I got myself all worked up and set off tonight over, essentially, nothing. Some jerk in Kansas City wrote the most ridiculous thing I’ve read in my entire life, I think. Here’s the relevant article in case they decide it’s too ridiculous to keep on the site.
The “socialist” label that Sen. John McCain and his GOP presidential running mate Sarah Palin are trying to attach to Sen. Barack Obama actually has long and very ugly historical roots.
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI from 1924 to 1972, used the term liberally to describe African Americans who spent their lives fighting for equality.
Those freedom fighters included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the Civil Rights Movement; W.E.B. Du Bois, who in 1909 helped found the NAACP which is still the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization; Paul Robeson, a famous singer, actor and political activist who in the 1930s became involved in national and international movements for better labor relations, peace and racial justice; and A. Philip Randolph, who founded and was the longtime head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a leading advocate for civil rights for African Americans.
McCain and Palin have simply reached back in history to use an old code word for black. It set whites apart from those deemed unAmerican and those who could not be trusted during the communism scare.
Shame on McCain and Palin.
In a nutshell, if you call Obama’s policies and attitudes “socialist,” you’re a racist. You’re not saying it’s really socialist and that the policies have a socialist tone; instead you’ve essentially called him “nigger.” Yep, criticizing Barack Obama’s policies is not possible; if you’re doing it, you’re doing it out of racism.
This isn’t the first time a criticism of Barack Obama has been deemed “racist.” As one commenter on the drivel I snipped wrote, “Wait, so now “socialist” is the secret word for referring to blacks? A few months ago, the code word for negro was “inexperienced.” Then somebody suggested that “elitist” was a euphemism for nîgger. You can’t say that Obama is “liberal” anymore, because liberals have disowned the word “liberal” and now prefer “progressive” — but if you call Obama “progressive,” that’s the same as calling him an “uppity nîgger,” according to some progressive voices in the black community.”
In essence, the Obama campaign, and to a lesser degree his supporters and various other surrogates, have started policing the language. If you’re a critic of Barack Obama, you’re starting to learn that any criticism of the man might get the scarlet letter of racism slang upon him and be shunned by civil society.
When does it stop?
For years we’ve heard from the left that you cannot question their patriotism, and they’re right. For the most part, the left loves this country as much as the farthest right-wing soldier loving American, but think about the reaction the left gave. It was a visceral outrage that sent most left-wingers seething and frothing with anger. They couldn’t get to a mic fast enough (and frankly, the media couldn’t provide one fast enough) to prove how much they love their country because the right-wing attack machine was smearing their ideologies.
Yet here we are, on the cusp of a new administration. The reality is that Barack Obama will most likely walk away with the presidency on November 4th. As we adjust to the reality that whoever runs this country won’t be a Bush or a Clinton for the first time in a very long time, we’re being told this is a campaign based on change. In reality, it’s a change, but one that basically turns questioning of patriotism into claims of racism and changes the aisle from which the epithets are slung.
We’ve spent 8 long years of George W. Bush making bad decisions running this country wondering where it would end. The PATRIOT Act, for example, is the single worst piece of legislation ever passed in the history of this country. McCain-Feingold gutted the first amendment. Under the urging of the President, we’ve now bailed out people too stupid to realize they couldn’t afford a $450,000 a year house on a $37,500 salary. Under this president, we’ve watched an expansion of power of eavesdropping the likes of which we’ve never seen in the history of this country. During that time, we had most of the right telling us that things are being done because they’re good for us, and most of the left telling us it’s a power grab.
Now, in the pre-Obama era, there’s no such thing as legitimate criticism. You cannot criticize Barack Obama based on his policies. If you do, you’re a racist. You can’t have a negative opinion of the man or his policies that is based on anything but the color of his skin. Just ask the left right now; they’ll tell you. In their mind, they see you as a person who doesn’t agree with Obama as sitting in a smoky room with a bunch of old white men wondering “what we have to do to stop the nigger from winning.”
Don’t believe me? Watch the web. Read the news. Count off how many dumb schmucks write things like I cited above. That wasn’t the first and it certainly won’t be the last, because that’s what Obama’s supporters think of you. Only an uneducated racist could possibly disagree with him. Get used to it, because this is what we have to look forward to for the next four to eight years.
If you thought the last 8 were like 1984, wait until we have a real live Thought Police keeping us in line. It’s coming, and in some ways it’s already here.