Why Obama is Calm While Carter is Alarmed
Maybe it's just that Barack Obama took heat this summer for saying that Sgt. James Crowley had acted "stupidly" in arresting Henry Louis Gates, Jr., but I think that the real reason he's down-playing Jimmy Carter's alarm about the racism in recent right-wing histrionics is that his better, savvier side is at work.
Racism is at work, too, of course, and Carter's reasons for crying "Fire!" in our crowded racial theater are deeply grounded. But so are Obama's for not joining him. Carter's condemnation works only when balanced by Obama's reserve, because far more than racism is at stake.
Free of Carter's penitential moralism on the subject, Obama sees the swifter, deeper currents driving the screamers. He knows they'd be frothing just as furiously were Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or John Kerry in the White House. In Sunday's Washington Post I explain what we risk losing by writing them off as racists. The Post has already put the column online here.
What's so astute about this observation. Why would the White House state the obvious (that SOME of the most vehement objectors to any and all things Obama are driven by racism) when respected proxies can do it for them?
September 18, 2009 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think you got it. I also think that Carter may have spoken on his own (not in a proxy sense - tho that is definitely possible), just as Jim Clyburn went ahead and pushed the censure. Even if the White House really, really didn't want either thing done, I suspect Carter and Clyburn are remembering the big lesson of segregation, particularly for blacks and for non-racist Southerners: silence is consent.
So, for some, when you see what you know for certain is racism (and it's certainly there in a probably small segment of the protesters and I know Clyburn saw it clearly in Wilson's act) you call it out, you point your finger and identify it for what it is. .... And *then* you worry about the political consequences.
Actually, identifying the "segment" of protesters who are racists also recognizes those who are not -- and IF the left if smart enough to believe and act on that distinction and acknowledge the non-racism of the majority, that may set up a way for there to be real conversation, per Donald J's comment.
September 18, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think you're mostly correct. Racism is a big factor, but it's not the only factor and we'd probably see much of the same hysteria with any Democrat, including a white male Southerner from Arkansas.
It'd be nice if some progressives learned how to reach these people, or anyway, the subset which can be reached.
September 18, 2009 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is good and I hope MJ Rosenberg reads it, but it is not good enough.
Why did Obama win against McCain in the first place?
Because McCain was a racist?
Or because McCain was NOT a racist?
Or because Obama was better than most Democrats are, or at least most black Democrats are, at soothing the psychological fears of the white underclasss?
No, he won because McCain was too closely associated with the disastrous foreign and domestic results of the Bush administration's monumental incompetence. As well as too old.
Obama is trying to run a competent administration now, in contrast to his predecessor who did not give much of hoot either way. He, Obama, is not at the moment trying to beat back Republicans by rubbing their noses in the many cesspools they created during 2000-08 (but it is an off-election year this year, so that approach is more dormant than extinct).
Neither justified effort is well-served by trying to read the psychological tea leaves of either the most obnoxiously stupid critics of Obama, or or their most anxious dupes.
September 18, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Strategy-wise calling anti Obama wingnuts racists is a bad move. Some, maybe even most, just want a black president to fail, but some don't. Some just really disagree with his plans. If Obama had agreed with Carter, the wingnuts could make a credible case that once someone disagrees with him, Obama starts name calling. This makes people who might have been open minded about his health care plan angry at him personally. Those are lost votes and we never want lost votes.
Carter and Dowd threw out the meat, and Obama didn't pick it up. It played pretty well.
September 20, 2009 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Best of all possible worlds:
(1) Somebody with some experience in the matter puts the “racism” ball into play, and Obama neither has to agree with it nor deny it.
(2) The Little Foxes confirm the observation the more they deny it, so lefties get ownership of an issue.
(3) Ironically, some on the left are so fastidious about making only perfect points, those who most desperately could use some kudos for opening up meaningful dialogue, fuss whether it's 20% or 70% of the 0.001% inchoate teabag/wingnut crowd.
September 23, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink