually, they may also all be completely irrational. But I have heard that some of them have jobs, so I think that's out as an explanation.)
Seriously, if you stop and think about it, I don't see how there can possibly be any other explanation. The American right wing must be genuinely racist. Because if you take a real look at it - feel free to use a checklist - there's just no other way it all works out. Barack and Michelle Obama are EVERYTHING the right wing, as far as I can tell, claim that they want. They come from humble backgrounds - humble but upstanding, I might add - and have worked their way up over a number of years and with a lot of hard work. They have one really nice house and one really nice car. That's what they have after all those years ... AND they're apparently happy with those things, they genuinely don't seem to feel a need for six more houses and/or condos. >:-) They have put themselves through school to get good educations, which they have used for the good of their community, doing a lot of community-based work (too bad that that's worthless ...) and have also done a lot of work with faith-based initiatives. Michelle quit her job as a highly paid attorney to do exactly that kind of work. They have a long-term, stable, loving marriage, they obviously feel a great deal of affection and respect towards each other. It is the first and only marriage for them both. They have two children - that they waited to have until they were sure they could afford to support a family! - whom they are obviously raising in a loving and supportive way. (Seriously, check out those kids - Malia and Sasha Obama are wonderful little girls; confident, outgoing, sociable and spunky - you can't coach kids to be that way, all you can do is just be really good parents.) They have integrity, they have respect for others ... they are committed to their Christian faith, which makes them kind of dingbats in my eyes, but I'm not talking about my perception of anything here. They are committed to and respectful towards their family.
Seriously - as far as I can tell, in the eyes of the American right wing, there's only one thing that's wrong with these people.
On the other hand, you have John and Cindy McCain, who apparently are the ones the right wing want. Despite the fact that he, who's never really worked for any achievement in his life (if you concede that he has actually managed to achieve anything >:-), married a young and beautiful woman, came back (handicapped himself) from the war to find her disfigured and handicapped in a car accident and then took off to marry a younger and more beautiful woman. And she, who's been rolling in money her entire life, decided to adopt a child without telling her husband until, what, she actually showed up in their house ... one of their houses ... with the kid. 'Look, honey, here's our new daughter' ...
Maybe I'm exaggerating for effect. I don't have the energy (or interest) to do any proper research on this. But I think my point is clear.
Seeing these two couples at last week's debate was really interesting. The Obamas walked in side by side, holding hands. The McCains walked one after the other, she three steps behind. After the debate was over, Barack went to find Michelle, actually actively looked for her, and when he got to where she was he hugged and kissed her. John just stood there and Cindy had to walk up to him ... to be rewarded with one of those little pecks on the cheek that she gets. Actually, seeing those couples on any occasion whatsoever is interesting. When you see the Obamas together, you can never for a moment doubt what they are to each other. These two people are husband and wife. It would take you a split second to see that if you didn't already know it. The McCains, on the other hand - I have a hard time seeing them as a married couple even knowing that they are. If I didn't know, I don't think I'd ever guess. I think I'd assume that they were uncle and niece, or maybe father and daughter who had kind of a strained relationship. These two couples are SO DIFFERENT ... !
If one really believes in family values and hard work above all else, then what the hell does one as a right wing American really have to choose from in this election?? I ask you. I wish some natives could try to answer this.
They're racists. That's the only explanation there is.
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6 hours ago
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One of the few Republicans over at the BookCrossing forums (one of the worst BookCrossers to discuss anything with, since he normally just posts his opinion and leaves) tried to cough up a few other reasons why his ilk don't like Obama, just now. Some of them are just too irrelevant to bother with. Like how mean ol' Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq - like they have money to go on fighting there for much longer anyway. But I want to keep these:
Could it be his extreme liberal views
LOL!!! 'Extreme liberal views'!! Now I really have heard everything. :-D
This guy is actually really funny - he lives in like his own little bubble world where everything is just the way he wants to perceive it. I think maybe the walls of the bubble distort the view. But seriously - Barack Obama, extremely liberal? Then you just don't know what liberal actually means. In either sense of the word, apparently.
and die-hard loyalty to party politics
Loyalty bad, disloyalty good ... ??!
voting with Democrats 97% of the time
Unlike McSame who only votes with his party 90-95% of the time, I guess.
Could it be the fear many Americans have, including myself, over affording the increased taxes when it is tough to make ends meet already?
I think I'll have to write another blog post some time about these bizarre ideas so many Americans seem to have about taxes. Like, it's the big bad state coming to take their money away. Hello, that's happening anyway. They just call it something else. And isn't it weird that in the countries where life on average is best, taxation is also highest? Huh.
Be that as it may: The next American president will have to raise taxes whether he wants to or not, whether he plans to or not. Taxes in the US will have to go up, whatever happens, just to keep the infrastructure of the nation intact. So anyone who's letting a candidate's stand on taxes be the deciding factor for their vote may be in for a rude awakening.
Personally I kind of like paying taxes. I don't see it as a punishment, I see it as a privilege. The taxes that I pay are the contribution that I am allowed to make towards the healthy functioning of the society that I live in. I'm glad to be able to contribute to that.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to blog about this sometime. :-)
Seeing some of the nasty anti-Obama swipes passed around the internet, it is clear they are using the race card as one of their angles, this is a clear Karl Von Rove tactic.
For months they have used bloggers and e-mail to forward the idea that Obama was muslim, now we have Palin overtly saying he consorts with terrorists. So I believe the internet is a testing ground for what idea the McCain campaign will use, and sadly, pathetically, they have to resort to these methods as McCain is so lackluster.
