And Lib if you know me at all (and yeah, I may not stand out of the crowd so much) you know I am not one of “the right”. My admiration of Obama and support of him does not however mean that I am uncritical of him. Being fair means I am critical of all that I feel deserve it when they deserve it.
He was mostly quiet in the face of Islamophobia and he himself, per your cite, acknowledges that fact. Maybe pragmatic politics gave him no choice but to do so but it was thus because of the magnitude of prejudice against Muslims in this country. That’s how I and many others experienced the campaign even as we supported him enthusiastically. You saw something different. Fine.
“Please show me where he, during the election season, attacked those prejudices in any way.”…and you are shown exactly what you asked for, be a gentleman about it, instead of all that weaseling about “this one time” and all that. You were simply ignorant, that’s all.
And finally, you used Colin Powell, who said it ONLY once, as a counter-example to Barack Obama. If it was good enough for your counter-example, it should be good enough for Obama. And I’m willing to bet that Powell would not make the same complaint about Obama that you made here. The point is that it wasn’t just your facts that were wrong, but the whole concept was, as I said, insane.
Colin Powell was not running for President and presented with the issue all those many many times. Colin Powell did not have a campaign that made it clear that including Obama’s middle name (with its false implication regarding his heritage) was a dirty pool tactic.
He should have said it every time. In fact, why even talk about anything else? Taxes, global warming, health care reform, all pale in significance . I wish he had said “And just to keep that dickwad DSeid quet, I don’t think being called muslim is an insult, and implying that it is is insulting to muslims”.
A dirty pool tactic is exactly what it was. The McCain campaign understood full well that idiots and bigots vote, and that’s exactly whom they targeted with the false implications about Obama.
Now, I’ve already explained why your position is crazy. But given that you’ve said you’re not a right-winger, something even more incredible arises. Namely, you will now have a president who is intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, young, and good hearted. I cannot imagine what the fuck more you would demand of one person. Maybe you should rise to his level before you start talking shit about him — especially false shit.
Well, the rest of your post presumed that the 9/11 terrorists and Al-Qaeda were responsible for the ridiculous security theater we subject ourselves to, and our willing surrender of civil liberties.
There has not yet been a politician who I have supported who I have felt is perfect and through my long support of Obama I have maintained, only slightly tongue in cheek, that I look forward to complaining about his Presidency. I donated and volunteered (not as much as some, but some) to make the day that I can do that a reality. He is not perfect and I found his tacit acceptance of Islamophobia understandable but nevertheless slightly disappointing. Guess what? I can accept that I will find certain aspects of individuals somewhat disappointing and still admire and respect them overall. If you call that talking shit well that is too bad for you.
Now obviously you think Obama himself is crazy as he himself in your own friggin cite recognized how he was derelict in defense against Islamophobic comments.
So fuck you for implying something negative about Obama and buying into the Right Wing smears!
Seriously you make the same point I had made in your the start of your post. Both sides recognized that there are lots of idiots and bigots who vote and both sides didn’t want to miss out on those votes. His opposition tried to get those votes by name-calling “Obama is a Muslim!” and Obama tried to get them to his side by responding “Am not!” If you do not see that as (a perhaps necessary) tacit acceptance of endemic prejudice against Muslims in this country that’s fine but I will disagree.
Imagine if there had been a whisper campaign (or louder) that Obama’s mother was Jewish and that Obama was therefore actually Jewish. Do you think Obama would have responded vigously “Am not!” and called such a suggestion dirty pool and only occasionally adding in “not there’s anything wrong with being Jewish.”
No way. Our (yeah, I’m Jewish) votes and support mattered to him and he would have known that such behavior would have insulted us. The defense against the implicit antisemitism of the charge would have had equal time with the fact that he was not. At least equal time. It would have been smart politics just like accepting Islamophobia was a concession to the reality of this country.
Obama is good man, a smart man, but you delude yourself when you place him above politics and political realities including the implicit acceptance of Islamophobia. He has just been a very smart and very effective politician whose vision mostly happens to be one I can wholeheartedly agree with.
He did not ever accept “Islamaphobia”, you lying fuck. The irony of all this is that people like you are going to benefit from his leadership just as much as reasonable people.
Lib, I know that the norm here is the kind of response you’ve given but I would actually appreciate a civil discussion of this issue. Feel free to join it in this new GD thread.
Wow, Strato, beset on all sides and still keeping cool. I call that a class act.
Let me disabuse some of you who are disgusted of a few notions.
White people are taken off planes for mentioning what action they would take if the plane went down, or for being misunderstood while talking about a boxing match. It happens. It doesn’t get press.
In the wake of the Oklahoma bombing anyone buying more than a few bags of fertilizer at a time WILL trigger phone calls about suspicious activity. Even all of these years later. Again, it doesn’t make the news. It won’t win a lawsuit.
Do you have any idea how many white broncos there were on our roads after OJ had his low speed chase? Do you have any idea how many phone calls they generated days and days and days after the fact? Any clue how hard it is to tell white, black, brown, Christian and Muslim people that the police aren’t looking for white Broncos, and especially not on the other side of the country?
Ask any white guy who wants to wear a trenchcoat within six blocks of a school. Ask the guy pulled over for having a teddy bear in his front seat a week after a school abduction involving a stuffed toy. Pity any white-appearing guy when a missing black child triggers an Amber Alert. Again, it ain’t snazzy, so it won’t get reported. It happens. Often.
When the Unabomber’s sketch was released in major newspapers, white guys wearing hoodies and shades triggered phone calls. Sometimes just white guys with curly hair… because he might have changed his shirt!
What many call “profiling” is merely looking out for what seems out of place. It is much, much more than race or skill color and sometimes it is far, far less. It is a skill constantly honed and tweaked by those tasked with defending people who spend a lot of time in front of their televisions and computers and are too far removed from watching over their shoulders for saber toothed cats. “Profiling” is evil, except that it daily stops crime you’ll never hear about or suspect was happening. Read your “police briefs” section of your local papers. Find the story about the guy arrested with burglary tools. Find the story about the guy with felony warrants for rape, murder or worse who got nabbed. Track down the cop that got him and ask that cop questions about what he did and what he was thinking when he got the bad guy. You won’t like what you hear because it doesn’t write well on a bulletin board. It might come down to how he wore his pants, or the way he gave the crook eye, or the fact that he seemed like he ws in the wrong neighborhood, or the fact that his coat was thick for the weather.
In the wake of national events, the powers that be often ask Americans to be more vigilant. That means that people with considerably less practice at honing their profiling skills (and it is a skill) will make calls. It also means that 99 of 100 times the “authorities” will act. Because “authorities” would rather take a rip for what they did do than what they didn’t. And because the “authorities” know that the very day they think a smart criminal wouldn’t actually discuss robbing the bank in the vestibule of the bank itself, is the day they lose their badge and pension and college fund for their kids, because IT ACTUALLY HAPPENS.