As you all know (and as I have mentioned before) I am on fairly good terms with my Law School professor, Mrs. Zietlow. We get along just fine (from what I can tell); but we couldn’t be further apart on political issues. Nevertheless, her recent political forays on her blog have severely tested my composure–and I feel compelled to take her arguments head-on.
What follows is a discussion about the latest post on her blog, www.essentiallycontestedamerica.org. I have structured the discussion to be as ‘conversational’ in style as possible… and hope you read my comments as if I were speaking calmly… with an only occasional raised voice! I have quoted vast portions of her article here for both fairness and context:
John McCain began his campaign for the general election in Mississippi. There, McCain bragged about his family’s long tradition of military service, dating back to his great-great grandfather, William Alexander McCain. Anyone who does the math can figure out the symbolism pretty quickly – when William Alexander McCain served in the military, he wasn’t fighting on our side. He fought for the Mississippi cavalry, against the United States army, as a rebel in the Civil War. William Alexander McCain owned a plantation and 50 slaves. On the campaign trail, his great-great grandson, John, expressed “surprise” when he learned that his ancestor had owned slaves. It’s pretty unbelievable that McCain didn’t know about his family’s history of owning slaves. Moreover, the mainstream media gave Senator McCain a pass on the fact that he was celebrating an ancestor who was a traitor who fought against his country, while invoking “Country First” as the central theme of his presidential campaign, as if his great-great-grandfather had fought with the valiant sons of Roxbury, instead of against them.
Of course, it is not John McCain’s fault that his great-grandfather was on the wrong side of history. What concerns me is what John McCain is doing now.
O, well THAT’S a relief… it wasn’t John McCain’s fault his great-grandfather was fighting on the wrong side of history… but then WHY BOTHER TO MENTION IT? You yourself say he was just bragging about his family’s “long tradition of military service”… how many convoluted mental backflips does it take to get from THAT to some incendiary implication that he was SYMBOLIZING his pride for slave ownership?! By the way, I don’t know if my great-great-great grandfather owned slaves either… because I, like most people, have moved beyond this insessnet fascination with the evils of people I have neither met nor am responsible for. Slavery (and its various derivatives) was a universal institution in nearly every culture and country… I find great comfort and solace in the knowledge that we finally eradicated this evil in America… at the expense of many lives and fortunes… and do not find any value in demonizing dead slave-owners for sins our country has already atoned for.
You continue:
At their political rallies, McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are drawing on the worst vestiges of our country’s racially-checkered past. Relying on guilt by association and feigned mispronunciations of his given name, they accuse Obama of being friends with terrorists.
Wooo, let met just stop you right there. Let me get you straight… McCain is “drawing on the worst vestiges” by “relying on guilt-by-association” with William Ayres. But wait a minute… how is it racist to accuse accusing someone of “palling around” with a WHITE terrorist ? OOOO, that’s right… it’s because Obama is black and any criticism or guilt-by-association leveled against a BLACK man is by default, racist. Do us all a favor and stop hiding behind obscurity and prevarication and just tell us what you really meant with that comment — that McCain and Palin are STOKING RACISM. Don’t be shy!
But, I interrupted! Please continue.
They have found that it is far too easy to incite hatred against Barack Obama, the man likely to become the first African American president, and they have largely stood mute, basking in the heat generated by this hatred. Such conduct is both shameful and dangerous. Reasonable people can disagree over whether McCain or Obama is the best candidate for president. But there are times when we all have to choose between what is clearly right, and what is clearly wrong. Unfortunately, like his ancestors before him who fought to perpetuate the obvious evil of slavery, the McCain family is again on the wrong side of history. The Union won the Civil War, and Americans in the Twenty-First Century seem ready to elect Obama, finally completing that victory. Indeed, since Palin and McCain have stepped up their ugly attacks, their numbers have gone down in the polls. Let’s hope that McCain gets this message and tries some other campaign tactic before the only legacy of his campaign is a long series of ugly videos littering the internet.
Let me be frank with you, Mrs. Zietlow. It has become quite clear after reading your post that this election, for you, has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH RACE. This entire post is about YOU looking at every attack McCain levels through a racial lens. No question of character, no criticism of judgment, no inquiry into Obama’s past can escape your race-centric view of this election. You find McCain’s valid criticisms of Obama’s associations disgraceful… WHY!? not because they are not relevant, but because in your mind, McCain, in leveling these attacks, is standing “on the wrong of history”… preventing people to choose what is “clearly right”… the election of the first BLACK president. Can you not perceive your own racial obsession here? In one breath you attack McCain for bring up race and in the next you use race as a reason Obama should be elected! Do you not see your own double-standard?
And you think I am over-reacting? Well explain to me why, then, you have the audacity to imply that the Civil War hasn’t really ended yet because Obama isn’t yet president! I am speechless.
Which is more unbelievable, Mrs. Zietlow: that McCain didn’t know some now irrelevant fact about his ancient, deceased ancestor OR… OR… that Obama DID’T HAVE A CLUE who William Ayres was or what his “checkered past” consisted of until years into their relationship? If you want to be in disbelief, Mrs. Zietlow… you have to look no further than the unreal ignorance of your own candidate.
Obama says he was only 8 when Ayres committed his grievous sins–and this obviously satisfies your curiosity– but a man who died before McCain was even born raises red flags with you? Really? You impute McCain’s ancestors’ guilt on McCain but won’t even recognize the guilt and anti-Americanism of Obama’s friends…and Obama was friends with Bill Ayres, Mrs. Zietlow. You don’t appoint just a “guy in my neighborhood” to head up a 100 million dollar education campaign you direct… you choose your FRIENDS AND POLITICAL ALLIES! (and have you seen how eerily similar in almost every respect Obama’s first book is with the writing of Ayres? The evidence keeps growing…).
McCain is pointing out the people who shaped and influenced Obama’s political philosophy and worldview. These people hate the American military, despise it’s capitalist institutions, and stoke hatred and racism from the pulipt. Obama didn’t have to associate himself with these people but yet he did… willingly and knowingly… and it speaks volumes about this man’s character. The American people deserve to know what shaped Obama’s political ideology… not have the wool pulled over their eyes with ubiquitous attacks of racism from anyone who criticizes “The One”.
On an aside, since when have your friends on the left been champions of racial advancement and healing, anyway? When is the last time you or your leftist friends ever championed the cause of African Americans in high government office? Your allies in the liberal ‘elitisphere’ have nothing but distain for Clarence Thomas (did you miss the confirmation hearings!?), Condi Rice, Colin Powell (except when he endorses Democrat candidates), Thomas Sowell, Ken Blackwell, J.C. Watts, Alan Keyes…. What has become obvious to me is the only thing liberals care about is LIBERAL advancement… and they won’t lift a finger in support of black individuals if that person doesn’t meet their ideological criteria. I would hardly bet on this track-record when choosing the party to heal racial wounds… and don’t think your party is fooling anyone by taking the high road here.
best, I look forward to more discussions to come.
Joel
P.S. I’m happy to be completely wrong on my analysis… but am also quite convinced that my analysis is indeed, accurate. What do you think, valid criticism or did I cross a line?