President Obama, Dems Are Wrong About Jesse Jackson

Editor's note: This blog will surprise some people who think that I am never critical of Democrats, in general, and President Obama, in particular.

I could not agree more with a particular portion of a column I saw written by Boyce Watkins on Black Voices.

Now, there was a lot to the column written by Watkins, but one part I want to point to was a part where the author discusses how the Rev. Jesse Jackson seems to have become an outcast for some in the administration of President Obama. These days, it's difficult to earn a lot of friends defending Rev. Jackson.

I'm not altogether sure why, but I've been reading and studying more about Rev. Jackson to try and understand him a little more. Currently I am reading a biography on him, and I've listened to several of his speeches, including his 1988 speech at the Democratic National Convention as he had again attempted to run for president.

In 20 years, however, Rev. Jackson has gone from being one of the most important black figures in America to largely marginalized (sadly, even by a large number of Democrats).

I find it disappointing and sad. For a lot of people, Rev. Jackson is associated with the so-called "race card" and is accused of trying to essentially make up racism to profit from it (if you believe far-right commentators like Bill O'Reilly, who I strongly believe has a personal disdain for Rev. Jackson). Still, I had not written about it for some reason. Then, this weekend, I read an article by Watkins in which this excerpt caught my attention.

Making matters worse is the Obama Administration's commitment to continued marginalization of Rev. Jesse Jackson. I am not sure if Jackson was marginalized for his verbal mishap on Fox News two years ago or something else. Either way, Jackson should be brought back into the fold of the administration and appreciated as a significant figure within the African American community. With all due respect to Obama, I am not sure how his conscience can allow him to undermine 40 years of committed service just because Rev. Jackson has become an inconvenience to him. If there is room in White House meetings for unqualified Harvard chums like Elena Kagan and Lawrence Summers, then there must also be room for committed Civil Rights veterans like Jackson, who've put their lives on the line to protect American freedoms.

For the record, here is the "mishap" that Watkins mentioned.

That aside, Rev. Jackson has meant too much to the black community to be kicked aside as has been done by Democrats. I don't agree with Watkins that Elena Kagan is unqualified, but he is entitled to his opinion. But I do think Watkins has a great point about the White House wrongly turning its back on Rev. Jackson, who is a good man and who has done so much for the good of people of all races.

I echo Watkins' call for the Obama Administration to bring Rev. Jackson into the fold. However, I do not plan to hold my breath until it happens. These days, Rev. Jackson is not too popular and is seen by some Democrats as political poison. That is sad and perhaps shows Democrats are not strong enough to stand up against that kind of B.S.

Republicans can stand up for Rand Paul, but Democrats will not stand up for Rev. Jesse Jackson. That is sad.

A good man, and Rev. Jesse Jackson is, is being treated like yesterday's news by a new age of people who fail to appreciate his outstanding contributions to society and are instead paralyzed by fear of how Rev. Jackson is perceived by conservative haters.

Black Voices:
http://www.bvonmoney.com/2010/05/22/jesse-jackson-aiyana-jones/

These Republicans Are Confusing On Affirmative Action

Pat Buchanan has an interesting column about President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Buchanan, who is so much of a right-wing extremist he almost makes Fox News look fair and balanced, seems to have an interesting perspective when it comes to affirmative action.

Of course, I always thought conservatives were opposed to affirmative action, quotas and preferences.

I thought that until I read this excerpt of a recent column written by Buchanan as pointed out by Media Matters for America as Buchanan seemingly objected to too many Jews on the high court:

Indeed, of the last seven justices nominated by Democrats JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, one was black, Marshall; one was Puerto Rican, Sonia Sotomayor. The other five were Jews: Arthur Goldberg, Abe Fortas, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats.

Is this the Democrats' idea of diversity?

But while leaders in the black community may be upset, the folks who look more like the real targets of liberal bias are white Protestants and Catholics, who still constitute well over half of the U.S. population.

