Quote Of The Day: Richard Cohen On “A Campaign To Hate”
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, from a column titled “A Campaign To Hate,” detailing why campaign 2008 has been unfortunate:
Wherever I go — from glittering dinner party to glittering dinner party — the famous and powerful people I meet (for such is my life) tell me how lucky I am to be a journalist in this the greatest of all presidential contests. I tell them, for I am wont to please, that this campaign is indeed great when, as history will record, it is not. I have come to loathe the campaign…
…..What is perhaps most surprising, and sad as well, is what can be seen in the rearview mirror. There, reduced to a speck, is the once-huge expectation that the next president would be a Democrat. The current president, after all, has started two wars and completed none, and presides over a palette of debacles that encompasses everything from a crashing economy to a housing catastrophe to an immense loss of American prestige around the world…… It includes, of course, a lack of trust in an administration that weaseled and fibbed and exaggerated and Cheneyed the American people — but has (and so the GOP will remind us all) kept the nation safe from another attack. No small matter, it will turn out.
So I see little to be happy about, little that pleases my jaundiced eye. Yes, voter participation is way up and in the end, the Democrats will choose a woman or an African American and, to invoke that tiresome phrase, history will be made. But this messy nominating process has eroded the standing of both candidates. It has highlighted the reality that racism still runs deep and that misogyny, although more imagined than real, is not yet a wholly spent force. This is an ugly porridge that has been placed before us, turned rancid since the cold, pristine days of Iowa only five months ago. We were, with apologies to Bob Dylan, so much younger then.
Read it in its entirety.
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16 Responses to “Quote Of The Day: Richard Cohen On “A Campaign To Hate””
Mr,Cohen hates the campaign for what it exposed about mysiginy and especially racism? He better be careful, or he'll be called unpatriotic.
On fifth of (Kentucky) whites vote against Bambi on the race issue—BAD.
Ninety-Five percent of blacks(Nationally) vote FOR Bambi on the race issue—What, exactly?
It's interesting how often the defense used by Flintlock (above) has been floated — verbatim — during this endless campaign. One might be tempted to conclude from it that blacks had not voted in the past for white candidates….
Thanks, Polimon, for bringing some sense into the discussion.
I'd like to point out, additionally, that the bigots in smalll town America are a constituency we have to reach out to. Meanwhile, any hint of racial preference among blacks is condemned as out right unpatriotic, dangerous, evil.
People are jjust people,, and I'm willing to reach out to one and all.
It's the double standard that apalls me.
That rebuttal doesn't really hold water, though, because if white candidates only had black candidates to choose from, one would presume they'd vote for whichever black candidate seemed most aligned with their interests. The question really is what does a white or black person do when faced with a choice.
Count me among those who welcome the opportunity to open our eyes a bit wider to the less savory aspects of our culture, our institutions, and our leaders. Only by recognizing our problems and treating them realistically do we have a chance at improving them and ourselves. Good citizenship and good government are never achieved, only aspired to. More truth, better decisions.
CStanley — I agree with your response, except for one thing: the folks to whom Cohen refers have stated that they wouldn't vote for a black person under any circumstances.
CStanley,
it's also necessary to have a litle context.
This is the first time blacks had the opportunity to vote for a black candidate.
Theirr experience with choices is brand new. and thus especially relished.
It's also akin to Hillary's appeal to women,. It's the first opportunity to vote for a woman.
When it comes to voting preferences, you can't justly compare those who have wallowed in choices among their own kind forever with those for whom it i the first such opportunity, and then there is only one sample of each (woman, black).
You people must live in cocoons if you do not believe that racism is still alive, powerful and a strong and motivating force in this country.
I believe that the gender deal is alive but not nearly as powerful as the racial one. Because this country is essentially splitting into 4 racial classes. White. Black. Hispanic. Asian. We are ALL Male or Female.
I have to agree with Cohen. I believe this election has gotten lost in gender/race. There is NO discussion of the policies of the candidates only black/white/male/female/racist/not racist.
Other then that. This election is a learning process for our country and it shows to me the roots in which the democratic party still has to rid themselves of the demons to which she had sold her soul over the last 40 years in an effort to retain power.