For example, there was the raunchy video on Fox's comedy show (Saturday Night Live is too liberal?), forget the name - right wing comedy is lousy - which showed the Obama character dancing suggestively with a Hilary character, to the words of "I want to be on top of Obama".
And, IIRC, there was an election in Tennessee in which a similar smear was made against the politician, a black, and he lost.
But your question is - does this work? Are people buying this garbage? Hard to say, as the Mexican immigrant on Now (PBS show) said today he was voting for McCain because he has experience, or the other person who liked him because he was pro-war. Of course, no one will admit - because he's black.
But it is truly stunning, that after the drubbing the American public has taken as a direct result of the neo-con, hard right wing extremist Bush administration - 9/11 (Yes, whether you believe this was an inside job, or pure incompetence, it would not have happened on someone else's watch, who was on the ball, so the blame is entirely on Bush), Katrina, Abu-Gharaib, and the entire bungling of the Iraq War, the billions "lost", Afghanistan, and now the disastrous policies of Bush's handling of Wall Street (what do we expect hiring the fox to guard the hen house?).
Oh yes, we have lower taxes alright. What a laugh. We're also paying $4.00 a gallon for fuel, health care has gone through the roof, staples like eggs, milk have all increased dramatically in price, but fear fear fear, Obama will raise taxes (yes, if you are Exxon making record profits, billions per quarter, so ?)
Anyway, our money will soon be so much monopoly money, or we'll be jobless.
I used to think it was some deep character flaw, the Germans electing Hitler, or Stalin's rise to power in Russia. Now I see this is purely the human frailty.
In Austria, 86% would vote for Obama, 6% for McCain, but in the U.S. it's much closer. I think this election will again be very close, thus influenced by nasty ads and rumours, and election fraud. We continue our path to destruction.
I might be able to give some insight into the whole racism thing. My dad wont vote for Obama because he doesn't trust him. He is afraid that Obama will give blacks too much power and favorite them. I don't support my father's views, but I think I know why he is like that. My dad grew up during the whole civil rights movement and encountered a lot of blacks that automatically labeled him as a racist. He just began to associate them with all blacks. Many years later, my dad is still encountering blacks who use the race card 24/7 where there is no racism occurring. My dad admits that there are still struggles for blacks, but not the amount they make them out to be. I hope this gave some insight to the situation.
Yes, of course they are racist, that is almost without question, from my unscientific analysis.
There is the Fox video mentioned above. There is the fact that Obama is labeled a muslim, a double whammy, but untrue.
There was that hapless senator in Virginia, caught on tape calling one of the journalist some derogatory slang word for one of Indian descent, Muktada or something like that. Thankfully he lost. When you play the race card, you don't have much - but it can works it seems.
Now there is an e-mail circulating on the internet, about Obama, claiming he doesn't pledge allegiance (another lie, he often leads the pledge of allegiance at the Senate), which has the subject with the word "monkey" in it. I won't advertise the e-mail by giving the full title, but you can find it on snopes.com.
I do find it difficult to understand people, as pointed out by the commenter from the south U.S., who say there are people who don't trust Obama because he's black, somehow forgetting the "all men are equal" some great, forgotten men wrote down so long ago.
Not trust Obama, the guy that would practically give you the shirt off his back, or his last $103 dollars? A guy that spent 3 years of his life as a Community Organizer?
These are the sort of people that are propelling our country to disaster. Hemingway was in Austria, in the Voralberg on a ski trip in the 20s (it was cheap then), when one night he listened as a German spouted off about the Jews.
Another German turned to Hemingway and said (this is all in his book "A Moveable Feast"), and said, these are the sort of people that ruined Germany in WWI, and they're going to do it again." I have the same sort of feeling about my country, sadly.
But hey, on the positive side, a little change might do some good. We have become lazy and fat, time for some hard, thoughtful puzzling over how we got into this situation, how to get out, there will be tea parties, some day ;)
Would you believe it is not a racist thing if you heard it directly from an African American?
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=uG4uppI_ttc
Wow, some great comments here. I'm going on vacation for two weeks, but I will be back to comment. Thanks everyone for stopping by. :-)
Rapper on YouTube, pro-McCain:
Actually, Republicans attract many immigrant and ethnic groups because of the marketing.
It's all perception. Let's say you're not racist, but your anti-gay. Then for you, McCain is your guy because that's mostly a conservative stronghold. The rapper/musician in fact says marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Sure, dems probably aren't any less racist than repubs. Personally, after the last few votes (immunity for the spying telcos, and billions for wall street bailot), I say "throw all the rascals out."
I think what creates so much divide in the U.S. is that you have two choices. And this divide is manufactured. Divide and conquer. Either side will blame the other, then switch on the ball game, or American Idol. And promptly not debate the real issues.
No, the economy crumbles, we've got 2 wars ongoing, problems in Turkey and Pakistan, and Korea and we've got rappers talking about gay marriage. This is "their" tactic, and by "them", I mean the elite that run the country.
I saw it best by a commenter on Slashdot: Think of an Greek play:
An Citizen: Hey, did George Bush just lie, completely out and out lie to get us into the oilfields of Iraq? Did John Yoo and Rumsfeld conspire to disregard the Geneva convention and create a series of Gulags across the world. Did Cheney commit treason? Did Rumsfeld "misplace" a few hundred billion, or was it a trillion? Who knows? What about the anthrax?
The Chorus: Look over there! Look over there! Two women getting married! Oh no! Oh no! What shall we do? It is the end of the world!!
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