Panderer-in-Chief
Today is Monday, 13 October 2008.
To expound on a theme from yesterday.
Whipping was the primary form of violent punishment employed by white supremacist slavers against their African-American victims. For McCain to employ the construction “after I whip his [Obama’s] you-know-what” reveals, at best, a tone-deafness amounting to a totally coarsened ethical sensibility, if not downright racism. It’s as if a candidate running against a Jewish opponent were to say “after I gas his [euphemism]”, or a candidate running against a female opponent were to say “after I beat up her [euphemism]”.
But this is in keeping with the immoral tone of Palin, sanctioned by McCain, when the former described Obama as “palling around with terrorists”. In the current American imagination, “terrorists” are persons of colour, inviting the chain of thought: terrorists are persons of colour, Obama is a person of colour, therefore Obama is a terrorist.
Of course, pandering to white racists by Republican presidential candidates is nothing new, and hardly “maverick”. Both Goldwater in 1964 and Reagan in 1980 explicitly endorsed the doctrine of states’ rights, and therefore segregation, and therefore white supremacy.
It is indicative of McCain’s constantly increasing desperation that he is now not leaving the pandering to his running mate, but has become panderer-in-chief.
To expound on a theme from yesterday.
Whipping was the primary form of violent punishment employed by white supremacist slavers against their African-American victims. For McCain to employ the construction “after I whip his [Obama’s] you-know-what” reveals, at best, a tone-deafness amounting to a totally coarsened ethical sensibility, if not downright racism. It’s as if a candidate running against a Jewish opponent were to say “after I gas his [euphemism]”, or a candidate running against a female opponent were to say “after I beat up her [euphemism]”.
But this is in keeping with the immoral tone of Palin, sanctioned by McCain, when the former described Obama as “palling around with terrorists”. In the current American imagination, “terrorists” are persons of colour, inviting the chain of thought: terrorists are persons of colour, Obama is a person of colour, therefore Obama is a terrorist.
Of course, pandering to white racists by Republican presidential candidates is nothing new, and hardly “maverick”. Both Goldwater in 1964 and Reagan in 1980 explicitly endorsed the doctrine of states’ rights, and therefore segregation, and therefore white supremacy.
It is indicative of McCain’s constantly increasing desperation that he is now not leaving the pandering to his running mate, but has become panderer-in-chief.
posted by HH at 10:15 AM
5 Comments:
You are digging ferociously to make something out of Senator McCain's phrasing. That is so sad. It's coming down to the wire on the election and cries of "racism" seem to be, all of a sudden, coming from the Left. Is that what you think is needed as a last minute push to get Senator Obama into the White House? Desperate times call for desperate measures? Unfortunately, the crisis in the economy appears to be giving the Left all the push it needs.
Yes, I know I should quit reading your blog. But it's like a train wreak - you can't help but look at the sad mess.
And in America, where we know you live, color is spelled c-o-l-o-r. Spelling it as "colour" is an affectation.
Well, at least I can provide you with a train wreck, though it's hardly on the scale of the months and months of Whack Jack McCain's All Over the Map and Stumbling Campaign.
The Left? Most of Sen. Obama's support comes from centrist and liberal capitalists, not The Left. It's the former who are, in the media, vocally angered by the racist politics of Sen. McCain & Gov. Palin. Sorry to burst your bubble, but all the genuine Left in the country could practically gather in my Library.
"Colour". I hear this "English only" cant. Well, "colour" is English. "Color" is the lazy American dialect dumbdown.
Hope you continue to watch this train wreck and poking me in the eye.
I am a fan of 'colour' as I am of encyclopaedia, phoebe, phoenix, foetus and amoeba. I find these editorially determined linguistic anachronisms to carry a link to our historical roots and they serve to remind me to reflect on the spiral (double helix?) of history.
Santayana was unfortunately two dimensional in his expression of the famous maxim but I digress.
'Colour' bears some irony for those proud Anglo-Saxons who disdain the French. The Anglo-Saxon-Jute introduction into Britain in 449 C.E. bringing our rich germanic tradition into the celtic of the britains that had already begun to adopt Latin roots gets a second shot from Normandy in 1066 from those same Angle/Saxon/Jute additions to the Norse via the Frankish assimilation of Latin that we know as more or less as recognizeable modern French.
So there you have it proud Anglo-Saxon Francophobes. An encapsulation of dark age and medieval cultural conquest and assimilation in the form of an anachronism that some might term an affectation.
Others might consider that the loss of the spelling might also be due to passive-agressive Orwellian revisionism but I leave that thesis for others to develop.
Peace
BTW, I think that HH response is dead center on target in all respects. Hopefully there is room for my spirit in his library.
This just in:
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
------------ --------- --
1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary' ).
------------ --------- ---
2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'
------------ -------
3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
------------ -----
4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist,then you're not ready to shoot grouse.
------------ --------- -
5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
------------ --------- -
6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
------------ --------
7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
------------ -------
8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
------------ -------
9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
------------ ---------
10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.
------------ ---------
11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).
------------ ---------
12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America . Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
------------ --------
13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.
------------ -----
14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
------------ ---
15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
Sorry, Weary, no emphasis on phraseology needed to get Obama into the White House. Send your good thoughts to all those GOP incumbents who will soon be recumbent.
Post a Comment
<< Home