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Title: The Obama Bargain
Source:
Wall Street Journal
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120 ... ?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Published: Mar 18, 2008
Author: Shelby Steele
Post Date: 2008-03-18 17:04:42 by mirage
Keywords: None
Views: 648
Comments: 64
Geraldine Ferraro may have had sinister motives when she said that Barack Obama would not be "in his position" as a frontrunner but for his race. Possibly she was acting as Hillary Clinton's surrogate. Or maybe she was simply befuddled by this new reality -- in which blackness could constitute a political advantage. But whatever her motives, she was right: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Barack Obama is, of course, a very talented politician with a first-rate political organization at his back. But it does not detract from his merit to say that his race is also a large part of his prominence. And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else. The novelty of Barack Obama is more his cross-racial appeal than his talent. Jesse Jackson displayed considerable political talent in his presidential runs back in the 1980s. But there was a distinct limit to his white support. Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this. Though he likes to claim that his race was a liability to be overcome, he also surely knew that his race could give him just the edge he needed -- an edge that would never be available to a white, not even a white woman. How to turn one's blackness to advantage? The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence. This is how Mr. Obama has turned his blackness into his great political advantage, and also into a kind of personal charisma. Bargainers are conduits of white innocence, and they are as popular as the need for white innocence is strong. Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence. His actual policy positions are little more than Democratic Party boilerplate and hardly a tick different from Hillary's positions. He espouses no galvanizing political idea. He is unable to say what he means by "change" or "hope" or "the future." And he has failed to say how he would actually be a "unifier." By the evidence of his slight political record (130 "present" votes in the Illinois state legislature, little achievement in the U.S. Senate) Barack Obama stacks up as something of a mediocrity. None of this matters much. Race helps Mr. Obama in another way -- it lifts his political campaign to the level of allegory, making it the stuff of a far higher drama than budget deficits and education reform. His dark skin, with its powerful evocations of America's tortured racial past, frames the political contest as a morality play. Will his victory mean America's redemption from its racist past? Will his defeat show an America morally unevolved? Is his campaign a story of black overcoming, an echo of the civil rights movement? Or is it a passing-of-the-torch story, of one generation displacing another? Because he is black, there is a sense that profound questions stand to be resolved in the unfolding of his political destiny. And, as the Clintons have discovered, it is hard in the real world to run against a candidate of destiny. For many Americans -- black and white -- Barack Obama is simply too good (and too rare) an opportunity to pass up. For whites, here is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shames of their forbearers. And for blacks, here is the chance to document the end of inferiority. So the Clintons have found themselves running more against America's very highest possibilities than against a man. And the press, normally happy to dispel every political pretension, has all but quivered before Mr. Obama. They, too, have feared being on the wrong side of destiny. And yet, in the end, Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance. Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson were "challengers," not bargainers. They intimidated whites and demanded, in the name of historical justice, that they be brought forward. Mr. Obama flatters whites, grants them racial innocence, and hopes to ascend on the back of their gratitude. Two sides of the same coin. But bargainers have an Achilles heel. They succeed as conduits of white innocence only as long as they are largely invisible as complex human beings. They hope to become icons that can be identified with rather than seen, and their individual complexity gets in the way of this. So bargainers are always laboring to stay invisible. (We don't know the real politics or convictions of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey, bargainers all.) Mr. Obama has said of himself, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views . . ." And so, human visibility is Mr. Obama's Achilles heel. If we see the real man, his contradictions and bents of character, he will be ruined as an icon, as a "blank screen." Thus, nothing could be more dangerous to Mr. Obama's political aspirations than the revelation that he, the son of a white woman, sat Sunday after Sunday -- for 20 years -- in an Afrocentric, black nationalist church in which his own mother, not to mention other whites, could never feel comfortable. His pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a challenger who goes far past Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in his anti-American outrage ("God damn America"). How does one "transcend" race in this church? The fact is that Barack Obama has fellow-traveled with a hate-filled, anti-American black nationalism all his adult life, failing to stand and challenge an ideology that would have no place for his own mother. And what portent of presidential judgment is it to have exposed his two daughters for their entire lives to what is, at the very least, a subtext of anti-white vitriol? What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to "be black" despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity. And anyway, wasn't this hatred more rhetorical than real? But now the floodlight of a presidential campaign has trained on this usually hidden corner of contemporary black life: a mindless indulgence in a rhetorical anti-Americanism as a way of bonding and of asserting one's blackness. Yet Jeremiah Wright, splashed across America's television screens, has shown us that there is no real difference between rhetorical hatred and real hatred. No matter his ultimate political fate, there is already enough pathos in Barack Obama to make him a cautionary tale. His public persona thrives on a manipulation of whites (bargaining), and his private sense of racial identity demands both self-betrayal and duplicity. His is the story of a man who flew so high, yet neglected to become himself.
