With the likely election of Deval Patrick as governor, we'll give America a brave new Dukakis, not to mention an advance glance at an Obama administration. Watch and learn. It is perhaps the best 2008 gift we, Massachusetts, could give the GOP.
How does Patrick link to Obama? Well, they're both Democrats. But there are lots of Democrats out there--surely Patrick isn't the first one that will make voters realize that Democrats do run some major states (Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan...). It's highly unlikely that the author is trying to connect Patrick to Obama's demonstrated policy brilliance, since the point of the piece is to warn us of the prospective threat of Obama on the horizon. They're both rather progressive, but again, that hardly is a unique bond they share, and since this sort of writer is the type to merge every Democrat to the left of Zell Miller into one indistinguishable blob of scary liberalism, that's hardly persuasive. To these authors, Patrick will be as indicative of "liberal" Obama as "liberal" Hillary Clinton as "liberal" Evan Bayh as "liberal" Kent Conrad. Moreover, a Patrick administration (a progressive Democrat presiding over the most liberal state in America) would likely be very different from an Obama presidency (a progressive Democrat presiding over a still divided and rather moderate country). So what could it be, what could it be?
Could it be that Patrick and Obama are both Black?
Am I reaching? The standard I use on these things is "unexplainable but by race." In other words, we assume that race is operating on at least some level (even if subconscious) if there is no other persuasive reason why the racial parallel is drawn. There really is little that uniquely distinguishes Obama and Patrick particularly from other progressive Democrats (that a conservative would be willing to admit) aside from the fact that they are rising Black politicians who have demonstrated cross-over appeal to Whites. Black politicians = scary. Don't be fooled by their sterling pedigrees and soothing speeches. They're still Black (and they don't publicly kowtow to far-right conservative orthodoxy ala Blackwell or Steele). And thus, to the right, they can't be trusted--even more than comparable White liberals.
Via Powerline.
Nope. You are not stretching. Remember that poll that showed white's who saw the, 'Call me.' add where more likely to vote against the black man in question by a margin of 2-1.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans can't run on the economy, on Iraq, on the War on Terror, immigration, etc., etc., etc.
All they have left is racism and homophobia.
I agree with you, but to be contrarian -- the reason he used Patrick as an example is because he is writing for an MA newspaper! Therefore, electing a Dem to the state executive office is an advance peek at electing a Dem to the federal executive office. He could have chosen either Obama or Clinton -- by far the two with the most Presidential buzz -- and chose Obama, who, to be fair, is probably more like Patrick than Clinton is. No?
ReplyDeleteHey, dingdong ... Patrick trotted Obama out repeatedly to campaign for him. Clearly he likes the comparison. I also compared Patrick the sentence before to Dukakis (a white man). And last week, I called on the Bush admin to put a black woman into a position of more prominence, so she can carry the program forward in 2008 if she chooses. Now kindly stop being morons. Race-obsessed morons.
ReplyDeleteClearly, Obama broke his long-standing monastic existence to campaign for Patrick and Patrick alone. And on the flip side, I'm sure no other politician has campaigned for Patrick besides Obama. Were those true, maybe you'd have established uniqueness. But since Obama has been a prolific campaigner (and other folks have campaigned with Patrick), the fact that he also campaigned with Patrick doesn't establish some unique bond between the two that shows how or why a Obama presidency would resemble a Patrick administration of Massachusetts. Indeed, that analysis remains wholly absent, which is what provoked my post in the first place (and warranted the "unexplainable but by race" standard). Again, since there is no reason to assume that a Patrick administration would resemble an Obama administration (or, to be more precise, would be more predictive of an Obama administration than any other Democratic governor's tenure), the "unexplainable but by race" thesis remains quite strong.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we shoud be clear about something: Regardless of what you think about his politics, Obama is not some dog who gets "trotted out" to do anything. He (possibly more than any other politician in America) is a rather autonomous agent (or as much of one as a human can be) who makes decisions for himself. A word to the wise: When combatting accusations regarding racial prejudice, don't use needlessly disparaging rhetoric to describe the most prominent Black politician alive today.
You know, the sad thing is, when a black president is elected in this country, it's going to be impossible to criticize or even discuss that president's actions without some moron crying racism every five minutes. Thanks for the preview! It's been enlightening.
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