On the 2nd of February, 2000, George W. Bush gave a speech at Bob Jones University.
According to Wikipedia, it was just "a standard stump speech making no specific reference to the University."
But, at that time, Bob Jones University banned interracial dating. So, because he gave a speech there, George W. Bush was widely denounced by his political opponents for, at the very least, racial "insensitivity" - if not for actual racism. To this day, the event is constantly brought up by people on the left as a prime example of the Republican Party's so-called "Southern strategy" - i.e., it's wicked and cynical attempt to appeal to white racists through symbolic gestures, without actually endorsing their views publicly and explicitly.
Just imagine, then, what George W. Bush's opponents and people on the left would say if it emerged that:
(1) he had been personally converted to Christianity by Bob Jones III.
(2) he had from that day to this regarded Bob Jones III as his spiritual mentor.
(3) he had written a book that took its title from a sermon by Bob Jones III.
(4) Bob Jones III had been, throughout this period, an occasional associate and travelling companion of David Duke.
(5) Bob Jones III had recently praised David Duke to the skies, with special reference to the "helpfulness" and "honesty" of his views on race...
Is there any chance that the great heavens above could even begin to contain the ensuing clamor?
Well. All you have to do is insert "Barack Obama" for "George W. Bush," "Jeremiah Wright" for "Bob Jones III," and "Louis Farrakhan" for "David Duke" in the above imaginings, and we're out of the world of dreams and into the real world.
Yet, strangely enough, the consensus view among the great and the good seems to be that there's nothing to see here and that we all oughtta just move along. Go figure.
Comments (5)
My suspicion is that certain factions are anticipating that the Republicans might dwell on these connections should Obama become the nominee; the strategy might be more than the customary disparate treatment of minorities and Evil White Conservatives, but a tactic for frustrating and drawing the latter out, so that the EWC trope can be played all the more forcefully. Then again, perhaps the intention is only to delegitimize discussion of these questions, in the knowledge that they could be damaging to Obama's meticulously crafted persona as the Healer of Racial Divisions.
Posted by Maximos | January 18, 2008 10:36 AM
This is all very familiar, though, no. And it's not an Obama exception, it's a black exception. Thus we have a NAACP but no NAAWP (or if we do it's condemned). Blacks get to self-consciously behave as a tribe bent on self-advancemet, but whites must only cooperate as individuals and ignore their displacement as the majority and the elite.
Posted by Roach | January 19, 2008 7:43 PM
It must be a nice feeling knowing that you belong to the elite tribe Roach
Posted by Davo | January 21, 2008 5:31 PM
A sad and tragic history, white guilt over that history, and cynical political exploitation of that history, will continue to plague this country for many generations to come. We may never escape it.
Posted by thebyronicman | January 24, 2008 6:42 PM
It's the gospel truth, Everyone. we must accept that piece of info
Posted by Assy Mcgee | November 5, 2008 5:41 PM