“Beware the Terrible Simplifiers”
Let’s set aside that 95% of Jeremiah Wright’s “detestable” rants have been based on historical facts.
Bill Moyers points out the hypocrisy of Obama’s opponents’ using this as their political hobby horse.
“Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering, Catholic-bashing Texas preacher, who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins.
But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee’s delusions or thinks AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right.
After 9/11, Jerry Falwell said the attack was God’s judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of the preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.
Jon Stewart recently played tape from the Nixon White House in which Billy Graham talks in the Oval Office about how he has friends who are Jewish, but he knows in his heart that they are undermining America.
This is crazy and wrong — white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren’t.
Which means it is all about race, isn’t it?”
Read the rest of Moyers’ essay.
Even though I still see Barack Obama as the least frightening of the three candidates, I’ve lost what little respect I had for him. Not because of his ties to Reverend Wright, but because he chose to cut those ties when things became too uncomfortable. Whether his rejection of Wright was genuine or staged, Obama showed that he is now a bonafide politician, more concerned with power than he is with loyalty. I fear his was a sign of things to com; that Obama will do the politically popular thing over that which he knows is right.
People keep saying “politics is politics” and “he did what he had to do.” But there were other “political” solutions that didn’t involve selling out friends and dumping his integrity.
Why not launch equally petty counterarguments against his opponents? He could have mentioned the hateful comments of Hagee, Robertson, Falwell, Billy Graham and the other white supremacist Christian leaders. He then could have called on McCain and Clinton to denounce and reject them. This would end hypocrisy, as no one wants to ringleaders of the white religious right–dead or alive.
Moreover, it would show that there is validity to Wright’s claims. Those who feel morally outraged by the black pastor would finally be forced to face their own hypocrisy. Racial prejudice is alive and well in America–otherwise we’d be as offended by the fancy white Reverends as we are by the angry black one.
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This entry was posted on May 3, 2008 at 7:09 pm and is filed under 9/11, Americans, Barack Obama, Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers' Journal, Billy Graham, Democratic primaries, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Jacob Burckhardt, Jeremiah Wright, Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, John McCain, John Stewart, New Orleans, PBS, Pat Robertson, The Daily Show, USA, YouTube, atheism, bible, christian, christianity, christians, church, god, jesus, news, politics, presidential elections, race, religion, video, videos. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: 9/11, Americans, atheism, Barack Obama, bible, Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers' Journal, Billy Graham, christian, christianity, christians, church, Democratic primaries, Democrats, god, Hillary Clinton, Jacob Burckhardt, Jeremiah Wright, Jerry Falwell, jesus, John Hagee, John McCain, John Stewart, New Orleans, news, Pat Robertson, PBS, politics, presidential elections, race, religion, The Daily Show, USA, video, videos, YouTube
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May 3, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I’ve been an Obama supporter from the beginning, and I understand your point of view, although I disagree with it.
It very definitely is all about race. Let me explain.
Barack has been seen as slow to react to certain controversies, large or small, and has been seen as playing politics as usual.
Well, he is, after all a politician. Also, he is Black. He’s in untraveled territory. Every time he has to react to something he has to weigh how strong or emotional he wants to come across. It’s new, it’s different, it’s complex.
May 3, 2008 at 9:01 pm
But he was supposed to be the candidate of “change.”
There’s nothing new about a President who sells out his people for political convenience.
May 3, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I know, I know.
Like I said, it’s complicated. I guess my way of looking at it is that all three candidates are sell-outs, he’s just less-so.
May 8, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Oh give me a break.
Obama stood by Wright as long as he could, defending him and explaining Wright’s statements while right-wing blatherers were screaming about Wright as a dangerous, angry black man. He stood by Wright while the media — including the moderators of the last travesty of a “debate” — flogged the Wright “controversy” as a subject of substance and import. He stood by Wright while the right wing screamed for him to distance himself from the uppity Negro (not in so many words, of course … but the meaning was always clear). And he stood by Wright all the way up until Wright himself stabbed Obama in the back at the NPC event in display of dismaying egocentricity.
If Obama loses the presidency (and I personally don’t think he will, but if he does), it will be due in large part to Wright’s inability to keep his damned mouth shut when it became clear that his outrageous statements were hurting the man who has called him a mentor.
I agree in principle with much of what Wright has said, but there’s a lot to be said for knowing when to shout, knowing when to speak softly, and knowing when not to speak at all. Wright apparently doesn’t know that … or he puts the service of his own ego above the potential election of a hopefully transformational candidate like Obama.
May 8, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Hi Gary-
I agree with you that Obama will hurt America LESS than McCain or Hillary. But to call him “transformational” is a stretch, don’t you think? It’s sort of like saying segregation was fair, because it wasn’t as UNfair as slavery.
Not saying throw Obama under the bus, just that he’s no MLK.
Ego or no ego, Wright’s words were words that Americans needed to hear. He was in the national spotlight, and used that opportunity to be honest, to say things the media ignores. Had he reneged, it would have validated the myth that white America is and always has been faultless, and does only good things for the world. To say somebody “should know when to shut up” sounds a little too FoxNewsish for me. Is this where we are as a nation? The truth should never be categorized as an “outrageous statement”–no matter how unpleasant it is for white people to hear. A transformational candidate would FORCE us to see the truth, not pander to our denial. The fact that so many Obama supporters are echoing your tone, shows that liberals aren’t as psyched about “changing” as our dark blue bumper stickers suggest.