Posted on 09/12/2008 11:51:49 AM PDT by neverdem
Racism, sexism, ageism . . . evidently, we're all victims now.
At least that's what partisans would have us believe.
The political reality, of course, is quite different. "Exoticism" in the political realm is no longer an impediment, it's a significant asset. And Republicans, whether they admit it or not, were yearning for the excitement Barack Obama generated — that is, before Sarah Palin came along.
Palin's frontier mystique has captivated conservatives. Both the lipstick and the pitbull. It's also discombobulated many Democrats, now fumbling to find a strategy to deal with a conservative woman.
We've witnessed accusations of racism and sexism during the Democratic primary fight. On these topics, conservatives, for the most part, have tiptoed in trepidation, lest someone somewhere spy any misconduct.
Which makes the recent brouhaha over sexism much sillier.
When Obama riffed off of Palin's quote regarding lipstick, pigs and such, the McCain campaign instantaneously reacted with ham-fisted glee. Republicans do not excel at identity politics. They shouldn't try. Palin may be able to pull off election miracles, but playing the role of wounded prey is a nuclear-powered stretch.
Democrats, conversely, are prepared for the battle. Just witness how every word uttered by their rivals undergoes intense forensic scrutiny for any subliminal bigotry.
The accidental governor of New York, David Paterson, recently stated, "I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention — a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing."
Well, I did notice. I also noticed Democrats in Denver hailing Obama's community organizing days as an idealistic and weighty accomplishment. Community organizing, you know, is about as impressive to your Heartlander as the mayoralty of Wasilla, Alaska, is to the urbanite.
But, there is a more serious, preemptive claim of racism: The economy, after all, is in terrible shape, and no one likes the Republican president. There is no other way, it is asserted, that a candidate as talented as Obama could possibly lose this election. It must be prejudice.
To deny there are racists among us would be silly. But is it possible, with all the problems we face — or, rather the always-exaggerated problems we face during election time — that other factors play an overriding role?
Democrats told us everything was in shambles four years ago and yet states predictably lined up red and blue — a formula that will, for the most part, likely be repeated this year.
Did Americans have an intolerance for haughty junior senators from New England?
"You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions," Jacob Weisberg, also making the preemptive case of racism in Slate, wrote, "but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health care system, oil dependency, income stagnation, and climate change."
Well, yes. It is about policy. Voters may struggle with their mortgage and curse those high gas prices, yet most of them won't surrender core values and policy beliefs due to the vagaries of the economy.
If roughly half of the nation's voters reject the serious, but collectivist, solutions Obama offers them, it doesn't mean they're racists, it means they're Republicans.
Now, should Obama lose in November, it will be partly of his own doing and partly because the majority of voters are permanent members of their respective parties.
However you slice it, portraying a hyper-accomplished 47-year-old man running for the highest office in the world as a victim is about as preposterous as depicting Sarah Palin as a damsel in distress.
Reach columnist David Harsanyi at 303-954-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
I find that David Harsanyi is a pleasure to read.
This statement is one of the dumbest POS I have ever read. I know of no real republicans that yearned for BHO, except to yearn for exposing him for the marxist twit he is.
You're reading it wrong. He's talking about the excitement that Obama had been generating. Pubbies were depressed at the prospect of McCain choosing Lieberman or Ridge before Palin was announced.
Newt was on Fox & Friends this morning and he was not quick to jump on Charlie Gibson for his choppy interview of Palin last night.
I liked that. Palin is not the damsel in distress ~ let the pundits treat her as they would a man. She can hold her own just fine.
It’s when they treat her like some caricature of a woman that they fail.
She does not present herself as weak, yet they keep digging for an Achilles heel.
The you didn't see him last night. He was appalled at Gibson's attack on Christianity. Not only Gibson, but the elite media in general, seemed especially anti Christian.
I did see Newt last night and he’s right.
This morning’s topic was a bit different.
Palin can certainly hold her own, as she has to. She’s no victim and she never will be.
God Bless her, she will never be a victim. Remember the "Unsinkable Molly Brown?"
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