Straight shooters like straight talk. At least that's what they say.
And I actually think they do. It's just the pundits that I'm not too sure about.
Yes, those straight talk'in, average joe representatives of the white working class voter are all emotional over Obama's recent comments on small-town rural America.
But I'm a little confused. I thought they prided themselves on straight talk? Aren't these the same pundits who brag about their NRA membership and bring camera crews with them to tape a good afternoon of brush clearin' and dear huntin'?
Aren't these the same pundits who tell black folks to grow a thicker skin and lift themselves up by their bootstraps? You'd think they'd like Obama's challenge to white rural pathologies. So why all the hoopla?
Oh. . . that's right. They can dish it, but they can't take it.
No one had a problem when Obama gave a dose of "Bill Cosby-esque" tough love to a black audience in Texas. People loved that. They couldn't get enough of Obama lecturing black America to turn off the t.v. set, read to their kids and stop eating Popeye's Chicken for breakfast. No. They LOVED that.
They loved the idea that Obama might be the first President to openly challenge black pathologies. . . because he's black.
Finally, God sent the conservative talking heads a comfortably acculturated, charismatic, yet physically non-threatening colored man to say everything about the black community that they couldn't say themselves. You know, kind of like a second generation "Santa Clausification" (thank you Dr. West) of Martin Luther King, himself.
How wonderful. A black man to challenge black people. Those conservative pundits were almost waiting with open arms.
Only they forgot one thing . . .
Obama is also WHITE.
GASP!
Surprise!
While conservatives praised Obama's color to challenge black pathologies of anger, prison culture, crime and dependency; they overlooked the fact that his whiteness gave him just as much legitimacy to speak against WHITE pathologies of bitterness, intolerance and isolationism.
Guess what folks . . . Tough love and straight talk go both ways! Deal with it.
The brilliance of Obama's speech on race was his ability to both recognize and legitimize black anger and white resentment. He reserved a much needed and even vital role for frustration in our national discourse, yet challenged both black AND white on how we might move forward.
So it should come as no surprise that Obama's comments on small-town America are consistent with his comments on black America. He recognized and even defended the frustrations of a community while connecting it to the greater pathologies that prevent it from moving forward.
It's part of the bargain that Obama's candidacy represents between black and white America.
To blacks: I'll give you your justified anger at this nation's shameful history and its present shortcomings if you're willing to refocus on personal responsibility and lower your guard when it comes to judging this nation's future as well as the gains that have been made on behalf of racial equality in America.
To whites: I'll give you your justified resentment and recognize the uneasiness and unfamiliarity you have with this country's rapidly changing demographics if you're willing to embrace diversity and challenge the wedge issues that have divided you from the rest of America for far too long.
That's not condescending in the least. That's not elitist. On the contrary, it reflects a presidential candidate who is willing to grapple with the tough issues that divide us rather than rely on shallow platitudes and soundbites.
Hillary's predictable response to Obama's challenge? Let me paraphrase: Woo woo woo. Your perfect little hard working white folk. Woo woo woo. Easy there, I know that you pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. Woo woo woo. Don't pay attention to that bad man with over there. He doesn't understand you like I do. Woo woo woo. Don't worry, Mama Clinton is here to take care of everything. Don't speak, I already know what you're thinking. Woo woo woo.
THAT is condescending.
THAT is elitist. . . this "do as I say, not as I do" mentality of traditional politics that asks the average voter to resist critical thought so long as a politician is willing to tell you everything that you want to hear.
And that's basically what Hillary is doing. Ignore the woman behind the curtain folks. She's the real populist. Why? Well, because Mama Clinton says so, that's why.
Like Bill O'Reilly, Hillary's looking out for you (wink) with her $109 million (I literally make just about as much in one day as the median yearly income . . . my husband and campaign manager get paid millions to promote Columbian free trade . . . NY lost 35,000 jobs on my watch) self.
No. Ignore all of that. Drop all sense of critical thought and let Mama Clinton spoon feed you the lines she thinks you want to hear. Because, if there's one thing a Democrat can't do, it's challenge the Reagan Democrat and speak to them like adults.
I know. Us wimpy little Democrats can't speak truth to power. Not by any means. Democrats can't stand for gun control. No, we have to pander to the NRA crowd.
We can't speak of intolerance. No, we have to be so tolerant that we're actually tolerant of intolerance.
We can't discuss the fact that Republicans maintain a choke hold on rural America through cultural wedge issues like God, gays and guns. No, we have to ignore the fact that Bush got elected by pandering on religion and putting gay marriage bans on state ballots across the country to use homophobia as a political sledge hammer.
We can't talk about the anti immigrant, Lou Dobbs obsessed, resistance to the browning of America. No, we have to ignore the corporate greed and manipulation that causes the loss of jobs and decrease in livable wages because it's just not as sexy as those chest-thumping isolationist rants from the right wing.
Whatever we do. No matter what. NEVER EVER "offend" the sensibilities of the Reagan Democrat. Never challenge him. Never seem out of touch or inconsiderate of his worldview.
Why? Well, the answer is clear if you listen to the pundits. . . Don't challenge a Reagan Democrat becasue . . . well . . . he's too SIMPLE to understand. He's too fragile. Too tired.
That little hard workin' white voter is happy as a pig in sh*t breaking his back for the American dream. He can't wait to wear his struggle like a badge of honor. All that he asks is that the world leave him be with it's fast talkin', big city, etlitist ways; with it's book learnin' and diversity. No. According to the pundits, that's waaaaay to much for the simple-minded rural white voter to grasp. He can't get nuance. . . it might make his head explode.
Which is why the mainstream media didn't have a problem when PA governor, Ed Rendell basically went on national television and described his voters as a bunch of narrow-minded rednecks who wouldn't vote for a nigra'.
It's why no one had a problem when conservatives like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchannan bragged that Obama's speech on race was too nuanced for the common guy to get.
It's why no one has a problem when the media reduces the vote of rural white America to a bowling frame; or a round of shots at the local bar; or an afternoon of duck huntin' with Annie Oakley (good one, Obama, that line is a classic).
It's because politicians think that hard workin' rural white voter are too SIMPLE-MINDED to get the fact that politicians do nothing but deliver empty promises to increasingly empty towns. In truth, they offer no more than the promise of reification, the prospect of living the American dream vicariously through a politician who, DOES NOT have a plan for your ressurection, but just knows how to play the part really well.
Yet Republicans (and now Hillary Clinton) have successfully convinced rural America that it ain't what they say, it's how they say it. It's not about a plan to actually help the Reagan Democrat, but a false show of bravado to pacify him.
My white brothas and sistas, wake up! And take lead from an unlikely source in the immortal words of Malcolm X. . . Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!
IT'S CALLED SYMBOLIC POLITICS!!!
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