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And So It Begins

by Bill Murchison

Mon, Jun 9, 2008, 10:19 PM

Words not to remember in November 2008.

1. Wow -- it’s Historic Election time!

Well, maybe; but also maybe not. The media always like to jump the gun on this "historic" stuff. What’s actually historic we learn only in looking back.

The election of a president of mixed race, generally identified in the media as "black," sounds like a more historic prospect than it actually would prove. America’s incorporation of non-whites into positions of leadership and influence is fairly old stuff. We’ve had blacks running major corporations for years -- Time Warner and Merrill Lynch, among them. Colin Powell won the national popularity sweepstakes, politically speaking, back in the ‘90s.

I’ll tell you something else: White conservatives would ring the bells for Clarence Thomas, justice of the Unirted States Supreme Court, if he were to run for president: which he shouldn’t and won’t. I’ve seen Thomas fill huge rooms with whites who would have expected him, 60 years ago, to mince his way in, carrying a tray of drinks. It’s his character they like. The hell with race. He exudes depth and common sense.

These racial differences, let me tell you, are gravely overestimated -- chiefly by those whose jobs depend on the perpetuation of racial grievances. In this overestimate of the racial divide such people enjoy the media’s encouragement. The media, thickly populated with relics from the culture wars of the ‘60s and ‘70s, loves to pretend that Ol’ Massa is just waiting to raise the Confederate battle flag and re-enslave all those ungrateful ex-slaves. Yeah. Sure.

2. America is ready for transformation.

So said Obama, in St. Paul, right after the Clinton stand-down Saturday. It seems to the Democratic presidential candidate-presumptive that "generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

Our planet began to what? Heal how? From what? Heal because Barack Obama, rather than Hillary Clinton or John McCain, ascended to the presidency? This is rhetorical gas of such delicacy that a Zippo in the room could have precipitated the extinction of St. Paul last Saturday. Save that Obama supporters probably aren’t allowed to carry Zippos.

Politicians get unduly visionary from time to time. We do well to keep an eye on them while they choke with tears and manufactured enthusiasm. A president is one man with one term and a wilderness of challenges and competing priorities to grapple with. He’ll get some things done. Most others he won’t. Some of the things he.gets done we’ll later regret: as may he himself.

3. It’s youth vs. old age.

I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Slim and trim as Obama may be, and white-haired and battered as John McCain may look, the mismatch may not work to Obama’s advantage.

Against the late -- politically late -- Mrs. Clinton Obama shone. They had little, it turned out, toi talk about. On all important philosophical points they agreed. Their jabs at each other were slight and trivial, largte and material as they seemed to the media at the time.McCain may struggle to avoid looking -- in the media’s eyes -- like the old fool who couldn’t find his false teeth if they bit him. And yet, in debate about the country’s present and future, a Navy veteran of the Hanoi Hilton will carry an aura: one of courage and and patriotic commitment and inner strength.

This is not to disparage Obama. It is to say that maturity -- yes, and suffering as an ingredient in the formation of that maturity -- are of large account in the presentation of argument, and of one’s self as living, breathing argument.

Who knows, really, how this thing -- this election -- is going to go? No one does. Believe no one who says the contrary.

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...
written by michael a. , June 10, 2008

1. Is it the depth or the common sense that caused Justice Thomas to ask not one single question during the Court's 2007 term?

2. We need saving from the last guy you supported for President, the one that has had reports out of the EPA rewritten to suit his oil buddies. We need saving from them too.

3. John McCain is good man, he's just wrong. Wrong about whether or not we should have invaded a sovereign nation, wrong that the answer to our oil woes lies exclusively in ANWAR, wrong that tax cuts for the rich are all our economy needs.... but he's an honorable man.

...
written by RelicMM , June 10, 2008

Bill: I just finished reading "My Granfathers Son," and it is captivating from cover to cover. I have always had the highest respect for Clarence Thomas. Anyone that thinks the opportunity for success in our nation is closed to black people needs to read this book and listen to one who succeded against all odds and to his friends Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams as well. There is no reason for the scorn and condemnation of our nation from the Obamas. That is indeed to be disparaged.