Poster Comment: An interesting discourse on Obama's appeal.
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#25. To: christine, all (#24)
Often we do not see what is in front of us.
You've earned this! Our last hope for peace That's about the long and short of it. The only good things that can be said about the guy is that he's not as nuts as McCain and probably not as crooked as the Clintons. But I think there's more to the Obama "bargain." It's not that Obama promises not to talk about white guilt in exchange for exceptance. It's just that he and his supporters are very subtle in their unspoken but implied "vote for me or else you're racist" message.
Who writes BO's speeches?
Our last hope for peace I wonder how that worked when BO ran against another black American, Alan Keyes...
Our last hope for peace He didn't have to. I don't think there's anybody alive who could take Alan Keyes seriously anyway, and that has nothing to do with his race.
FOH... Most here have not a clue about what I speak. Some of us have discussed this off line. If they cannot think for themselves, well then, let it be a shock and surprise to them.
I came to exactly this conclusion after having done the same thing. I just finished watching it. It was more powerful on paper for some reason. But this only works if one is literate. Seriously, probably around 25 percent of the electorate is not, at this point. The decline of literacy and the rise of talk radio/TV are two reasons why it is no longer possible to have an actual bonafide election campaign on the issues as occurred in the old days.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
Here's a news flash for those walking into walls: Socialism doesn't work. Hillary has already told us she would increase taxes. Obama also embraces socialistic ideals and will likewise grow government at the expense of the American taxpayer. And those guns we cherish? Get ready for a few new rounds of legislation designed to further erode our rights. A word of warning to the Obamaphiles: Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Obama and clinton whether many get it or not, are playing their part to distract from substance, and target the the richest and most divisive issue while defining themselves as unifiers or change agents. Personally, I see this as Classic Clinton trianglization (sp). Further, it's dangerous in that should Obama be denied the nomination despite the math, I suggest the riot lays way to the plans to put down dissent. Is it worth it? You can't tell me, Democrats denied again, especially if seen as being done through racism, will not lead to trouble. I hope people will take the time to evalutate what's at stake.
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." -- Herbert Sebastien Agar (1897-1980) Source: The Time for Greatness, 1942
Exactly. Vote against Obama because he is black is vile racism. "Vote FOR Obama because he is black is not racism."
Thanks christine.
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." -- Herbert Sebastien Agar (1897-1980) Source: The Time for Greatness, 1942
Here's a news flash for those walking into walls: Socialism doesn't work. Hillary has already told us she would increase taxes. Obama also embraces socialistic ideals and will likewise grow government at the expense of the American taxpayer. And those guns we cherish? Get ready for a few new rounds of legislation designed to further erode our rights. This is all true. Obama will be a disaster when it comes to domestic economic and social policy. The trouble is, we get the exact same things at home with McCain or Hillary, plus more wars abroad. With Obama, there's at least a chance that we won't have a full-fledged invasion and occupation of Iran to suck another several trillion dollars and several thousand lives out of the country. I could never bring myself to vote for BHO because of his welfare state policies and social/economic liberalism, but I still hope that he beats Billary this summer and Mad Mac in November.
Sadly have not and will not as seen by their posts here on this 4um. Your assessments of Obama have been excellent.
Blacks will vote for Obama because of identity politics. Liberal whites will vote for him to prove that they don't engage in identity politics.
For ascetic reasons alone I’d rather look at BHO, than HRC for the next four years.
Alan sounds like the greatest Constitutional Conservative savior the nation has ever known. In some ways, BO and AK have much in common...
Our last hope for peace The committee.
