[WS:] If it is skin, then how do you explain the fact that Fenty, a black man, won the support of the whites, but overwhelmingly lost among the blacks, which cost him the election?
In my view, it is the biblical "Jesus vs.Barabbas" phenomenon - a charismatic figure stirring up mob's expectations but not being able to deliver, and the mob turning in anger against him and going for a common thug.
(PS. I am not interested in pursuing this metaphor any further.)
Wojtek
On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 11:26 AM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Marv Gandall
>
>
>> http://www.metrotimes.com/news/story.asp?id=15364
>>
>> By Jack Lessenberry
>>
>> He should have been doing what his fellow
>> elitist Franklin D. Roosevelt did with such great political success
>> and effect — class warfare.
>
> All the more so in the case of the Obama administration, which, apart
> from its own failings, has had to centrally contend with white racism.
> ^^^^^^^
> CB: Well, "its own failings" is a loaded phrase in this context. Obama
> and the Democrats are down in the polls because of "failings" the Tea
> Party , right-wing liars, demagogues and racists attribute to him, not
> because of the left criticisms you make below.
>
> I wrote the following to Lessenberry, and he agreed:
>
> There's a bit of a riddle as to why just two years ago he ( Obama) was such a
> master of pr and so popular, and suddenly a large segment of Americans
> have totally flipped on him, and a lot of the flipping is based on lies
> and half-truths, and nutty stuff like he's a Muslim.
>
> It would seem that a lot of his support was "thin". That's probably
> due to his skin.
>
> ^^^^^
>
> There's every reason to suppose large numbers of white workers would
> have subordinated their racist impulses to their class interests and
> identifed with Obama if he had launched a forceful attack on the banks
> and corporations as the source of the economic distress felt by all
> working people, black and white.
>
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Sadly , there isn't every reason to suppose this. US working
> class anti-racist consciousness is no where near this and is the
> complete opposite of this , in the main. The US ruling class has
> focused primarily on corrupting US white workers consciousness in this
> regard since immediately upon the end of slavery right through to the
> present, from Jim Crow through Reaganism. We say "Black , Brown and
> White , unite and fight" . They say "Divide based on race at all
> costs. " Obama's election did not signal the overthrow of all that,
> though it seems to be an amazing breech of the bunker. Now we are in a
> certain level of racist backlash against the Obama election advance
> against racism among whites.
>
> ^^^^^^^
>
> As it stands now, white workers perceive Obama as representative both
> of the white elite and of the black underclass, unmindful of their own
> needs.
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: It is not a good approach to make apologies for the white workers'
> backlash against Obama. Any white workers who have a perception of
> Obama as "of the white elite" should not be sympathized with but
> criticized harshly as phony and racist. It certainly is not an excuse
> to then vote Republican , as the Republicans have demonstrated
> themselves as a lot more "of the white elite" than Obama.
>
> ^^^^^
>
> In retrospect, Jim Webb, the only Democrat who touched on the theme
> of black and white unity along class lines, would have been the
> Democrats' better choice as vice-president in the present
> circumstances. But the dominant conservative wing of the party tied to
> Wall Street and the corporate lobbies would almost certainly see the
> party defeated rather than stoking class antagonism, which, in fact,
> is what lies in store. The multi-hued working class base of the party
> could, on the other hand, almost certainly be counted on to embrace
> the notion of a rainbow coalition.
>
> ^^^^^^^^
> CB: You and Jack Lessenberry have twenty-twenty hindsight. Your final
> reference to "rainbow coalition" , the name of Jesse Jackson's
> Presidential campaign, demonstrates that it did not seem in the last
> few years that there was a great groundswell for the class warfare you
> describe, because it was clear that white working class masses would
> not vote for a Jesse Jackson type candidate, and there was no reason
> to believe that they would rally against the Tea Party uprising based
> on a militant rainbow coalition administration by Obama. White workers
> have not een signaling ; if any thing very much the opposite.
>
> At any rate, now that we have thoroughly looked in hindsight, what is
> to be done right here , right now , in mid-September 2010.
>
> Bernero , the Democrat running for Governor of Michigan, is running an
> explicitly Liberal campaign, heavy on the Mainstreet against Wall
> Street theme, no state money in banks that don't participate in
> mortgage modification, He's an urban mayor, Black woman urban Mayor
> as his running mate, criticizing his opponent for anti-abortion
> position, heavy union backing. It will be something of a test of your
> thesis as to "what Obama should have done" in whether the working
> class responds in sufficient numbers to Bernero.
>
>
> http://www.votevirg.com/
>
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