The Media & Race: Getting It Wrong
Our unelected press elites, the ones who shape the opinions and convictions of millions, cannot conceive of Obama losing this election purely because of his far left politics. In the editorial echo chambers of our biggest newspapers and news networks, the “murky world of modern racism” is a forgone conclusion. It must be the ominous specter of racism, after all, reasonable and intelligent people vote for leftists. But Mr. Blow is correct; it is difficult to measure, because it’s mostly fiction. The “shadowy bias” he senses and misidentifies is against the undercurrent of anti-Americanism and socialism the citizen’s see in the Democrat nominee and his sycophants. Despite the media working overtime to hide the man behind the curtain, a sizable number of the electorate from both parties is uncomfortable with the obvious image manipulation. A vote for McCain is not a vote for an old white guy against a young black guy. It’s a vote for an experienced conservative legislator and veteran against a far left junior Senator with a nice speaking voice.
The legacy press is in the tank for Obama, and their push-polls and commentary are as unbalanced as the propaganda of the cold-war totalitarian states. They cannot let go of their ideology, their stereotypes or their incredible arrogance. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and a host of others are so chock full of leftist elites they are congenitally unable to understand the values of the majority of people in this nation. Their readership reflects it. Hollywood, from the Daily Show to the View reinforce the fact that humor or public discussion need not possess or rely on truth, critical analysis, or honesty. In fact, some very ignorant people get paid allot of money to entertain other very ignorant people, and in the process dumb down the whole nation.
It was inevitable that the party of entitlements and victimhood would ramp up the race card. So far it’s been through surrogates and cut-outs, but for the thinly veiled insinuations made by Obama during his rallies. I had expected it sooner. Now we have “advocacy journalists” such as Jack Cafferty and Keith Olberman calling race the reason Obama is not leading by wider margins in the polls, and painting average Americans as racist. Insert “propagandist” for “advocacy journalist” and you have a picture of what the Cafferys, Olbermans and Matthews of the press have become, the advocates and apologists of one party, propagandist‘s, devoid of ethical standards and disdainful of fact based analysis.
It is a leftist canard that America is filled with racists, that the heartland hates minorities and deep inside we are all white supremacists’. They use it to encourage the societal guilt complex that has ensured social entitlements become institutionalized funding conduits for leftist causes. Demanding justice for injustices real or imagined is the starting point; then they manipulate popular perceptions and sensitize the public to their agenda by wrapping it in moral arguments that are designed to be difficult to dispute without being painted with usual accusation of “racism.” The word is a weapon, a bludgeon to silence dissent in the PC gulag and it has been successful for many decades, intimidating those who would point out the hypocrisy, corruption and racism of those who profit from it. Americans of African decent have been the target of this effort as much if not more than whites, it has sapped their entrepreneurial energy, destroyed their work ethic and encouraged the victimhood that keeps large minority populations in thrall to handouts they have come to expect and the promises of liberal and leftist politicians that seldom come true.
Black America is an indelible part of the American soul, a part that a majority of Americans respect and even admire. The push polls on racial attitudes aside, urban problems are American problems and they respond to American solutions, not welfare handouts. Yet entitlement politics are the political heart of most Democrat run cities in this nation. They never succeed in alleviating the problems they adopt as causes and their populist campaigns hit the same themes election after election. You would think that the problems of education in Chicago, employment in Michigan, and crime in St Louis would have made great strides forward after all the enlightened leftist advocacy and billions of tax payer dollars. Not so. Most of the money is funneled to corrupt politicians and leftist groups whose activity is disguised as social work; Obama’s participation in Bill Ayers Annenberg Challenge is a case in point. Five hundred million of taxpayer dollars down the Chicago rat hole with no appreciable improvement in education.
That this country has in large measure been successful in moving beyond the ghosts of its past and bringing opportunity and equality to most of its citizens does not support the leftist grievance entitlement mantra. It is seldom heard. Instead we hear that we were and are a racist nation, and for that reason alone, we owe Obama the presidency.
The history of racism and slavery has been made preeminent in the education of our children, its crimes the central focus of American history classes in every school in the nation. Martin Luther King is more familiar to American children than Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. A man to be revered, he was nevertheless part of greater national tapestry, one that has lately become more diverse, largely due to a misrepresented and demonized Republican president. As is ever the case Democrats are full of words about their intentions, yet it is the Republicans that take action.
But race is not the problem. Had Colin Powell made a different decision in1996 he may well have been president, his accomplishments and demeanor are eminently presidential and he was and still is widely popular. Black Americans can be found in leadership positions throughout government, military, business and cultural structures, not just sports and entertainment. Race does not put people off Obama, his politics does. Most Americans consider themselves conservative, according to the bipartisan Battleground Poll, which in August of 2008 revealed that 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative, 40% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat conservative, 2% of Americans considered themselves to be moderate. Contrast that with the 27% of Americans who considered themselves to be somewhat liberal, and the 9% who considered themselves to be very liberal. The missing 3% of Americans did not know or refused to answer. These numbers have been within a few points for well over a decade.
Pushing race into the debate does not change that Obama is a confirmed leftist, however much he spins and distorts his record. The press is comfortable with him because they spring from the same socialist leaning institutions, the world of academia where reality seldom intrudes. He is our most left leaning senator, a party line voting ideologue with no history of bipartisanship, and he has a very short history indeed. His impressive speaking voice does not change his alliance with the most anti-American, divisive and destructive people and political groups in our country, from ACORN to Media Matters to Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. His associations have not been representative of what American looks like, white, black or otherwise. He does not inspire confidence when one sees how narrowly focused his painfully brief career has been, he does not inspire hope for change when one sees how he rose to this nomination using all the corrupt traditions of the Chicago political machine. His specialty of funneling millions of taxpayer dollars into leftist causes should concern all of us. For all the glitz and showmanship of his campaign, it is obvious he is much more comfortable with a well rehearsed script, a teleprompter and a fawning crowd than he is with honest interviews, the issues and the truth about his own convictions. Following the far left progressive script, he’ll say anything to get elected; because once you have power you can go back to your radical roots. |
