Racism, In Other Words

If McCain’s new attack strategy appears to be floundering, it isn’t for lack of helpful advice. To his peril, I think, several of his conservative colleagues seem to think he hasn’t been racist enough, and are advising him sotto voce to correct this deficiency.  In an article entitled “Can McCain Come Back?” Dick Baehr pens the following:

McCain also needs to make Americans think one more time about who Barack Obama is, and where he came from.

Now, Dick is talking about the Ayers/Wright/Rezko business, and I guess all of that is valid in a bullshit kid of way. But why word it in such a way as to imply that this is a failing of Obama’s heritage, not conduct? McCain’s own associations are being called into question every day, but nobody ever asks “where he came from.” It would sound absurd. But Obama’s origins are murky, exotic, inscrutable.

McCain was born in Panama, for Christ’s sake, but nobody seems concerned about his being some kind of Central American sleeper agent. Such are the benefits of complexion.

What’s also baffling about such an attack is that it should be easy for Obama to defend against, if it were honest. Obama’s done a great deal to introduce himself to the public, to tell his story, in print, in video, and in his hundreds of personal appearances. Still, this question of Obama’s origin persists, because at the end of the day the GOP doesn’t want information, they want to signal to the voters that it’s all right to be racist if you just give it another name, like “caution.”

Quin Hillyer, writing for the American Spectator, advises a similar kind of word play:

The way to undermine Obama’s apparent (if unearned) credibility on the economy is to undermine his credibility, period. Make Obama’s worldview in general anathema, and you make his economic worldview anathema. And the way to do that is to place Obama outside the common culture, while rooting McCain firmly within it[…]

Without putting it as bluntly as this sentence does, McCain’s campaign must pound home the message, in a coherent way, that Obama is not “one of us”—meaning that he is estranged from, not part of, middle America.

Worldview? Culture? One of us? Obama’s worldview is free market Democracy, the same as John McCain’s, unless you want to make a case for his being a Communist or a Monarchist, which Hillyer doesn’t. And Obama’s culture is also similar to McCain’s, a sort of restless American nomadism. Maybe I’m being overly generous to Obama (heaven forbid), but what’s really different about his and McCain’s upbringing, besides the fabulous wealth and status that McCain enjoyed? Neither are from this “middle” of America that’s so honest and wise, although Obama at the very least has a solid Kansas connection.

Could it be that “middle America” is simply a reformulation of “white America,” that great city on the hill, and that all this talk of “culture” and “worldview” is just a fancy way of saying, “Watch out for the black guy?” Because then the “one of us” line of reasoning makes perfect sense, as does the question of where he came from.  His past is dark, his motives are dark, because his skin is dark. That seems like an easy set of associations to follow.

And indeed, this is the theme that Sarah Palin has picked up on the campaign trail, saying in a variety of ways that

[t]his is not a man who sees America like you and I see America[…] We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.

These are lines so obvious in their intent that even the AP had to ask “is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee ‘palling around’ with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn’t see their America?” To which the only acceptable answer is, “Duh!”

What’s astonishing is that this tactic doesn’t appear to be working anymore.  The tide isn’t in a hurry to turn McCain’s way, although only there are still a few weeks to go. But this kind of “dog-whistle” politics used to be the de facto strategy for dealing with minority candidates (or minorities in general) once lynching fell out of fashion, and now it appears to have lost its magic, probably because it is so plainly visible. There’s no cleverness to it anymore.  If the AP can spot your subtext, guess what?  It’s no longer sub. It’s straight text.

There’s a reason the McCain campaign waited until October to start working this angle: it’s ugly and it stinks. You don’t pull out that kind of material unless you’re desperate, or you’ve simply lost your revulsion to ugly, stinky things. Judging by the past week, I’d say both are true of John McCain.

Comments

[ludovic]

for more about race in the race visit http://www.stopdogwhistleracism.com.

[Casey]

Not to put too fine a point on this, but: I am afraid McCain's a Central American sleeper agent.

[legacyABQ]

Excellent blog.. Right on the money; I have to wonder if many of these people actually realize their xenophobia/racism..
Or are they pathologically affected to the point of complete denial at the conscious level?
Surely this should be repugnant to any educated person, but looking at the turnout at McCain rallys these days, educated people seem to be in short supply..