I absolutely hate it when a someone implies that black folks are racists since they are turning out in droves for Senator Obama. Our voting record is “proven”: we've voted for the entire color spectrum. Pinning racism for voting for a “first” is ludicrous.
Mr Cohen
I have read, and reread this column the morning's paper. It accurately observes a new acceptance of openly expressed prejudice. As a latecomer to elected office (I was first elected to the SD House of Representatives at the age of 69, eight years ago) I have witnessed the change at first hand.
I was elected to two terms in the House, and one in the Senate – the first Jew in 30 years, and the third one ever. While I faced a primary each election, I won all except the fourth run, two years ago. In that campaign, I narrowly lost (less than 150 votes). That primary (Republican) was marked by subtle expressions of antisemitism masked by criticism of my leadership in the successful referral of a clearly unconstitutional and misogynistic anti-abortion bill, and my narrowly failed attempt to prevent adoption of a gay bashing constitutional amendment.
I supported the Democrat against the nominated Republican, and he won – the first Democrat from this district in over thirty years. Interestingly enough, the Democratic Central Committee (probably after some arm twisting) offered to nominate me in place of their candidate – who graciously, with out any urging, stated that he would step aside. I am not a Democrat, and could not “switch.” A successful business career and 75 years of age put the world into perspective.
I am running again for my seat, as is the Senator that I helped elect. My former primary opponent, however, did not challenge me in today's primary – but rather chose to file as an “independent”. She is running, despite strong urging not to, by the local party, the Governor, the State Party and our US Senator. It has been made clear to me that she will be running as the “Christian,” candidate. I think that never since the days of the KKK in Western South Dakota – in the 1930s – has there been such an open expression of bigotry.
I am writing to ask WHY? What has happened in this new society with it's advanced communication technology and access to accurate information?
I awoke this morning filled with the joy I always have on ELECTION DAY, and what that has alway meant. Happiness enhanced by the fact that I had no primary to worry about – for the first time in 10 years. This well expressed and accurate column dashed the mood.
Indeed, Why? What has happened since George Washington replied to a startled New Jersey Jewish community “to bigotry no sanction, to prejudice no assistance.”
They also could choose not to participate at all. And I assume you mean white voters, not candidates.
CStanley — I agree with your response, except for one thing: the folks to whom Cohen refers have stated that they wouldn't vote for a black person under any circumstances.
Yes, but that's based on their experience and assumption that they have always had a choice to do otherwise. If black people had always had black candidates on the ballot, might not a certain percentage of them answer polls in the same way, and admit that they trust blacks so much more than whites that they wouldn't consider voting for a white under any circumstances?
“If black people had always had black candidates on the ballot, might not a certain percentage of them answer polls in the same way, and admit that they trust blacks so much more than whites that they wouldn't consider voting for a white under any circumstances?”
Instead of relying on fantasies about what might happen, why don''t we give black voters time to acclimatize, and then we can see what does happen.
A baby has to learn to walk before he can jump hurdles.
This time around, blacks have the opportunity ONLY to take a first step. They can't tlell you anything about an unknown future.
Re: a certain percentage
A certain percentage will also vote based on physical attractiveness, sense of humor, or choice of beverage. Is that not equally troublesome?
Senator Stan,
I also ask why and what has happened?
My impression is that the old bigotry had simply gone undergroung, to ihbernate and think of new, often more hidden and subtele, ways to re-emerge and resume power.
There is also a speech code. It's okay to say that things are better now. It's considered unpatriotic to speak about still existing shortfalls and worse yet ,to talk about regression.
Communities are segregated by race, and ethnicity, religious and political affiliation.
Each huddles amongst its own kind, with little or no contact or knowledge of others.
The only meeting place is the political arena where battles for power take place.
I often feel as if the dream of America has died, and now we're just fighting over the remains.
Perhaps if enough people become alarmed and engaged, we can right his ship of state again.
Racism is alive and well in the North, while not as bas as 36 years ago. I wonder how many Reagan Democrats and blue collar Republicans embraced Geogre Wallace?