I hate to say: “I told you so”; but I did. And whenever I remind people on the blogs of things I predict coming to pass, there is this constant resentment that predictably emerges from certain perpetual corners. That resentment usually manifests itself by snide remarks or nasty comments in the threads of my columns. But that’s okay; I will plug on.
I told you all that racism will eventually rear its ugly head in this presidential primary and sure as day it did. Go back and see when I did my first part of this series, and ask yourself why I said there will be three parts to this column. It’s called clairvoyance. I am very clear about my voyage/lol.
What is shameful about all this is a reality about American politics proven all over again: that in election campaigns desperate people always sink into the abyss. And here we have a campaign season-so full of promise- being reduced to a great big joke. I hope it doesn’t sink further into the pits. Look; I wish I could say I didn’t see this coming; but it was so damn predictable. And it was all caused by the desperation of the Clinton dynasty. Bill Clinton- in order to pay off his quasi alimony bill- must deliver this nomination to Hillary; otherwise: his life is a misery forever. Billary knows this.
In July of last year when I predicted that racism and its cousin (assassination: political and/or physical; or in that order) will be the only two things to stop Barack Obama from the US presidency (see Obama/ part 3), the consensus was that I was either back to smoking pot- as a I did as a teenager (just like Barack) – or I was losing my marbles. But I am sure by now most of you have come around to understand Obama’s potential, and why the attacks started- as predictably as the reactionary forces against civil rights acted up during the sixties. The gorilla named racism was always at the back of the room.
Yesterday we found out that Ross Perot got one of those “dirty” e-mails that have been floating around; negative in their predispositions towards Barack Obama. Perot actually believed that Obama was a Muslim; as the vicious e-mail said. It took a journalist from Newsweek magazine to edify Mr. Perot. Think about that. Here is a man who ran for the US presidency twice (as a third party/Independent candidate); who once garnered 20% of the popular vote all over this country; who has also been exceptionally successful in business, to where some have intimated that he is a billionaire; and he actually believed this crap.
For those who think negative campaigns do not work, remember this: if someone as intelligent as Ross Perot can be duped into believing that Obama is not the Christian that he has always been, then consider some of the less educated and less developed minds out there who have gotten these e-mails. This is despicable. And we know for fact that a few of Clinton’s campaign people have owned up to this tactic in the past. Hillary has actually dismissed two or three of them. This is called dirty-tricks folks; just as I said in my NH article. So who is being libeled now?
As soon as Barack Obama’s campaign started taking off, we witnessed these prolific attacks from Hillary Clinton’s minions. Let’s name some of them; Bill Clinton himself, Bob Kerrey, Andrew Cuomo, Charles Rangel, Bob Johnson, Andrew Young, Mr. Sheehan from NH, and other campaign workers from Iowa, to New Hampshire, to Nevada, to South Carolina; it’s ridiculous. And to think that Hillary had the unmitigated gall to say that Obama started the fist fight; just like the third grade bully who when caught would swear that the other kid started it all: meanwhile the other kid has all the bruises.
In the Jewish community there are a series of e-mails floating around attacking Barack Obama for near everything under the sun; even some Jewish leaders who are not supporting Obama, have come out to say how despicable they are. Is this a coincidence? You tell me.
To this date, can we finger one Obama supporter who went overboard in attacking Hillary? I doubt it. But we sure can name names can we? And we sure can list the license plate numbers of those drive-by hit and run Clinton supporters, who just continue to run over Barack. This is political campaigning at its nadir.
Whenever a spouse is murdered, the cops look to see how much life insurance money the survivor stands to collect; the rationale is simple: therein lies your motive. In this food fight with Hillary and Barack, all one has to do to find the culprit, is examine who benefits from a racially-charged campaign. Obama who has spent his lifetime downplaying racial issues is supposed to have started this; on the edge of his nomination as the democrat’s standard bearer; gimme a break! That is a fairy tale if there ever was one.
Hilary Clinton was deliberately intent on reminding white redneck voters that after all is said and done: Barack Obama is still black. No matter how he looks; he calls himself black; so he is a Negro. This appeals to the darker inner-sides of some whites; and that’s why I say it was all orchestrated. That’s why she attempted to minimize MLK’s role in the civil rights accomplishments of the sixties, and elevate LBJ’s. This is called: race-baiting. It’s a southern political tactic steeped in Jim Crow tradition, and as old as Reconstruction.
But Billary has paid a big price for all this folks; trust me on this one. If you were trolling the national blogs all of last week, what you would have seen were thousands of commenters saying basically the same thing: if Hillary wins the nomination they won’t be voting for her. It was very instructive and foreboding. Many were white and said it. My own non-scientific poll found similar results. This is scary for Democrats everywhere; but then we will see; you know how they always doubt me here on this blog when I say deep stuff like this. Billary may enjoy a pyrrhic victory folks. Remember Winston Churchill once said that there are two types of victories: the immediate and the eventual.
When I warned you all about the coming storm over Hillary’s poor New Hampshire behavior, one writer here actually went up with a column accusing me of many things: including libel. The funny thing was that most of you couldn’t see it coming and were somewhat amazed that I could make this big a call (again). I warned you that she touched black people’s “Holy Grail” (with her MLK remarks); didn’t I? Upon saying this, the venom in the ensuing thread (comment section) was palpable; but I have encountered such venomous comments before; many times. It’s nothing new for me here.
