Playing the Race Card in Democratic Politics
Sherman Frederick in the Las Vegas Review-Journal figures it cuts both ways for the Democratics:
Democrats bristle at talking about this in plainer terms. They say Sen. Hillary Clinton has found her base — the “working class.” That’s why she won in the Rust Belt primaries. That’s her great hope in Kentucky and West Virginia.
But calling Clinton’s strategy one of kowtowing to the “working class” doesn’t quite say it, does it? Isn’t this just old-fashioned racism within the Democratic Party?
When Hillary strategists say they are winning the “working class,” they don’t mean they are winning working people with a household income of, say, less than $50,000. All the exit polls show quite clearly that lower middle-class people who work split between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Clinton. The difference is generally skin color. Hillary wins the lion’s share of the “working-class” white Democrats. And, sadly, as Hillary’s campaign has become meaner and more to the point, that margin has become bigger.
The Clinton racism strategy first became apparent in Nevada, when her struggling campaign began to publicly talk about her “Hispanic firewall” against Obama among the rank-and-file in the Culinary union. It hit the national consciousness soon thereafter when former President Bill Clinton, after Hillary lost the South Carolina primary, dismissed Obama’s big win as a race-inspired victory akin to Jesse Jackson’s success in that state years ago.
The record clearly shows that Hillary’s campaign was the first to use Obama’s race against him. The strategy gained an unexpected boost when Sen. Obama’s former pastor, the egomaniacal Rev. Jeremiah Wright, cribbed the Obama spotlight only to show the world that racism could be a black thing, too. The opportunistic Clinton campaign shamelessly took full advantage of the tension. They not only raised questions about what the Wright debacle meant for an Obama presidency, they slyly positioned Hillary, like a latter-day George Wallace (the Alabama governor, not the very funny Las Vegas comedian), as the “working-class” candidate…
…The “superdelegate” whisper campaign goes something like this: Hillary is better built to win in November. Obama is soft and elitist. He’s a dangerous unknown quantity. But most importantly, Mr. and Mrs. Democratic Insider Superdelegate, look at the voter numbers in key states. Forget about pledged delegates, wins and losses and overall popular vote. Look deep into the numbers of the key states Democrats must win in November.
Do you see those “working-class” numbers? Those are Hillary people. Those are the people who will win the White House for Democrats this fall. Those are the people who count because, faced with a choice between Obama and Sen. John McCain, “working-class” Democrats will vote for McCain.
It’s a disgusting display for which Democrats ought to be alarmed and ashamed. The remedy is this: Stop calling Hillary’s base the “working class” and start calling it what it is.
I’m not so sure about this - about the concept that Hillary’s appeal to working class white voters is evidence of lingering racism, or Hillary’s playing up to it. I believe that Obama would be one of the very worst Presidents we’ve ever had - he might even redeem Jimmy Carter from the basement of Presidential legacies…but I don’t go telling black friends that they are fools for voting Obama. I understand it - its akin to the way Catholics went nuts for JFK in 1960, even though JFK (a) wasn’t much of a Catholic and (b) even though he wasn’t a very good candidate as far as actual qualifications for office go. But white support for Obama amongst black Americans can be traced in large measure to pride over one of their own doing well, opposition to Obama doesn’t necessarily stem from racial animosity, overt or covert. Opposition to Obama stems from, in my view, his elitism and his arrogant condescension to average Americans - Wright was damaging to Obama, but “bitter” was far more so…what Wright said was what Wright said, and thus Obama could distance himself, at least to a degree, form it…but Obama’s comment about bitter Americans clinging to God and guns, that was out of his own mouth, and let all of us know what he really thinks about us.
Sherman’s view - that Hillary has played an ugly, race-based political calculation - may be true in the narrow sense; for all we know, Hillary did decide to make a covert play to race, but even if Hillary hadn’t done so, I think that working class white people - who are a lot smarter than most political elites - especially liberal elites - give them credit for - would have been turned off to Obama by Obama’s own words.
52 comments May 12th, 2008
