Posted on 07/10/2008 7:27:52 PM PDT by Uncle Ralph
"Shocking". That's how the New York Post describes Jesse Jackson's attack on Barack Obama.
But I don't think it is shocking. I don't think it is even mildly surprising.
Barack Obama represents an existential threat to Jesse Jackson. If he succeeds he badly undermines Jackson and his methods. Jackson needs Obama to fail, even if he must avoid having anything to do with the failure.
Why?
I tried my best to explain the reason a couple of months back in The Times:
[African-American writer] Shelby Steele argues that there are two political strategies adopted by his fellow African-Americans - bargaining and challenging. He starts bluntly with the assertion that blacks "possess a largesse of moral authority that whites can simply never have. And this amounts to a currency of power."
African Americans, Steele posits, have the ability to bestow upon whites something they crave and cannot bestow upon themselves - racial innocence.
Bargainers make this deal: "I will not use America's horrible history of white racism against you, if you will promise not to use my race against me." Bargainers grant whites their innocence up front as a gesture of trust. And in return? Eternal gratitude.
Steele believes bargaining is a spectacularly successful strategy. Everyone wins. It works to combat racism because it grants whites "a good reputation to protect... The beauty of bargaining is that it turns the black desire to live without racism into a white self-interest." And bargainers themselves are able to achieve iconic status: Sidney Poitier, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, bargainers all.
And Barack Obama too, of course. He is a classic bargainer.
Each of these figures had another choice - being a challenger. As Steele puts it: "Challengers put all whites in the position of having to chase after their racial innocence. The challenger's code: whites are incorrigibly racist until they do something to prove otherwise."
And challenging can be incredibly successful too. It's just that not everyone wins. Only the challengers do, and in certain very limited ways.
Challengers - figures such as Jesse Jackson and the firebrand Al Sharpton - build their power and their careers by setting themselves up as arbiters.
If Obama wins, and is allowed to portray himself not just as a success story but as a black success story, he undermines Jackson's strategy. In fact he undermines Jackson's political reason for being.
No wonder Jackson is keen to tell other black leaders that Obama looks down on African Americans.
This assumes that "all Whites" are guilty from the get-go.
Because if Obama wins, then Jesse’s jig is up?
whatta joke.
too complicated.
people hate each other.
"whites" are so old-millenium.
You can’t say “jig” cuz that’s racist! LOL
Seriously, I think this was a set-up so that senator Obama could have his “Sistah Soulja” moment like President Bill Clinton did. As a matter of fact, I see the press already describing it that way! Guess they got the talking points memo from Axelrod...
All of that depends on:
1. White people feel guilty.
2. White people give a rat’s a** what black people think of them.
Mercifully, I am free of both of those personality flaws.
Remember, Jesse Jackson was Clinton’s “spiritual advisor” during the Lewinsky perjury scandal. It elevated Jackson’s profile substantially.
He’s in the Clintons’ pocket. Don’t be surprised if Hillary has begun her campaign to defeat Obama.
Jesse Jackmail has made $Millions off the Racist Market. He feels his nuts getting cut.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Jesse Jagoff is just an attention whore....he’s been out of the news too long and figured it’d make some headlines and get him back on the race-pimp circuit.
Jackson ran for President several times and was never remotely close to actually getting anywhere, and now along comes this upstart celebrity fad, this "rock star", this inexperienced little empty suit, and he's taking the goofball Democrats (and the Democrats' biggest base constituency, permanently victimized blacks) by storm. You better believe Jackson doesn't like it one bit. That should have been him up there.
There used to be a similarly bizarre competition between Schumer and Spitzer, each of whom envisioned himself as "the first Jewish President". (I bet Chuckie is still laughing his cheeks off over Spitzer's ignominious downfall.)
It's all part and parcel of the rats' "identity politics". They derive their power in part by balkanizing America.
Re Spitzer and Schumer vying to be the first Jewish president.
Look at them as two leftist assw*pes trying to outpiss each other.
I do not consider either of them to be Jewish, real Democrats, or honest Americans. Spitzer is disgraced; Schumer is still one of the biggest threats to America’s security.
This is the opinion of an American Jew, and I approve its publication. MadMax
Good explanation.
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