...
written by ElHombre , June 10, 2008

"These racial differences, let me tell you, are gravely overestimated..."

Mr. Murhcison once more demonstrates that he either has no real grasp of reality, or that he doesn't mind looking like a fool to the public. Pick one.

"We do well to keep an eye on [Presidents] while they choke with tears and manufactured enthusiasm."

The jokes just write themselves, don't they? Have I been living in some alternate reality from Mr. Murhcison? Have the events of the past eight years only happened to half the population?

"It is to say that maturity -- yes, and suffering as an ingredient in the formation of that maturity -- are of large account in the presentation of argument, and of one’s self as living, breathing argument."

Such as the maturity shown when calling for the bombing of Iran by singing "Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys. Or perhaps the maturity shown by dumping one's sick wife to marry another (far richer) woman.

...
written by Bob Reagan , June 11, 2008

Bill,

Maybe Michelle Obama mis-spoke in her famous bon mot about pride in her country. Upon, reflection, I can say that I have never been more proud of a fellow American than of Clarence Thomas when he stood up to the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats and told them off for having the effrontery to insist that a black must think like liberals or there was something wrong with him, or maybe he was not “really black,” whatever that might mean. He laid it on the line, and took the chance that a sufficient number would vote to keep him off the Supreme Court. mainly for his being uppity. Thomas won that battle, but many like it go on.

You have a few years on me, but I am old enough to remember when it was a commonplace for many whites (all Democrats; I never heard a Republican express such) to regard any black person, no matter how intelligent, accomplished, or morally upright, to be unworthy to drink from the same water fountain, among other indignities. That was true racism; it still would be. Now, the worst racist epithet is not a vulgar slang word; it is the metaphor of the Oreo cookie, the concept that black skin requires one to think and act in a certain way.

I once wrote that Clarence Thomas is a prophet not without honor save among his own people. Not true. He is a prophet with honor, and his people come in every hue of the rainbow.

...
written by RelicMM , June 11, 2008

Well said, Bob. You have made good use of your fewer years. My wife was a child during the the race riots in Tulsa, when her parents risked great personal danger to protect their black maid and handyman that were treated like members of the family. I remember the scourge of the KKK when Catholics, Jews and blacks alike were treated like scum. Candles in Catholic churches were often replaced with explosives. I am proud that our nation has risen above those dark times and made great strides in making the American dream available to all those willing to spend often thankless efforts to rise above bigotry and anarchy. Is the change Obama seeks a black anarchy as a scourge for white anarchy? The dark clouds are gathering again. Jefferson was obviously amiss when he said Americans were savvy enough never to be talked into anarchy. Democrats certainly belie his words.
Clarence Thomas,Thomas Sowell,and Walter Williams are all prophets with honor in my book.

...
written by James White , June 13, 2008

Well, you're commenting system won't take one large one. I suspect its a result of tailoring it for the wingnut sensibilities, so I've split it into TWO!

Woo Hoo! Its another great day in the neighborhood. Our very own Mighty Mencken of the Metroplex
brings his own peculiar metroplexical merriment to all. (Some days you just feel alliterative, ya' know?)

(Hey, here's a thought, AFTER your intern gets back from checking on that microwave clothes idea you had,
have her check if the business name 3M is taken.
It's YOU, BABY! As thoroughly as you check things, you might find it to be available!)

ITEM 1. Wow -- it’s Historic Election time!

This election not historic? Because that requires the future to decide? (Baring of course, that
Amazon begins shipping more of those Webster's Einstein's Edition. That dang Roger Penrose keeps buying all the
stock!)

You say, the past isn't prologue, it's just the past until we decide its value in our lives, like, well, tomorrow?

Man, thank you, thank you, thank you. All these years of looking back I have thought Hank V's "We few,
we happy few" really did need some context, ya know, like

"...we happy few, after some days of retrospective and contemplation, might then WE BAND OF BROTHERS
be able to say that we will merit some future place in history" Wow. You're not Mencken, you're the Dissembling and Distracted Dauphin (Maybe 3D's available? I
need those glasses to read your stuff.)

