(Akiit.com) Following the thumping George Bush and company gave John Kerry in 2004, the new left groused in unison that the reasons were clear : Kerry, like most of the left, was simply too nuanced and too smart, while the Bush campaign succeeded in framing every issue in moral black and white. Jane Smiley writing in Salon.com was a bit less generous in her criticism positing that the true cause of liberal defeat was that Republicans have cultivated ignorance in the voters; that they have appealed to the basest instincts of greed and cultural superiority. In short, the American people – 60 million of them to be exact – were nothing but a bunch of rubes. It was startling to read and hear so many voices clamoring to declare that the people they claimed to champion were nothing but a bunch of losers.
I continue to be amazed at the contempt the new left has for the American people. Not satisfied with maintaining that Americans are too inept to own and invest our own retirement accounts, plan for our own healthcare or even educate our own children, they are now proclaiming in unison that our failure to see the brilliance of their current presidential candidate can only mean we are racists.
Jack Cafferty writes on CNNpolitics.com, “the polls remain close. Doesn’t make sense…unless it’s race.â€
Michael Grunwald of Time Magazine decrees that “race is the elephant in the room.†He then goes on to add to the growing lexicon of new code words for race. According to Grunwald, “working class,†is now code for white, this in addition to code words we have already been educated with: “community organizer†means black; “elitist†is the same as uppity and “inexperienced†is akin to calling Obama a boy. (If we could just get a copy of this updated race glossary beforehand it would ease the suspicion that folks are really making this stuff up on the fly. But I digress.)
Responding to a question about why the race is so close, Kathleen Sebelius, Democratic governor of Kansas, responded, “Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American?
No doubt they have. They have also noticed that Barack Obama has a paper thin resume, distinguished himself in the Illinois state senate by opposing legislation that would protect children born alive following a botched abortion and associated with a man that brags about his hey day as a domestic terrorist. No doubt they have also noticed that for all his pretty talk of change and bi-partisanship as a United States senator, he has never opposed his own party on an issue, never reached across the aisle, and has offered few policy prescriptions that are not right out of the new deal play book. They may have also noticed his message to Caucus 4 Priorities, a liberal pacifist organization, promising major cuts in defense spending, suspension of future combat systems and the abolition of satellite defense systems and felt uneasy with his ability to defend this nation from her enemies.
In other words they may reasonably disagree with him on any number of issues. In America we are free to disagree, to discuss, debate, preach on street corners and vote. Apparently, that is not good enough for liberals who seem content to repeat the mantra “you are either with us or you are a racist.â€
In what can best be described as political Mau Mauing, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Fatimah Ali has threatened a race war if Obama doesn’t win. Now that’s true gangsta style! If people don’t like your ideas burn the sucka down!
What remains unclear is why Democrats think a majority of Americans should vote for them when they are told that if they disagree – if they believe reasonably that Barack Obama is not the man they want to lead this country over the next four years, they will be beaten in the streets.
Like my mother used to say, “Bad habits are hard to break.â€
If John McCain should win in November, which is a distinct possibility, it will not be because Republicans reduced complex issues to scary sound bites or that the American people are simpleminded and stupid. Nor will it be because they are racists. If and/or when Obama loses the general election, it will be because the American people listened and rejected the vision of the new left just as they have done seven out of the last 10 presidential elections.
Written By Joseph C. Phillips