Five days ago, a New York Times article delivered a shot heard ’round the world. It came in the form of a statement by Eric Holder, the attorney general. About some of the criticism directed at him, he said, “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him, both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”
Buckle your chinstrap: We’re going to be hearing a lot of this sort of thing in 2012. Will it be all race, all the time? I hope not. But it could get very ugly. Left-wing Democrats stoke the fires of race in the best of times. What if Obama is losing?
His presidency was supposed to enhance racial harmony in America. Many of us worry that it will end up doing the opposite.
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I talked to Thomas Sowell earlier this year. (For the resulting piece, go here.) He said that, if Obama loses, there could be rioting in the streets. Really? Well, think about it, said Sowell: Would the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons simply sit back and say, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles in a democracy: You win some, you lose some”?
As I remarked in yesterday’s Impromptus, race is often the first refuge of a scoundrel. Republicans often wilt at the first charge of racism. They get the shakes, saying, “Please don’t hate me: I’m really a good person.” Then they get pounded all the more.
We’ll see . . .
Do some people oppose Obama and his attorney general out of racism? I’m sure. Are accusations of racism a way of deflecting honest criticism and defaming your opponents? I’m sure of that too.
Once more, buckle your chinstrap.
There is something that leftists say about people like me, who support a war on terror: We hate Muslims. I heard something similar in the Cold War: “You hate Russians.” No, we didn’t: We loved Russians enough to oppose the dictatorship ruling them.
When Congressman Ron Paul is around, you don’t need leftists. Did you catch his act on The Tonight Show? He was following up on his tussle with Michele Bachmann in the most recent presidential debate. They were tussling about Iran. There in Sioux City, Paul said, “To declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk.”
Who talks this way? Anybody? Not that I know of.
When he got to The Tonight Show, Paul said about Bachmann, “She doesn’t like Muslims, she hates them, she wants to go get ’em.”
It’s true that Bachmann takes a hard line against the Iranian regime (for example). But guess what? Almost all of that regime’s political prisoners are Muslim. The girls the dictatorship stones to death, for the crime of having been gang-raped? They’re Muslim too.
As far as I’m concerned, to be against the dictatorship in Iran is to be for the people of Iran.
I’m against the Syrian dictatorship as well. Does that make me anti-Muslim? What about the people the dictatorship is mowing down? Are they not Muslim?
Etc., etc.
One of the worst things about Ron Paul is that, unlike some other libertarians, he doesn’t merely say, “Let’s have nothing to do with the world, wicked as it is. Let’s just withdraw, hunker down, tend our own garden.” No, he sneaks in little defenses of al-Qaeda, Ahmadinejad, and other beauties. He parrots their grievances and excuses.
I wish some conservative Republican would upend Paul in his district. I can’t believe that many citizens of that district think as Paul does. Yet he has been in Congress for, what, 50 years? Isn’t it time to fix this incongruity?
’Mid the gloom, the foreign minister of Zambia has given me a lift. A statement he made put a broad smile on my face. Did you hear about this?
George W. Bush was making a visit to Zambia and some other African countries. He has a great many fans in Africa — maybe more than he does here in the U.S.
Amnesty International is not a fan. They consider him a war criminal. They want him arrested. Last fall, they asked Canada to do the job (while Bush was visiting British Columbia). Canada declined. More recently, they asked those African states to do the job.
And here is what the Zambian foreign minister, Chishimba Kambwili, said: “On what basis does Amnesty International want us to arrest Mr. Bush? Tell them to hang, and also please ask them to create their own country and wait for Mr. Bush to visit their country so that they can arrest him to suit their wish and not here in Zambia.”
Any chance we could get Kambwili in the State Department?
Really? I read many of the comments here and do not find that to be the case. Please give some examples so that I can be as informed as you.
Nice snark on the time too. Grow up. As a stand alone comment it might have been funny, but with the slander, it only adds to the impression you are being malicious.
"Do some people oppose Obama and his attorney general out of racism? I’m sure."
The people mentioned above are perhaps the smallest minority with the most sought after opinion. I mean who really should care what a few loser juice bags wearing old camouflaged pants that they can't button the waist on, standing around a camp fire drinking cheap whiskey out of tin cups in (insert insult to Idaho) have to say about anything.
All I can figure is that Ron Paul must be a lot more loyal to the Texas GOP than he is to the national party, and that his local offices must have incredibly effective problem-solvers working there. He doesn't sound like he's bringing home the federal bacon, although it would be interesting to know what is spent in his district.
Paul does bring home the bacon to his district (and quite a bit) and in his own words, if he doesn't spend the money it reverts back to the Executive branch to spend.
The people who tend to use physical aggression when they don't agree with a legal outcome are Republicans. Don't worry about blacks rioting if Obama loses, they'll be quite civil about it. As for you being for anyone in the middle east, Acta Non Verba.
"In my understanding, things are unique or not. There is no 'very unique' or 'a little unique.'"
Sir, there is only unique. Each thing, each thought is separated from all other things and thoughts. Sameness is illusory, uniqueness is the essential condition.
I shouldn't read your articles at the office in the early morning, still stupified from too little sleep, because after not reading the paragraph in question to its conclusion, I must have wasted 20 minutes of company time trying to discover what unknown shadowy pretender held imperium between Caracalla and Macrinus. Oh, the shame.
As for Amnesty International, I think the Zambians are on to something. Since they won't likely hang themselves, perhaps they really can start their own country -- I say we give them California.
About the language bit, have you ever noticed people describing a woman as "very pregnant?" As if you could be slightly pregnant.
Highly illegal is a legitimate cliche. Furthermore, threre are degrees of illegality as in first degree murder, second degree,or class A Felony Class B etc
"Unseat Ron Paul." Here we go again. Why don't we, instead, unseat all the other Republicans who promise to cut $100B and manage to come away with $30-odd million instead. 60-70% of the GOP are permanent creatures of Washington: welfare-statist plutocrats who differ with Democrats only by matter of degree.
You want to help the United States? Clean out the rot in GOP and start fresh. Ron Paul is the least of our problems. And I don't even like the guy.
There is something that leftists say about people like me, who support a war on terror: We hate Muslims. I heard something similar in the Cold War: “You hate Russians.” No, we didn’t: We loved Russians enough to oppose the dictatorship ruling them.