OK, OK, by now the intern's back and she's taken that English Lit experience of hers to
highlight for you that I quoted some literary fictional account. Yea, yea, yea. I *know* that, but like playing checkers
with a two year old, adults have to do something to make it interesting. I mean, your proposition is so ephemeral, so blindingly
easily dismissed, that the good dictionaried wingnuts that prostrate themselves in this forum would miss the fun. We'ren't these recognized for their immediate import?

** Alea iacta est (alas, the greek was too much for me),

** "little note nor long remember" - it was contemporary inverse illusion of import - get it?

** I'm sure Roosevelt - you know, the traitor to the wealthy class,
knew "infamy" wasn't quite history.

** Darwin, who postponed publishing HIS STORY because he knew it would be HISTORY, until late
in his life. Oh but that's the part of science you guys don't believe.

And so on. The proof is left to the wingnuts as an exercise just before the guncleaning at home.

Dang, I need two parts. Its tough getting worked up about small minds.

...
written by James White , June 13, 2008

The real reason you must make this pronouncement is that Americans have caught on to the prevarications of our president. (I need another
P to keep up the theme today, don't I?). We've decided NOW that he is the WORST president in history. So the easiest way to
disallow our decision is for you to say that you can't come to that decision now. At least, not until its Tuesday, in the future, on an Odd day,
within an Even month while snipe hunting - at least, that is what
your neural sieve will require before the judgment becomes acceptable.

But, on to the struggle!

By any measure, the FIRST black candidate of political duopoly is history (who is you have rightly pointed out only ONE HALF black.
I mean sure, a WHOLE BLACK would have more meaning, just as your your contemporary, Puddin' Head Wilson, had an
extended discussion on HALFs, QUARTERs, SIXTEENTHs, and even THRITY SECONDTHS. By the way, a
1/16th earned all the rights and privileges of being BLACK as 16/16ths. Ah history, only those who want to leave
it to the future foment fatally flawed interpretations. Nonetheless, the closest I believe we've come to a black president
was Sally Hemming's closeted First Lady experience. (oops, that might be an unintended double entendre.)

At least, there haven't been any claims
in the skin color content game among the 42 legitimately elected and one coronated members of that club. (Yea, I counted correctly.)

2. America is ready for transformation.

Man, that ocean thing really did stick in your craw. Did'ja get stung by a jellyfish when you were a wee tot? You think that recognizing
CO2 as an environmental issue is false? You could of meant methane, but I haven't found "passing gas" jokes interesting for awhile. My guess
is this "passes for humor" at the local GOP get togethers. I bet you guys draw crowds as big as the kissing booth at the hepatitis fair. (That line's
so nice, I've used it twice!)

Well, your OWN hero in one of the DEBATES before his coronation (W, in 2000) said CO2 should be regulated. Of course, that was the FIRST
thing that President Cheney disavowed. (You don't think he let George W say it just to be elected do you? I mean, I would be terrible if we
installed someone who could say
something like, "We won't be held to what we had to say to get elected." (Google it on the intertubes, you'll find out who)

3. It’s youth vs. old age.

You said, "I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Slim and trim as Obama may be, and white-haired and battered as John McCain may look,
the mismatch may not work to Obama’s advantage."

Why not? It works to my advantage. I mean, evolution provided much excess capacity to help one survive an aging decline. What did you do
with yours? (look under bed)

You said, "And yet, in debate about the country’s present and future, a Navy veteran of the Hanoi Hilton will carry an aura: one of courage and
and patriotic commitment and inner strength." ***Yea! I'm down with that. I'm sure his first wife thought the same when he came home and found her
permanently injured from an automobile accident. What's a hero to do? Well, this one found a rich woman to court (while married), and whom he eventually acquired a divorce in order to marry.
Hmmm, handicapped sticker vs beer distributor wealth? Tough choice
for a principled war hero, huh?

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