Clinton tangles with Obama in 'Oppression Sweepstakes'

CNN ^ | Jan. 27, 2008 | By John Blake

[jdm]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may be competing in the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday, but they're also vying for the top prize in another contest: The Oppression Sweepstakes. That's how Michael Jelani Cobb, an African-American historian, describes the surge of venom that recently erupted between the Clinton and Obama camps. The sweepstakes kicks in when two excluded groups find themselves competing for the same prize. He says that took place in the 19th century when the abolitionist, Frederick Douglass and his ally, women's rights' activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, argued over what group should first be granted the right to vote: black men or white women. "Groups that are excluded are often concerned with other excluded groups getting ahead of them as opposed to keeping their eyes on the main issues," Cobb says. "You wind up with a lot of squabbling among the disempowered for the Oppression Sweepstakes."

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Whichever Dem candidate portrays themselves as the biggest victim will win the nomination. Disgusting.

[mrsmel]

The main purpose of guilt politics is to extract power from your target.

Exactly. That's why no matter what is actually achieved in the way of equality, the victimisation schtick will never end. When you don't have the numbers to overpower, you must find ways to guilt the other group into being complicit with the transfer of power. Unfortunately in present-day PC-ridden America, it works.