What’s He Been Watching?
- 05.09.2008 - 11:30 AMIn today’s Washington Post, Eugene Robinson has an op-ed on Hillary’s recent boast about getting white voters and what it says about her:
As a statement of fact, that’s debatable at best. As a rationale for why Democratic Party superdelegates should pick her over Obama, it’s a slap in the face to the party’s most loyal constituency — African Americans — and a repudiation of principles the party claims to stand for. Here’s what she’s really saying to party leaders: There’s no way that white people are going to vote for the black guy. Come November, you’ll be sorry.
How silly of me. I thought the Democratic Party believed in a colorblind America.
He did? Perhaps someone can pull Eugene Robinson aside and lend him some footage from the past year. From the Clintons’ race strategy to Obama’s racial justification of Jeremiah Wright to John Kerry’s political faith in Obama’s melanin count, the one thing we know Democrats believe in is color visibility. To be part of the Democratic electorate is to receive your Crayola label, stand in the box, and hope to be used.
Robinson goes on:
From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has campaigned as if the Democratic nomination were hers by divine right. That’s why she is falling short — and that’s why she should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines.
By this logic, Obama is sure to destroy the Dems. Since February, he’s done everything but don robes and walk on water. Without a shred of irony, Robinson writes: “Clinton’s sin isn’t racism, it’s arrogance.” And the sin of Democratic supporters is unstinting gullibility.
| »Back to Contentions | »Back to Commentary |
May 9th, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Does Robinson see a problem with 90+ % of African Americans voting for Obama? If not, why not?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:11 PM
“To be part of the Democratic electorate is to receive your Crayola label, stand in the box, and hope to be used.”
That’s a terrific line.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Yes, that is a great line. And using people on the basis of their supposed “color” is what Obama’s candidacy was all about, along with Bill Richardson’s “value” to both the Clintons and now Obama. This sort of affirmative action gone wild mentality has done great damage to the Democratic Party and allowed the Republicans to win elections with less than stellar nominees (I’m thinking of both Bushes, now).
The problem for the Democratic Party is that because of intermarriage rates, it gets harder and harder to define people solely by Affirmative Action categories, which are themselves increasingly specious. My son had a friend who had a Dominican mother and Jewish father, and although unconverted attended an orthodox yeshiva high school in NJ. She was avidly courted by lots of Ivy League universities so they could fill their “Hispanic” quota, even though her last name was Jewish, her education Orthodox, and she didn’t even speak Spanish. How much more idiotic can you get than that?
May 9th, 2008 at 12:36 PM
“How silly of me. I thought the Democratic Party believed in a colorblind America.”
I take it Mr. Robinson has not been paying attention to the last 40 years of American history.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:17 PM
Robinson has benefited greatly from race preference over the years, so you’re not going to see him criticize it. And as for 90+ of African-Americans voting for BO, it’s a black thang white folks clinging to their gods and guns couldn’t understand.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:07 PM
The idea is apparently that only specific minorities are entitled to do their “thang”. Anyone else who does so is committing patent infringement or something.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:37 PM
It’s too bad that certain groups in the Crayola mega-pack are going to be playing the role of burnt umber.