But haven’t I been making big calls in my columns, threads, conversations and media interviews throughout the years? Many people (black, white, brown and other) have told me, that they strongly feel that if I were a white man, I would have already been on some network television political show as a permanent contributor. I chuckle every time I hear this. It can’t be proven any which way; so I laugh and tell them: stop. This is not the objective behind blogging here.
I have repeatedly said -since last year- that Rudy Giuliani was “dead candidate walking”. I was unequivocal when I said that he will never be the nominee of the Republicans. Go check my archives. Just click on my photo here and it takes you right into my many past columns. I also predicted the John McCain resurgence, when all the pundits wrote him off for dead. I predicted the Huckabee surge; Obama’s successes; the Biden demise (February 2007/ “Obama” column); that the $400 haircut-which John Edwards made his campaign pick up the tab for- was going to hurt big time; Hilary’s muddy tactics; and of course my Iowa call for Obama. The latter is what has most of the blog-groupies and mainstream media types pissed. I did it; they didn’t.
So I get the Yodas, and Wonks, and Wallners, and JPs, and countless others-some with names or handles; some without- who troll this particular website (blog) beating up on me; like I am some punching bag. Why?
Could it be that as the only black on New York’s blogs, audacious enough to make big calls as frequently as I do, I am resented? Are we sure that race isn’t behind the hostility I experience here. As I have said: the ten zillion pound gorilla is always in the room.
I glimpsed the gorilla in my last four or five columns here; moving from the back of Room Eight to a perch closer to the action; look at the comments-sections of those columns; look. There was one person who even told me to STFU (shut the fuck up); all because I dared to express (my constitutional right) an opinion on Hillary Clinton’s faux pas (LBJ, JFK, MLK).
When Oprah Winfrey traveled to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to campaign with Barack and Michelle Obama, the negative response to her involvement in this campaign spurred an outpouring on her website that crashed it. Some of the comments were despicable to say the least. This is the same hate, anger and venom that KKK riders spill from behind their white sheets. This is 2008 people; for God’s sake: grow up and join the human race.
Look; over the past 35 years in New York, I have worked in prisons, homeless shelters, social services, educational programs, youth detention centers, human services areas, community initiatives and such; I have encountered thousands of people in so doing; and believe me when I say that there is a cancer spreading across this city (and probably this land). This cancer is the hostility I have seen over the years, coming from minorities towards whites in this society. It is an epic of things to come. Why? Because it will eventually confront another cancer that has been around from jump street: the one where many whites feel (and treat) blacks as inferior human beings.
There is a lot of anger out there. We need-as a country- to deal with this gorilla living in all our homes. Minorities are starting to blame white racism for their many afflictions. Minorities are rationalizing that whites were the ones who denied them their basic human and civil rights for years. They seem to think that because of the civil rights gains of the sixties, many whites wrongly feel: that things are honky-dory. We are sitting on a powder-keg folks. It’s a volcano waiting to erupt but the seismic signals are being ignored. All the social indicators that spell future problems are being denied.
So this racism thing is cutting on both sides folks. It goes both ways like a self-proclaimed bi-sexual. Yet, many who read this are going to say that cousin Rocky is losing it again. Fine. I will just go my merry way, making more predictions in this presidential year.
I expect Obama to win at least one of Nevada and South Carolina (especially South Carolina); he is the only candidate with a shot at winning both of these upcoming contests. On the Republican side; I will be surprised if Huckabee doesn’t win South Carolina. If he loses, then he will place second to Mc Cain; and that would only happen if Thompson siphons too many conservatives from him. After South Carolina, Fred Thompson will call it quits. His campaign has been on life support before it even began. If Thompson wasn’t in this SC race, it would be a wrap for Huckabee. This Republican contest may go to a brokered convention-and this isn’t the first time I have said this. Romney is still very much alive and kicking; and so too is McCain. Huckabee has always been the dark horse here and people keep ignoring him to their detriment.
The thing that amazes me about this year’s race is the fact that so many people are missing the true possibilities of Obama’s candidacy. And I think it’s because of the ten zillion pound gorilla. Firstly; Obama isn’t black. He isn’t white either. He is both black and white. I have said this many times before. He is mixed. He is a mulatto. That’s the term given to folks when one of their parents is white and the other black. Some person wrote in all mad at me because I said this; like if I created the term. People are too much sometimes; they get bent out of shape over bull crap. Obama is part of you (white folks) and part of me (black) too; there are possibilities here; there are opportunities here. We should be embracing them.
Obama’s candidacy represents a chance for us all to start dealing with race issues honestly; but we may miss the opportunity. Here is a man who cannot say he is white because he would be laughed off the planet; and yet he calls himself black: and people accept this. All because of the archaic: one drop rule. This old rule claimed that once one of your grandparents was black, then you are black. It didn’t matter how white you looked/lol. How insipid. But then racism the old-fashioned way was just that: insipid.
Today it’s much more subtle; but it is just as vicious and hideous all the same. And it travels on both sides of the track.
Look; Billary may have scored big points with this LBJ, JFK, MLK imbroglio; polls are showing her doing better amongst whites and worse amongst blacks, since it all started. If you recall: Obama’s core support in the early part of his campaign came from whites who were under 45 years of age. Since the ruckus, more blacks have come Obama’s way at the expense of some of his white support; I wonder why? And what does all this tell you folks? Let Cousin Rocky know.
Stay tuned-in; we are having fun aren’t we?