here’s an email i sent in response to someone contending that…

Hopefully, CTU will not need to dispatch Jack Bauer to protect him down south.

It will be interesting to see which America is more ready…a black president or a woman president. I think it’s a woman.

not to butt in, but in the spirit of the “polarized nature of american politics”, i figured i’d note that i think the idea that oobama needs any more protection than any other candidate is kinda tacky. the point of saying so isn’t to actually speak to a genuinely held concern, but to smear an entire half of the country (not even a political/confessional half, but a geographic half) as being prone to hate-based violence. fact is, most hate-crimes are reprted from northern cities.

the thing which really concerns me is that this conceit that “the american people are more ready for a woman president than a black one” is a rather clintonite one. it’s meant to be understood that the speaker of it is just looking out for obama’s safety. you know, like when the clinton camp went out there with their statements to the effect of, “…if only obama weren’t so open to republican smear tactics, who will surely mention that he WAS A COKE PUSHING PIMP IN COLLEGE!!” one gets the sense from such helpfull cautionings that there might be some self interest involved. something like a scare tactic. and a smart one. it is after all more clever than saying, “if my opponent wins, i’ll assasinate him.”

on another point, many seem to derive a weird sort of comfort from taking the dozen kkk dudes left in alabama and the eight neonazis left in virginia and recreating them into a well-organized underground which is responsible for and capable of much and which demands the constant vigilance of all decent-minded people. the actual fact of the matter is that the white racist militant can hardly be said to exist. the national socialist party u.s.a., recently broke up because their “information minister” hit on the owner of jew-watch.com’s girlfreind. these people are precisely that silly.

what does a presidential assasin look like? well, jack kennedy was assasinated by a radical progressive named lee harvey oswald who was frustrated with kenedy’s liberal anti-communism. his brother bobby was assasinated by a palestinian rights activist. dacades ago, there was an attempt on fdr’s life by a leftwing anarchist, who managed to get the mayor of chicago instead.

and there’s an unsettling story i’ve never really found the time to tell. it goes like this. about a year ago i moved down to the south side of chicago to a neighborhood called bridgeport nearby sox stadium. bridgeport is basicly identified as the seat of the urban, blue, union democrat machine. guys have nice houses and nice trucks. their daughters are hot and you cant date them. their moms have back problems and could kick your ass. bridgeport is a union hood. i tried fitting in there, but the local folk sure have a way of putting it out there that they hold that there’s some sort of integral linkage between indifference to sports, high income and homosexuality, and that they’d gladly kick your ass for any of those three offences. i tried hanging out in a bar there one evening and i tried to start a conversation. this one guy spoke to me for a while. eventually he got around to talking about his son, who had just recently joined the plumbers union.

“you know, they got him learning the calculus and the triginometry. the fuckin’ kid’s almost taken a whole four year college degree just to qualify to stay on the list and sit in the hall. i tell ya, these guys at the plumbers union are smart. that’s how you keep these fucking niggers out, right?”

that’s who hilary’s base is, and that’s why clinton’s people are eager to put out the idea that nazi death squads, republicans, or “the american people” posed in the most nebulous abstraction possble, are “not ready for a black president”.

jummy on January 7, 2008 at 10:37 AM

she’s already been doing it. the meme’s already out there. “america isn’t ready for a black president, but they’re ready for a woman president” and when they elaborate on it, the extended version goes something like, “if obama is elected, he’ll be assasinated by a racist republican, causing a divisive national tragedy (which can be avoided here in the primary).”

jummy on January 7, 2008 at 10:46 AM