Sometimes it is just lying.....

Over the last few days we have been treated to a whole host of attacks, counter-attacks, and counter-counter-attacks, yet what has increasingly become a venal press and media apparatus, with the beginnings of a congealing "media narrative". But rarely is a lie pointed out for what it is. When you claim something repeatedly, that has been proven wrong, you are lying. They could call it prevarication if they want, even accuse the person of mendaciousness, possibly say they are dissembling, but for sake of Pete, just say it.

Whether it was the ad claiming Obama was responsible for high oil prices, specious claims about the "Surge"in Mosul, or trying to use the troops as a political football in the Landstuhl. These are lies, and demonstrably provable falsehoods. So why is the media so slow in picking up on these things?

That is what I can not understand, the country has been clamoring for a substantiative debate on the fate and direction of our country. Yet what we get swill like this:

There is nothing positive about this ad. At no point do we hear anything about what Senator McCain plans for the country. Only that Senator Obama is bad for it, because essentially some people in the States, and lots of people around the world like him more. Nothing positive with regards to what a McCain administration would look like, only that Obama, though he speaks well and motivates people to action, is bad, uncertain and definitely risky.

I like this particular line because the last 8 years have gone so well! I honestly believe that perhaps, the only thing anyone would accuse the Bush administration of not lacking would be beltway and Washington experience. So again we are faced with the experience canard. That some how age imbues you with some sort of mystical insight. While youth may have a certain callowness to it, there are plenty of old imbeciles as well (just look at Congress!). Also show me one war someone under the age of 40 started. Now I am not saying that experience has no value, it just that it often over inflated. What I want is more wisdom, you know that nexus of intelligence, knowledge and experience.

Back to the point, the evolving media narrative, at the behest of the McCain camp, is that Obama is a presumptuous, arrogant, dangerous, and definitely operating above his station. How dare he take a trip around the world and be received as if he were a world leader? There is little or no mention by the media that McCain did this very same thing after he secured his parties nomination back in March.

But I am guessing what most bothers me about this attack is, how offensive I find this developing narrative. I do not find it offensive primarily as a supporter of Senator Obama, but as an African-American. Obama has no choice but to exude confidence. His candidacy is lost with out it. He is the first viable African-American candidate. Take that in for a moment. He has out organized and out motivated his opponents, managed to weather scrutiny unlike any other candidate in recent memory, spoken eloquently on a wide range of divisive subjects and most importantly has spoken to the American people as if they were adults (even though I personally disagree with that!). Yet he is expected to also be humble all the time as well? At times we are a very stupid people. Running for the presidency is arguably the most narcissistic thing a person can do! You must have an out sized ideal of yourself to even attempt something as audacious at running for the "leader of the free world" title. Yet we also expect a pablum to humility as well?

What I fear, is that the McCain camp is trying to tap into the fear of the "confident African-American". Some of this is hard to put into words, because it isn't always firm feeling. Most of the time it is like a half remembered dream, but then you get moments like the Harold Ford ad from prior to the '06 races. That ad was like a body blow from Kimbo Slice, and I fear they may have learned to be more subtle this time around.

The basic gist is, if you are articulate, intelligent, young and black, then you are obviously a threat to the nation! Oh and you want our women! That makes me afraid, sad and not particularly proud of my country.

It evokes all those things, but even worse it touches on a rather pernicious narrative, that exists in some communities, that African-Americans are not "real Americans". "They" don't love "our" country as much as "we" do. It is the being classified as the "other" which is the most painful part. Some of the seeder elements of the republican brand (but not always), like to point out who are and are not part of the "mainstream". I, like Barack, am not part of that mainstream. No matter how accepting friends, coworkers and even an adoring nation(s) (in Senator Obama's case), that doesn't change and be certain there will always be someone from the opposition there to point that out.

I wish I had I the time or the patience to actually attack that sort of thought process, but it is a very real sentiment in certain segments of our society, and I don't think I have the words to mount a sustained assault on it.

Now you combine that with the other common stereotypes (shiftless welfare queens, drug dealing hip-hop artist, gun-toting athletes, angry mobs, saggy panted youth, or affirmative action slackers) and you get the sort of thing Senator Obama is trying to push back against. Are things better then they were 30 years ago? Sure. But the same feelings are still there, the same fears, and that is just sad. How many gave their lives so that we wouldn't? How many were arrested, hosed or attacked by dogs so that we could even have the chance to find how much we had in common?

So when I see ads like the one above by the McCain camp, that is what I think and what I feel. It isn't an attack on policy (whether going into Iraq was the correct move, or privatization of Social Security, or Universal Health care). It is an attack on a person. It is trying to cast someone with a quintessentially American story as non-American. What's worse (or better depending on how you look at it), is that it probably has less to do with with race and more to do maintaining what is as opposed to reaching for what could be.


Okay sorry about that. This post was most definitely not supposed to be about race relations in this country, nor my self-esteem in relation to that. It was actually meant to talk about the lack of media coverage about the blatant falsehoods spread, by either side. People are dumb, if it is on the teevee or the interwebs they will believe it, so unless you show lies for what they are then most people just accept them as true. I think some of that came through, if not some of the links above should elucidate that issue. On another note, I do believe that race in this country seriously needs to be addressed. It needs to be talked about in a serious way.

I know it is a touchy subject at best and down right incendiary most of the time, but it needs to be done. I am sure most of my friends are even wary of the topic and I have known them (in some cases) for decades, yet there is still a level of discomfort with the subject. It's okay, it is an uncomfortable subject, but like the birds and the bees, and that "not so fresh feeling", it is something that must be discussed. Worst case scenario, you get defenestrated, and at best we understand each other a little better.

Now this isn't to say, I want to have this conversation any time I talk to someone. I promise to God I will hit you upside the head with an empty 40 bottle if you come up to me while I am in the frozen food isle! :-)

Apologies again for the rambling nature of this post. Writing is hard, and surprisingly I had a lot on my mind. I promise I will do a better job, next post. Or at the very least make it about boobs or something

Almost forgot....a shout out to Bradley (remember you asked for it):


-Cheers