Ever heard of the Obamorons? These are the morons who will cheer anything that Barack Obama says. Right now the Obamorons are wildly enthusiastic about their man's race speech, and are trying to persuade the rest of us to stop talking about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and move on to talking about how Obama is the next best thing since Jesus Christ.
Obama does have some very good qualities, but it's clear he also has a dark side that is only now beginning to surface. Consider his bizarre analogies aimed at vindicating the Reverend Wright. Many of us, he argues, "disagree" with things that our pastors and family members have said. True, but how many of us have pastors who say stuff like the Reverend Wright? It's one thing to sit quietly while my pastor says things I don't agree with about evolution or the Rapture, quite another for Obama to sit quietly while his pastor says that America deserved to be attacked on 9/11 and that the U.S. government deliberately injected AIDS into the country. My guess is that even in the black church "God damn America!" is not exactly standard rhetoric. Certainly the Reverend Martin Luther King didn't talk like that.
Especially bizarre was Obama's analogy between the Reverend Wright and his white grandmother. According to Obama, grandma too was given to racial "stereotypes" and at one point confessed to her fear of black men. First of all Obama didn't cite what stereotypes his grandmother held. A stereotype is merely a generalization: it may be true or false, harmful or benign. As the sociological literature on the subject shows, most stereotypes contain at least a grain of truth, because stereotypes develop out of popular experience.
As I document in my book The End of Racism, fears of black men are rationally explained as the consequence of the fact that black men have the highest violent crime conviction rate of any group in our society. One out of four young black men are at any given time in prison, on probation, or on parole. Some years ago Jesse Jackson admitted that if he heard footsteps in the dark and turned back to find out that the person was white, he would feel relieved. The point here is that Obama's grandmother's views, as relayed by Obama, seem rooted in empirical facts and bear no comparison with the Reverend Wright's maniacal ravings.
Besides, she's his grandmother! We choose our pastors and mentors but we don't choose our grandparents. When Obama calls the Reverend Wright "family," this is because he selected him as a friend and teacher. At any point during the past two decades, Obama could have walked away from the pew. Wright is not "family" in the involuntary sense that Grandma is family. In addition, Obama's grandmother made her remarks in private, within the sanctity of the household. The Reverend Wright has been shouting his doctrine from the pulpit for decades. Private prejudice is much less harmful than public hate speech.
Obama is smart enough to know all this. So what is the explanation for the bizarre moral equivalence that he seeks to create between his pastor and his grandmother? It cannot be that she treated him badly, since Obama himself says she loved him more than anything in the world. The only other explanation is that Obama is that Obama is more attached to the radicalism of the Reverend Wright than he is to his kind old grandmother. He is quite willing to protect Wright, and his own presidential prospects, by throwing grandma under the bus. Hell of a guy, right Obamorons?
Reader Comments ( Page 3 of 40)
31. Helpgod...
How about a nice steaming cup of STFU for you?
Paul at 8:06AM on Mar 24th 2008
32. D'Idiot. You're a racist.
Elanor. You're trailer trash stupid. And a racist.
All you whack jobs who keep quibbling over Obama's mix are just tools for the Republican liar machine, the one that today delivered the 4000th dead American soldier in Iraq and, in the time it took you to read this, spent another 4 million on their lie-based war.
Your tar pit is waiting. Now will you please stumble into it?
Tim at 8:13AM on Mar 24th 2008
33. What does this have to do with the economy, the war in Iraq, loss of jobs to overseas workers, the subprime mortgage mess, sky high gas prices and an over all fall of american prestige in the world. It never fails to amaze how folks with no real substantive argument over the issues- such as yourself Dinesh, result to nonsense banter and non-issues such as Barack Obama's reference to his grandmother to simply clarify a point. Find some real issues Dinesh.
Mary White at 8:26AM on Mar 24th 2008
34. Here's what I think.
The Rev. Wright comments are the first real crisis in Obama's campaign, but I think it ends his campaign by making him unelectable.
Only Democrats who equally, covertly, despise the USA, as Rev. Wright has spoken of America, still support Obama and see him as a viable candidate. Unfortunately, that is still a large number of Democrats. Fortunately, this demographic is not going to be significant enough to win in November, should the Democrats be foolish enough to make Obama their front runner.
Christians will not remain in a congregation where the pastor is out of control, like Rev. Wright. He is preaching a social message divorced from Bible teachings.
Democrats think it is easy to subscribe to a pastor whom you disagree with, because the "Christian" religion among pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage supporting Democrats is largely seen as a necessary evil, to merely pretend that you believe in Jesus as a political pose. They just don't get it about Christianity. They think real Christianity is foolish, and that they can remodel Christianity to suit their wicked beliefs. God will not be mocked.
Rev 3:16 at 8:30AM on Mar 24th 2008
35. I hate to admit this, but D'Souza is 100% dead on accurate with this one.
Too bad he's so easily discredited based on his past statements.
We need someone beyond reproach who will finally come out and say what needs to be said about Obama, before it's too late.
