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One of the things I really admire about Barack Obama is that when he talks about policy, he doesn't talk about policies that will help "blacks" or "women" or even "minorities" very much. He mostly talks about "the poor" or "the middle class" or "our soldiers" or "Americans". I knew that during this election our discussions would inevitably fall into the gutter of race; even race and gender.
Heaven knows, as a white guy, I can hardly go six months on these boards without being called "insensitive" or "misogynistic" or some other code word for bigot. It's the intellectual equivalent of dragging a fight out of the ring and into the gutter. So let's just get it out of the way. I'm white, therefore I am, by definition, a racist. I'm male, I'm therefore, by definition, a misogynist. All men are misogynists, all whites are racists. Hell, all blacks and hispanics, too. Let's all agree that anyone whose circumstances of birth give them a leg up in the world (and I certainly acknowlege that is my case) should be publicly horsewhipped, okay? I'll take my thirty lashes like a ... well, a person, and try to get on with my life, okay?
I really anticipated that the race issue would be something that came up AFTER the nomination, and that it would be the Republicans who brought it up. But no. Mississippi went for Obama because they are all racist blacks, right? Not because he's organized, has a ground up campaign and fights for every delegate, and not because Hillary made the tactical error of deciding that Mississippi wasn't a state worth fighting for. Naw... That kind of analysis would be way too ... empirical, right? Heaven forbid we should get beyond identity politics and actually think about how a message of "hope and change and throw the bums out" and early opposition to a failed and foolish war might provide a guy an advantage in the polls and the press! No no no. It must be a black white thing. After all, didn't white people vote for Hillary and blacks for Obama? There. That proves it, right? Nevermind that 25% of those white voters, when polled, acknowledged that they were, in fact, Republicans. Nevermind that Rush Limbaugh, a God amongst such folks, was encouraging them to vote for Hillary because they think McCain can beat her. No, let us not look at things in too complicated a way, okay? Let's keep it simple, black-white.
And Western, Lily-White States that went for Obama? Obviously that's misogyny at work. Those rough and ready male cowpokes (and curiously, their wives) are all voting AGAINST Hillary because she's a woman. Not because she determined early in her campaign that she was going to ignore flyover country and concentrate on the Big States. Not because they're just as sick of the bums in Washington as the rest of us. Not because she's perceived as part of the established Washington order. Not because Obama shrewdly calculated that these states represented easy delegates, ripe for the picking and organized there. No no no. That's way to complex an argument. Keep focused! It's race and gender, people. The whole world can be boiled down to that.
Can it be that the reason young people go for Obama is because he campaigns BEYOND identity politics and at least professes to believe that such thinking is obsolete? Could the excitement he plainly generates be a result of his message of change and hope and optimism (things young folks tend to believe in?) Clearly the answer is a resounding NO. He gets young people because they are young, Hillary is old, and they are all ageist bigots.
And obviously, the reason I support Obama is because I'm a misogynist. It couldn't possibly be because I believe in the man himself.
So let's keep it real, folks. Race, age and gender are what's important. Let's try to keep issues out of this discussion and in the classes of political theorists in college where they belong.
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