Not in living memory has a Democratic president nominated an Irish, Italian or Polish Catholic, though these ethnic communities once gave the party its greatest victories in the cities and states of the North.

What happened to the party of the Daleys, Rizzos and Rostenkowskis?

And not in nearly half a century has a Democratic president nominated a white Protestant or white Catholic man or woman.

It seems that Buchanan is OK with affirmative action as long as it is different ethnic white or religious groups (he doesn't seem as open to Jews right now).

But, when it comes to people of color and Jews, individuals like Buchanan all of a sudden become opposed to preferences, quotas, affirmative action and all of the other stuff they attack.

Does this mean Pat Buchanan will now advocate for black women who have been completely excluded from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nah.

Race Card = Racism Charge Defense Mechanism

Far-right conservatives have gravitated to this tired “race card” thing like flies on a pile of … well, you get it.

“Race card” become a racism-accusation shield for many on the far right.

This leads me to a column written in the Midland (Mich.) Daily News by Chris Stevens who is whining about criticism he says he has gotten for his criticism of President Obama. He goes to the hysterical concept that basically everyone who criticizes the president is considered a racist … … Stevens is big on talk while woefully thin on specifics.

Not all are racists … most are just straight-up haters who were in full hate mode right from the beginning.

It begins …

It never fails.

Say something critical about President Obama and a response(or two or three) on the website always has to include something about race. As in, “You’re a racist, Stevens.”

It’s not always the main point expressed, but it is usually mixed in with the other comments critical of what I write.

Now, keep in mind, I’ve written several pieces about Obama, and I’ve yet to mention his race. Never dawned on me, actually.

If I had written a sentence such as, “Our president is a socialist, and by the way, did you notice that he’s black? …” then I think those playing the race card would have a reason to be upset.

First, you don’t need to mention race for racism to be a motive. If you’re smart you figure out better ways of making such a point. “I’ve yet to mention his race” Stevens writes. OK, maybe that’s true. He continues, “never dawned on me, actually.” Not buying that part. I have no evidence for my belief, but anyone who says President Obama’s race has never dawned on them seems unlikely to be truthful. In fact, this flat fails the truth test unless you live in that Bill O’Reilly imagined utopia … in a galaxy far, far away … where you supposedly don’t notice race (even though everyone knows he damn well does).

His last paragraph of that excerpt shows a classic case of trying to throw you off the scent. It’s the because-I-didn’t-mention-his-race-it-can’t-be-racism defense. Then, Stevens invokes the customary “race card” statement as a sort of boilerplate … the standard defense against any and all charges of racism (whether real or imagined). Similar to the old American Express commercials … the motto for this would be don’t enter a debate without (your Race Card Charge plate) … don’t leave home without it. Yes, when you’re accused of race (real or imagined) you automatically scream “race card” as your defense.

Stevens continues:

But I haven’t written a statement like that in my columns and I never will. That’s not me.

For a white man, such as me, it comes with the turf. You criticize someone who’s black, and, chances are, there’s someone out there who believes your real motive is that you don’t like people of color.

This is step two of the defense against a charge of racism (real or imagined). You turn the tables and begin to play the role of victim, “For a white man, such as me, it comes with the turf.” This is right out of the textbook.

Anyway, cutting to the end…

Stevens then proceeds to talk about a nutty columnist named Erik Rush who has been on Fox News from time to time to play his understood role (the black man who will come on and say negative things about President Obama so that the far-right nuts can keep their hands dry). Rush, who is nuttier than Mr. Peanut, shares this role with the likes of the dubious Jesse Lee Peterson (who is akin to a modern-day slave catcher) and others.

Yes, this is the same old stuff.

Another Wacky Andrew Breitbart Far-Right Column

Whining from the far-right birther nuts about President Obama’s birth certificate is serving only to make conservatives look like radicals cloaking their racism in the so-called birther movement. Now, from Washington Times columnist Andrew Breitbart, comes another tired attack on President Obama, using his college transcript as their weapon of choice . Like many conservatives, he has been bashing the president’s attempt to bring together Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after their unfortunate incident that ended in the unnecessary arrest of Gates and started a national conversation on race.