Davidg at 8:30AM on Mar 24th 2008
36. The Clinton's have so much scandal attached to their name that they are completely unelectable. Now let's look at their vast Scandals
LIE MONGERING RUMORS ARE NOT SCANDALS! ITS LIKE HIGH SCHOOL BATHROOM GOSSIP. WE'VE ALREADY SPENT ENOUGH TAX PAYERS DOLLARS TRYING TO HELP THE REPUBS BRING DOWN THE CLINTONS. ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. GLAD TO SEE AT LEAST SOMEONE IN THE MEDIA WILL TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA.
sam at 8:36AM on Mar 24th 2008
37. "Find some real issues Dinesh." --Mary White
___________________
Yeah, Dinesh! Find some REAL issues...issues like how Affirmative Action is no longer needed in America. Or issues like how minority-owned businesses receive priority when bidding on government contracts...like the government contracts needed to keep the military machine in Iraq up and operating efficiently. Or the issue of how federally funded programs like Welfare and Workfare do little more than keep people bound to the teat of the federal government and barely able to stand on their own two feet!
What's wrong with you, Dinesh? What are you? A Bill Cosby devotee or something?
Paul at 8:51AM on Mar 24th 2008
38. test
David at 9:00AM on Mar 24th 2008
39. Ugh, this is LAAAAME. He's not equating gradma with Wright. He cites her as an example to bring a point home that racism does not only exist in public hate speeches, but in our own fears. I know he's an open target now, but you're trying WAY too hard to twist this into "The Muslim Who Hates His Grandmother". Grow up. I'm not a devout Obama follower, but I'm nauseated by the way he's so deliberately misunderstood, and he still has the opportunity of my vote.
Mokele-Mobembe at 9:13AM on Mar 24th 2008
40. Come on. Give me a break. Obama's mom was white. His grandparents were white. He is an enigma. He's not a 'black man.' He's a part of a new kind of people who really don't fit the mold, who challenge our notions of race. He's also a politician and made his career as a community organizer. Clearly, he wanted to immerse himself in that community to better represent the people he was fighting for so he became a part of the local church of the people. Dinesh, come on. Give me a break, do you really, really believe that Barack is just waiting for the moment when he can unleash the hordes of black folk on the rest of us? That he's conspiring to steal your TV set? I think you don't like him because he's a liberal. Because his Christianity, like that of Jesus deals with a social revolution and is not just an opiate to keep the ignorant masses from questioning the status quo. Could it be that what is threatening is a liberal Christianity?
Mike Milligan at 9:28AM on Mar 24th 2008
41. Stop Obama, before it' s too late! Oooh, spooky! The huns are coming to sack Rome by legislating slavery reparations! COme on, give me a break... the world is changing. We've got two options, fear and love. We've had fear for two terms. Let's get the love going. Why is that a threat to Christians?
Mike Milligan at 9:29AM on Mar 24th 2008
42. This is why we as Americans cannot have an honest discussion on race.
When Sen. Obama tries to point out that there is racism everywhere, even in the heart of his loving g'mother, he "threw her under the bus!"
The frustration in most black communities is that some people always holler, "there's no more racism."
Then, when something awful happens to us, (minorities) that we know is race related, we are 'using the race card, paranoid, being victims', etc, please feel free to fill in the blank.
I have checked all the boxes for success, gone to college on scholarship, obtained a doctoral degree, so I am not bitter, angry or paranoid, but I have found out disturbing news, from colleagues who pointed out,long after the fact, of course, or came to me in confidence to report unfair treatment they were privy to towards me.
I refuse to lose sleep over bias; the best revenge is success!
That was his message to blacks and everyone else; do your best despite the circumtances and/or your color.
AlliCalli at 11:49AM on Mar 25th 2008
43. Why did Obama diss his grandma?
Because she is dead and cannot defend herself.
Because she is white and it is fashionable to blame whitey (why didn't he blame papa for being a rolling stone?)
Because he needs cred with blacks who don't see him as one of them
Because his tongue is so good that he can throw that piece of autobiography in and move on unaffected
----
You know what I like about Republicans? They make great ex-presidents. Nixon, Reagan, Ford, Bush Sr. They pretty much shut up and keep their nose out of things. I can see Bush Jr doing the same thing. Have fun at his ranch in Crawford. And McCain, who isn't exactly a spring chicken.
But Carter, Clinton? Still want the limelight, still want to be heard, still thinking about their respective legacies. I don't see it being any different with Clinton2 or Obama.
baluca at 9:40AM on Mar 24th 2008
44. I think you have ALL missed the point of this article: DD is hawking one of his quasi-intellectual "books". (Yawn!)
whoops at 9:45AM on Mar 24th 2008
45. HUH-LO ... is anybody paying attention out there? John McCain's "Reverend" Haggee is one of the sickest, loud-mouthed, hate-mongering bigots in the country (and incidentally, he lives in one of the swankiest mansions in San Antonio and is worth mega-millions. What a divine symbol of Christian humililty and virtue!) Check out the real truth about this stinking, pandering, blowhard.
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/4636,
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/hagee_wright_parsley_fallwell.php,
http://www.pfo.org/jonhagee.htm
Bill at 9:58AM on Mar 24th 2008