Progressive World Review

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        Robert Novak’s recent column argues that the fervor over Pastor Wright’s remarks has created a racial dilemma for Democrats, particularly for the super-delegates,

Barack Obama’s speech last week, hastily prepared to extinguish the firestorm over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, won critical praise for style and substance but failed politically. By elevating the question of race in America, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate has deepened the dilemma created by his campaign’s success against the party establishment’s anointed choice, Hillary Clinton.

         Whether or not Novak is correct about the racial divide he sees in the Democratic Party, the cynicism common among the political class in this country comes through loud and clear.  I’ve heard many opinions over Obama’s speech but “hastily prepared” is a new one on me.  And while there’s no doubt the Obama camp hoped the speech would quell some of the controversy raised by Wright’s inflammatory statements, it was clearly much more than just the standard political spin.  Novak however, will never appreciate that, being incapable of grasping more than one concept at a time, another common trait of the political elite.

         Obama’s “hastily prepared” speech was probably the most serious attempt since Martin Luther King Jr. to elevate the racial discussion above the usual playground style battle that the Novak’s like to resort to,

In rejecting the racist views of his longtime spiritual mentor but not disowning him, Obama has unwittingly enhanced his image as the African American candidate — as opposed to being just a remarkable candidate who happens to be black. That poses a dilemma for unelected superdelegates, who as professional politicians will settle the contest because neither Obama nor Clinton can win enough elected delegates to be nominated. (emphasis added)

         Labeling Wright as a racist is a perfect example.  While possibly true, calling Wright a racist completely ignores the reality of being black in America.  Maybe you can make an argument that Wright’s angry remarks aren’t helpful, maybe even harmful but it’s simply no excuse for ignoring where that anger comes from, slavery, segregation, endemic poverty, disproportionate incarceration, just to name a few.  But to Novak and his kind, Wright is just a ranting racist and Obama’s speech is nothing more than “hastily prepared” spin.  Interestingly enough Novak credits the speech as having, “won critical praise for style and substance,” characteristics you’d think would trump the spin but apparently Novak’s opinion that it, “failed politically,” is more important.

         Ultimately Novak may be correct.  After all, the super-delegates that will decide this nomination are members of the same elitist political class that Novak belongs to.  But what’s so unfortunate is that the real message in Obama’s speech will get lost amongst the endless spin and over simplifications of the pundits.  Solving the “racial question” in this country is going to take a lot more of Obama’s style of discussion and a whole lot less of Novak’s.  The real dilemma isn’t the Democrat’s or Obama’s, the real dilemma is how we’re going to get past the vapid nature of the political discourse in this country.

Update:        In comments, Political Disgust sharply disagrees with me, declaring that Wright’s remarks were more like something Hitler would say and that he would never utter the words “God Damn America.”  The trouble with comparing Wright to Hitler is that as a black man in a white dominated country, Wright’s perspective is far closer to the German Jews than it is to Hitler.  I think a lot of whites (and I am assuming that Political Disgust is white), and this includes well meaning whites as well (and I have every reason to believe Political Disgust falls in this category), tend to forget that their own personal perspective may be far different from someone else’s.

        The real point is to neither justify or rationalize Wright’s remarks but rather put them into, as I mentioned before, the proper perspective.  Whether or not you agree with what Wright said, if you at least acknowledge his understandable anger, then you can give his utterances the priority they deserve.  And when you think about it, can you really say that you would never say something like, “God Damn America?”  What if this country fell under the spell of another Hitler, would your patriotism still hold?  Should it still hold?  It isn’t that the things people say are not important because they certainly are, but when it comes down to it, it isn’t what people say about America that matters, it’s what is done in the name of America that counts.

 –Paul Wilden

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