Benefits of Racial Doubt

The politics of race is back in the spotlight as America is poised to elect its first black President. The McCain/Palin supporters are being reminded of this on a daily basis as they are wooed on the pretense that they are more "pro-America" than Obama/Biden supporters, that Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, has muslim/terrorist implications certainly heightened by his connection to Bill Ayers, former '60s radical protest bomber now conveniently recast as a domestic terrorist, and by their own rejection of Obama, simply because he is a black man.

General Colin Powell said it best this weekend when he crossed his party-line to endorse Senator Obama for President stating eloquently that the Republican party was narrowing in its scope, in that it was now tending to be more exclusive than inclusive. And, if in fact Obama was a muslim which he is not, what is so wrong with being American and muslim? Why should/would this be a limiting factor in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Unfortunately for Obama, in a vast swath of the country, old prejudices die hard; ignorance and provincialism has rendered a large portion of the conservative, fundamentalist Christian population, unrepentingly racist. Gov. Sarah Palin has been out preaching to the choir, allowing them to draw the very conclusions that they are expected to draw to great affect. Sen. John McCain, having been subject to a racial mudslinging by George Bush and Co. during the 2000 Republican primaries, must be turning in his sleep as he struggles to rectify his campaign's cognitive dissonance; dependence on these "rural folk" for votes causing him to implicitly condone their racial outlook by omission of strong condemnation.

Democratic Sen. John Murtha stated a few days ago that his home base of western Pennsylvania is racist, basically a bunch of rednecks and he has implored them to look beyond race and listen to what Obama is saying. This has been the battle cry of many Obama supporters, including union leaders and the like in these traditionally working class (white) areas.

Disaffection with the Republican party together with the economic decline, housing bubble and Wall Street collapse has inadvertently propelled many rural Americans to rethink their racist underpinnings simply because the democratic nominee for President is telling them what they want to hear and just so happens to be a black man. What a turnaround! Black Americans aren't used to getting the benefit of the doubt.