"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." -- Herbert Sebastien Agar (1897-1980) Source: The Time for Greatness, 1942
I jumped at that during his speech. I'm convinced there are certain rules that must be followed, especially for him.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
I was shocked to see them turn into Obamaphiles before my eyes, however you and others have hept me to understand...
Our last hope for peace The committee. The CFR controls speech writers, too.
Our last hope for peace There are a lot of things I despise about Bill Clinton, but fooling around with women isn't one of them. We'd all cheat if we were married to that witch.
Nothing sinister in such a bargain. To get elected, JFK took advantage of Catholics' solidarity and of the guilt of a lot of Protestants.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
In some ways, BO and AK have much in common... There's the sound, and then there's the reality. Keyes sounds like a Constitutionalist, but when it comes to specific issues, he's just a Bushbot with a fancy vocabulary. And then there's Obama - a mediocre empty suit who gives his supporters feel- goodisms when there's really no "there" there.
"Change!" "Hope!" The Establishment has the sheeple completely cornered.
Our last hope for peace His speech was about race, that's what the media reported it would be about before he gave the speech. A candidate named Barack Hussein Obama needs demonstrate as much as possible that he has no intention of ignoring the WOT and is not anti-Israel.
'Individuals should not take responsibility for their own defense. That’s what the police are for. ... If I oppose individuals defending themselves, I have to support police defending them. I have to support a police state.”' Alan Dershowitz
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
Nah, it will still be in the back of many a minds. It's kind of like how you can't "unring a bell" with a jury: Even if testimony or a piece of evidence is struck from the record, you can't erase from the minds of the jury something they already heard. The Clintons got what they wanted. Race is now an issue in the back of everyone's mind.
By "old days" I mean before WW II and maybe even farther back than that.
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
Perhaps, but the Clintons are political geniuses and know what must be done to win. Besides, do you really think that blacks will turnout for MCCAIN in November? Seems to me that they will realize you don't bite the hand that feeds you and crawl back to the Clintons, who will increase handouts just as much as Obama.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
I think Obama would probably be able to stop that, if he were to make a speech and announce he was running third-party for the presidency. Even at that late date, I suspect ways could be found for Cynthia McKinney to step aside and for Obama to get the Green Party nomination, thus solving most of his ballot access problems. And, in such a three-way race, I think Obama would have an excellent chance of winning.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
Perhaps, but too risky. That would be putting his entire future with the Democratic party on the line.
It would be one thing if it was one or two isolated incidents and the church wasn't one with a racist and ethnocentric theology. Also, keep in mind that the church sells the DVDs. Its not like someone had to sneak in with a video camera. What is starting to bug me is that Obama says he wants to transcend race by belonging to a Black Supremacist church? mmhmm.... Look, if someone was a member of the Creativity Movement, it would be lights-out for that candidate. If someone was a member of the Klan, it would be lights-out. So....someone who is a member of a racist church gets a pass? The same principle should apply across the board. The more I think about this, the more I think "Same shit, different dude." This whole mess shows extremely poor judgment on Obama's part. The kind of poor judgment that makes people question whether he is fit for the White House or not. Throwing your own Grandmother under the bus to save your skin is also very poor judgment and not the kind that you want to see in the White House. Now, if Obama came clean and actually admitted he joined this church because he was a political animal and wanted to take advantage of it....then we'd be getting somewhere. But that won't happen.
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
This is all irrelevant. I still believe the chain emails I began receiving on this matter nearly a year ago. Obama is a radical Islamist who took his oath of office both in Illinois and D.C. with his hand on the Koran while shooting the bird at the nearby U.S. flag while refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. < /sarcasm>
“I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man.” - Sam Houston
Don't forget the sacrificing of goats and other critters. The more I think about this, the more I understand where Michelle Obama gets her "the first time I was ever proud of anything" moment from as well as other things she has said like "this is a mean country". Well, yeah, with a preacher like that, sure.... A lot of things become a bit more clear including why I keep hearing "Its because I'm black, right?" (as opposed to 'Its because I'm an asshole, right?') all the time. A lot of things are coming into better focus. One GOOD result of this mess is that it has made people think. A bad result is that people understand where animosity is being reinforced and that while whitey has been beaten into submission, the blacks are carrying the Klan Torch that should have been extinguished. So we'll see what happens. I'm less and less impressed the more the dots line up. One positive result of all of this is that it is now acceptable to call an African-American a racist and not be tarred for it. That's a positive step for equal rights in this country!!
