My favorite TV shows include C-Span, Charlie Rose, and Real Time with Bill Mahr. Last night, following the President's (Obama) State of the Union address, Charlie hosted a round-table to discuss President Obama's performance and the capabilities and weaknesses of the Republican opposition.
As usual, with Charlie and Bill, when the topic is President Obama, the round-table devolves to opinions of whites, by whites (last night, for instance). Both have difficulty showing genuine respect for the person of someone who is not white, as do many of the guests they select. To some extent, both are also detectably less than respectful of females, regardless of race. Respectful, that is, of their person. They show respect for their skills, but not their person. Why could this be? I'm sure those outside our nation who have access to global media "get" this, but we don't!
The answer lies in the devilish psychology of race and the denial of race in this country, which is alive and well in the 21st century. I'm sure billions of pages have been written on some aspect of this topic over the past several centuries, but they seem powerless against the forces of media. Reaction to the first black President of the United States by members of the media show this facet of racism in stark detail. There is also awesome fatigue around the subject of race, which adds to the success of the media and their ways. It sustains the business model for Fox.
Imagine, there is an artist who paints pictures of truth; and he uses a basket of lenses of varying degrees of accuracy to achieve clear pictures. There is one lens in the basket labeled "race" that he or she dare not use for fear that their brain will never again function as it has before. There all types of lenses that are "about race" that they can safely use, however. This could explain why only a type of non-white like Condoleezza Rice or Clarence Thomas, most notably, are safely favored by white media for inclusion in any type of discussion that includes the function of race in this nation's affairs. Their personal pathologies on the subject of race have been publicly and historically demonstrated by their behavior.
Back to the President, the State of the Nation, and the 2012 election. In the speech, and in the debates of the most prominent Republican challengers, race (and class) lurks without fail. In the case of Romney, we see religious and financial prejudices; in the case of Romney's challenger, Gengrich, we see the rawest of racism harking back to that of the overseers on the plantation who are jealous because their job is to protect the Master and his wealth; but is thrown peanuts for their efforts. Gengrich's threat to the Republican Party and to the nation is that he taps into that core of white rage that is deep in this country. Blue collar white males got "stiffed" by Bush and Cheney. Or, if you prefer, by Cheney and Bush -- and the Republicans (and some Democrats) in Congress.
Establishment Republicans are scrambling for ways to "stop Newt" for sake of the survival of rich whites in this country. The Romney's may again have to flee to Mexico. My grandfather taught me about race in this country in the mid-1950's. He had been in business for almost 50 years in a border state, and in a racial environment comparable in some ways to Apartheid in South Africa. His take was that racism was markedly different in the South than in the North.
In the South, non-whites (and Jews) could get rich, so long as they kept their social distance. In the North (and West), social distance was of less concern; trumped (excuse the pun) by white economic
jealousy. In the 2012 election, both of these approaches to race are in play and the white media is either incapable or unwilling to discuss it.
One genius of Ronald Reagan was to capitalize on Nixon's opening to southern whites, by extending middle class status to "Archie Bunker" whites in the rest of the country (getting them to turn on their Unions). In 2012, Newt sees the betrayal of that deal. Rich whites are now treating "middle class" whites the same as they treat non-whites.
This is the dynamite stick that Newt carries. Failure to use the "race lens" by our media prevents the country from becoming aware of the danger they face from the right. This might also explain why other qualified white challengers, who the media claims to possess greater capabilities than any now running, ALL DECLINE to run.
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, and to recall again the prognostications of De Tocqville, "pray for your country" if you think God is Just!
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