Two Songs and Some Home Truths for the Professional Left and Their Followers

This is for the Progressive Left. Sit back, pour yourself some Chardonnay and listen, listen to the words of the divine George Benson:-



Now, think about those words and what the singer is singing about. While you're thinking about that, there's an excellent op-ed in today's New York Times by Andrew Rosenthal entitled "Nobody Likes to Talk About It, But It's There."

In case you haven't surmised, the op-ed is all about the racial overtones that have enveloped political discourse since we elected the first African American President. It's a good article, and one that you really ought to read.

It's kind of ironic that, on the eve of the next national election, we're finally admitting that we really should talk about race and race relations a bit more in America, which is a roundabout way of saying that, even though we elected a black man to be our country's leader, we really aren't past racism in any sense of the word. If anything, the election of Barack Obama heightened racism in America, and that's our fault. For that, we should be deeply ashamed.

I totally agree with everything Rosenthal says in this piece, but he speaks only about the Republican party, the so-called Loyal Opposition. It would have been more courageous and a tad more honest if Rosenthal had had the cojones to admit that racism does exist on the Left - and especially on the Progressive Left - as well as on the Right.

Rosenthal writes:-

There has been a racist undertone to many of the Republican attacks leveled against President Obama for the last three years, and in this dawning presidential campaign.

You can detect this undertone in the level of disrespect for this president that would be unthinkable were he not an African-American. Some earlier examples include: Rep. Joe Wilson shouting “you lie” at one of Mr. Obama’s first appearances before Congress, and House Speaker John Boehner rejecting Mr. Obama’s request to speak to a joint session of Congress—the first such denial in the history of our republic.

First of all, it isn't just the Republicans who display open disrespect for this President. Just watch any Press Conference - Jake Tapper, upChuck Todd are prime examples of almost open disrespect and condescension. People like Maureen Dowd call the President inept and refer to him regularly as "Barry," much the same way Tea Party activists do. To Arianna Huffington, the President is a Nowhere Man. Chris Matthews accuses him of being arrogant and ungrateful for being allowed to live in the White House. Bill Maher veers from gangsta to wimpy and wussy in describing the President. Michael Moore voted for the black man but is disappointed that Obama acts like a white man; Jane Hamsher advocates "African-American" Re-Education Programs in order to wise the poor Negroes up about the sly, sneaking and snide President Obama.

And poor Joan Walsh ... well, we know about her [problem.

Rosenthal also says:-

Sometimes the racism is more oblique. Newt Gingrich was prattling on the other day about giving “poor children” in “housing projects” jobs cleaning toilets in public schools to teach them there is an alternative to becoming a pimp or a drug dealer. These children, he said, have no work ethic. If there’s anyone out there who doesn’t get that poor kids in housing projects is code for minorities, he or she hasn’t been paying attention to American politics for the last 50 years. Mr. Gingrich is also fond of calling Mr. Obama “the greatest food stamp President in American history.”

Is Mr. Romney playing the same chords when he talks about how Mr. Obama wants to create an “entitlement society”? The president has said nothing of the sort, and the accusation seems of a piece with the old Republican saw that blacks collect the greatest share of welfare dollars.

All of the above are strident dog whistles straight from the Lee Atwater school, but on his December 19th telecast, Chris Hayes raised the spectre of Gene Marks's controversial Forbes article. entitled "If I Were a Poor Black Kid," and got handed his ass by Karen Hunter, who wanted to know why we always spoke about the poor black inner city kid. Why not talk about the poor white kid in Appalachia or the poor white kid in a trailer park?

She had a point, and Hayes ended up looking like a little prick.

The loaded language coming from the Left today isn't just about "weakness" and "caving," and "dithering" (all, unconsciously - or maybe not - tying into the Antebellum myths propagated about the moral terpitude and debility of black people in general, and the black male, in particular). Cenk Uygur's assertion that the President is stupid is an extension of the old myth that blacks weren't as smart as whites and, therefore, had to be guided. (I know Cenk asserts on Twitter, that he's not "white," but I have news for Cenk: Turkey is a European country and Cenk is white.) If Cenk has any doubts about Turkish whiteness, he should have a look at the London mayor, Boris Johnson who is of Turkish descent:-

Where the Tea Partying Right spoke of "Socialist" and "Communist" and "Nazi" as euphemisms for the n-word, the language of the Left is "Obummer" and "drones" and the latest analogy of the President raping a nun on television.

Today on his Facebook page, the author Ishmael Reed made two prescient remarks:-

If anybody doubted the growing alliance between progressives and the far right ,amy goodman’s show this a.m. should erase these doubts. she let a tea party co-founder rant against the president without challenging his lies.this must be what a salon.com obama
hater meant when he said that occupy w.street, should join the tea party on basis of “shared premises.”later in the show a progressive said nice things about ron paul. seems that the progressives would have learned after The Molotov–Ribbentrop pact of 1939.you don’t do business with Nazis!

And:-

greenwald is the guy who is calling for an alliance between the tea party and occupy. even though the tea party has given holocaust deniers a prominent role.if obama loses, the dem.coalition should rid itself of progressives. let them go join nader,the loser ,who called the president an uncle tom.

All this is true. If racism is the core basis for the opposition on the part of the Republican party, then racism as insipid cognitive dissonance and patronising condescension on the part of the Left. They refuse to believe this. After all, who wants to admit to racism? They voted for the black man, didn't they? But then, many of these people are now flocking to Ron Paul.

They need to realise something: You can't hide your racism behind a veil of pot smoke and a peace symbol.

This last song's for you:-