America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall and the Congress is out to lunch.
#26. To: Cynicom (#22)
Obama was created for a purpose and it was NOT to be president of the United States.
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#27. To: mirage (#0)
His actual policy positions are little more than Democratic Party boilerplate and hardly a tick different from Hillary's positions. He espouses no galvanizing political idea. He is unable to say what he means by "change" or "hope" or "the future." And he has failed to say how he would actually be a "unifier." By the evidence of his slight political record (130 "present" votes in the Illinois state legislature, little achievement in the U.S. Senate) Barack Obama stacks up as something of a mediocrity. None of this matters much.
#28. To: christine, Peppa (#24)
as Peppa pointed out (which gave me a lightbulb moment), there's more to be gleened from what Obama didn't say than what he did.
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#29. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#27)
It's just that he and his supporters are very subtle in their unspoken but implied "vote for me or else you're racist" message.
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#30. To: FOH (#29)
I wonder how that worked when BO ran against another black American, Alan Keyes...
#31. To: FOH (#26)
#32. To: ghostdogtxn (#4)
Actually, I read the speech before I saw him deliver it on Youtube. I'm one of those people who read all the time, though. I thought it was a better speech on paper.
#33. To: Jethro Tull (#21)
(Edited)
A blind man should be able to see what we will have if Obama wins the selection.
#34. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#27)
"vote for me or else you're racist" message.
#35. To: christine (#24)
as Peppa pointed out (which gave me a lightbulb moment), there's more to be gleened from what Obama didn't say than what he did.
#36. To: Jethro Tull (#21)
(Edited)
A blind man should be able to see what we will have if Obama wins the selection.
#37. To: Peppa (#33)
I hope people will take the time to evalutate of what's at stake.
#38. To: Cynicom (#34)
"Vote FOR Obama because he is black is not racism."
#39. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#36)
#40. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#30)
(Edited)
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#41. To: FOH (#28)
Who writes BO's speeches?
#42. To: christine (#15)
#43. To: Cynicom (#31)
Most here have not a clue about what I speak. Some of us have discussed this off line. If they cannot think for themselves, well then, let it be a shock and surprise to them.
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#44. To: Peppa (#41)
Who writes BO's speeches?
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#45. To: Jethro Tull (#39)
I’d rather look at BHO, than HRC for the next four years.
#46. To: mirage (#0)
#47. To: FOH (#40)
(Edited)
Alan sounds like the greatest Constitutional Conservative savior the nation has ever known.
#48. To: Rupert_Pupkin (#47)
What North American Union? ~~~~~ Have you seen THIS yet? Pass it around...
#49. To: christine (#24)
#50. To: mirage (#10)
#51. To: christine (#15)
#52. To: Sam Houston (#32)
#53. To: ghostdogtxn (#50)
(Edited)
I think the speech did a good job of killing the whole revrun Wright "contraversy".
#54. To: ghostdogtxn (#52)
#55. To: Vitamin Z (#53)
#56. To: Sam Houston (#54)
#57. To: ghostdogtxn (#55)
Yeah, but it was surprising to see how willing they were to discard the black vote to get it out there. Desperation, I think.
#58. To: Vitamin Z (#57)
#59. To: ghostdogtxn (#58)
Suppose Obama and Hillary go into the Democratic Convention, and Obama has both a delegate lead and a lead in the popular vote, but the Superdelegates "select" Clinton. How do you think African Americans in the inner cities of Detroit, Chicago, New York and LA (not to mention many other places) are going to react? Riots? Looting? Nationwide Rodney King style stuff?
#60. To: aristeides (#59)
#61. To: aristeides (#59)
And, in such a three-way race, I think Obama would have an excellent chance of winning.
#62. To: ghostdogtxn (#50)
I don't think you should be held accountable for whatever batshit thing comes out of your preacher's mouth.
#63. To: mirage (#62)
#64. To: Sam Houston (#63)
Obama is a radical Islamist who took his oath of office both in Illinois and D.C. with his hand on the Koran while shooting the bird at the nearby U.S. flag while refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
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