From Breitbart:

My long-held fear is that Mr. Obama is hiding something about his education. During the endless 2008 campaign, Mr. Obama would not release his college grades. Given that President George W. Bush and Sens. Al Gore and John Kerry all had proved mediocre grades were no impediment to a presidential bid, Mr. Obama likely had other concerns.

While I have no desire to see Mr. Obama’s birth certificate, I do want to see his college transcripts. My suspicion, one could even call it a conspiracy theory, is that Mr. Obama committed himself to a radical curriculum, aligned himself with the far-left professoriate, and sought to keep this biographical information from his political enemies, especially then-rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, for fear that they would paint the former community organizer and follower of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as something other than an advocate of racial reconciliation.

Here we go back to the right-wing efforts to paint President Obama as a black radical interested in taking revenge on the white man. Considering what we know about President Obama, such a notion would be laughable if it weren’t all too real. Breitbart, as most of the far-right nuts do, got in his gratuitous mention of Rev. Jeremiah Wright (as another way of portraying the president as an angry black radical).

Racial reconciliation is code for reparations (designed to frighten whites even though it these far-right nuts forget Barack Obama is half white).

More from Breitbart:

The Democratic Party – which is now Mr. Obama’s party – now depends on the ability to keep blacks in fear: of cops, of Republicans, of conservatives, of “Uncle Toms,” and even of Tiger Woods, who proves that America, while still imperfect, is clearly heading in the right direction.

This is a disturbing excerpt. I find it interesting how conservative whites, in love with the GOP, are now experts on race relations. It’s not really much of a secret that many Republicans feel this way about the relationship between blacks and the Democratic Party. But, to say that the Democratic Party depends on fear to keep blacks in line is not only stupid, but offensive, insulting and degrading to the intelligence of black people. Breitbart paints a dark (pun intended) picture of black people (those who are not highly conservative) as being something akin to to uneducated slaves.

Really, there is painfully little Republicans have next to nothing to offer minorities (while refusing to denounce hostile attitudes toward race relations in the GOP).

This is the reason that blacks tend to vote Democratic in elections.

The comment about Tigers Woods is just plain dumb. Black people, many of whom would not have been welcomed at a lot of golf or country clubs, embraced Tiger Woods strongly when the golfer first burst onto the scene and grabbed the nation’s attention. People who didn’t know the difference between a driver and a putter suddenly wanted to play.

One more comment from Breitbart:

It took black and white blue-collar civil servants to expose that the race game is rigged at the highest levels. The majority in the United States wants to enter a better, more egalitarian and diverse, and even racially mixed future.

I am not sure this is the case with Republicans, who lack true diversity, and that is a shame.

This last note from Breitbart: His latest endeavor, Big Hollywood (http://bighollywood.breitbart .com), is a group blog on Hollywood and politics from the center-right perspective.

Come on, now.

There is nothing center about that group blog … it is heavy on the far right and light (almost invisible) in the center.

Author Has Fox News Conservatives Going Nuts

Margery Eagan, a columnist for the Boston Herald, probably did not win any friends on the VERY far-right Fox News Web site, Fox Nation, with a recent piece she wrote.

Here’s a small taste of her column:

It’s been such fun watching the right-wing white boys sputtering over the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, a Hispanic woman nominated by a black man!

“Our world domination’s slip, slip, slipping away,” you can almost hear them whimper. “What to do?”

Well, you can’t dump on the woman thing. That’s more than half the country. Can’t dump on the Hispanic angle. They’ll be more than half the country soon.

Knowing how so many people (particularly the loyal hardcore right-wing followers of Fox News) feel about racial issues, you can imagine the controversy this has sparked.

Boston Herald:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/2009_05_28_Men_in_throes_of_Supreme_panic/srvc=home&position=2

Fox Nation (check out some of the anger-driven responses):
http://www.thefoxnation.com/politics/2009/05/29/right-wing-white-men-threatened-world-domination-slipping