On “Face the Nation” this Sunday, host Bob Schieffer mentioned to guest Elijah Cummings (D-MD) that it was being reported that many African-Americans are worried the Secret Service would better protect a white president. “Eighty-five percent of all African-Americans that come to me mention what you just said, Cummings replied, “and I don’t agree with it.”
Well, that’s mighty big of the Congressman. He has been one of the many black elected officials who have periodically claimed that criticism of the President stems from a race-based hatred unrelated to his performance or policies. A responsible black leader would have said, not “I disagree” as if this was a matter for rational debate, but rather, “This is obviously unfair and untrue.”
I think the Congressman should have said, to be completely candid, something like this:
Eighty-five percent of all African-Americans that come to me mention what you just said,and I must say, Bob, I think Democrats, liberal pundits, Hollywood, the civil rights establishment, activists and many others like Chris Matthews—all of MSNBC, really—Bill Maher and Eric Holder, should pause to pat themselves on the back. After all, handed a shining opportunity to ease the tensions of racism with the election of a black President, we’ve managed against all odds to convert the majority of the U.S. African-American population into a paranoid, racist, fearful, whites-hating bloc that we should be able to keep voting Democratic for decades, while we convince the growing Hispanic-American population that whites hate them too. Of course, we have to appreciate the efforts of the media in painting that Trayvon Martin tragedy as a mad racist shooting harmless child for “walking while black”—that helped a lot.
Luckily, whites don’t attribute all of the endless screw-ups of government agencies under the supervision of this black President to his hatred of them, or we might really have a race problem in this country. But that would be racist, anyway. Actually, we could use that.”
Ethics Alarms 
Do you ever wonder how creatures like Cummings can deal from day to day with their own lies, frauds, schemes and the misery that has resulted from them… all just to stay in office and collect the benefits. He’s old enough (one would think) to realize that he can’t take his ill-gotten gains with him when he passes. I wonder if he’s even spared a thought to where he’ll go when that moment comes.
Who knows. I was on a program with the Congressman, and he seems like a nice man. He is a civil rights icon in Maryland. But he does not seem to realize that encouraging racial distrust isn’t worth the cost to society and humanity, even if it does help him keep in office.
“But he does not seem to realize that encouraging racial distrust isn’t worth the cost to society and humanity, even if it does help him keep in office.”
This doesn’t compute. There is no value to encouraging racial distrust. None. Therefore, hinting that there is a possibility of making it “worth the cost” doesn’t compute. And keeping oneself in office isn’t necessarily a value.
Tell him. Tell all the others I mentioned. The theory is that racial distrust, for example, keeps an incompetent black President from being held to account. He’s being brought down by racist Republicans! Holder wasn’t a lousy, inept, politically corrupt AG—people like me just say that because he’s black. Susan Rice wasn’t criticized because she lied her head off to the American public under the auspices of her UN position and the U.S. government—she’s black, and everyone’s out to get blacks, right?
If you are corrupt, criminal, incompetent and/or unsuccessful, and African-American, of course it seems helpful to be able to blame everything, including your own failures, on pervasive white racism. Unfortunately, the failure of the current President to meet the challenges he presumed to undertake has made that destructive rationalization too politically useful to resist, and we will be paying for it for decades.
Boy, I wish I could blame my failures on something or someone other than me. Wait–BORDERISM! No, that won’t work…
It’s like a conspiracy theory that no one can dispute.
Perfect, Steve-O!
And true. America is racist. What, you deny it? Racist!
It’s almost like a thought experiment that is completely opposite to Schrodinger’s Cat…
that somehow the very act of exposing the truth taints you as a denier, so it’s better to assume the truth is what the race-baiters say it is, and leave the box alone…
Is this the first reference to the Cat here? I think so.
Alas, beaten by mere days
(Interestingly enough on the same context of “our culture is corrupt, take my word for it, deny it and you are one of the corrupt ones)
Had to look that one up, I had heard the name in reference to something called “Schrodinger’s rapist” supporting the idea that a woman should trust no man because there is no way of knowing who is a rapist and who isn’t just by looking at him.
Texagg is absolutely right, it is like a lot of other conspiracy theories, for example 9/11 trutherism, where you can point out all the obvious holes in the truther’s argument, and all they will do is say that the conspiracy fooled you too and you haven’t done your research.
In this case it’s more insidious, though. Whereas most average folks don’t buy conspiracy theories, or at least won’t give credence to theories that sound frankly absurd when not backed with solid evidence, most folks get at least a little defensive when faced with accusations of hate of any kind. Not only do most of us like to think our likes and dislikes are well-founded, most of us now know that an accusation of racism, sexism, homophobia, or some other -ism against a protected class can potentially be either disruptive or a career-ender, no matter whether it’s nonsense or not.
I might like to point out to a co-worker that his till-the-last-dog-dies defense of the president is ill-founded. I might like to point out to someone on social media that everyone who says “hey, not so fast!” on marriage redefinition is not automatically a hater. I might like to point out to an acquaintance that every man isn’t a rapist-in-waiting. However, I can’t afford to be placed on administrative leave while an accusation of racism is investigated, then wait for back pay if it gets thrown out. I don’t want my social media account suspended while the administrators look into accusations of homophobic posting. I don’t need an acquaintance talking me up as a misogynist. So, I bite my tongue, and so do a lot of other folks who might otherwise speak out, and the race-baiters and other grievance-hucksters go unopposed.
Which is why it continues. It works.
As if you can’t tell, I rank his knowing enabling—even if he didn’t personally orchestrate it— of this 6 year effort by his supporters and enablers as the single worst, most unforgivable, destructive aspect of Obama as President. I think it is very close to evil. Even if the rest of his Presidency hadn’t been the multilateral mess it has been, this alone would but it deep into the negative column for me.
Comment of the Day
Or at least Lament or Observation of the Day.
Had to look that one up
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I had to look it up, too, the first time.
I like science references. And keeping with the theme of animals in science, I want to bring up Pavlov’s Dog.
Pavlov was exploring the idea of conditioned response. His experiment consisted of (and I’m simplifying) ringing a bell, and putting out the dog’s food dish, in that order, over and over for a long period of time. Later, Pavlov would ring the bell, and even though there was no food, the dog would drool. Therefore the dog was conditioned to drool to the sound of a bell.
I often think a lot of political responses are conditioned, as opposed to based in fact. Someone says something like “Obama’s foreign policy is really weak” (bell) and Democrats say something like “Raaaaaaaacisssssst” (drool) even though there was no racism (food) present. Carry that forward to the race baiters, the 9-11 truthers and other groups of illogical people. Even if the people at the top know that they’re spreading bullshit for money, I think the sheeple are conditioned so they say the things, they go through the motions, but they don’t really think about them.
I think he probably does know it, and he also knows that trading on racial distrust and grievances are exactly what is keeping him in office.
It takes time to analyze and understand fiscal and other social policies and why long-term most of those proposed by the left usually are not sustainable.
It takes but a minute to throw out a slogan about how young black men are hurt disproportionately by the justice system, raise the specter of deportation for Hispanics, or say “war on women” and whip up fear of back-alley abortions with coat-hangers, and you’ve got your win.
During the Cold War that nation “got” that it was in it’s best interest to stay at least semi-united, whoever was in the White House, and the voting reflected that. After the need to be united at the water’s edge ended, it became all about staying in power for the politicians and getting more of the pie for constituents. Tedious policy arguments don’t do it, but everyone “gets” color and gender very quickly.