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| Home Front: Politix |
| Tim Blair: Democrats plan, God laughs |
| 2008-05-11 |
| In February, ex-prez and possible future first man Bill Clinton told an audience in Washington: "All my life I have wanted to vote for a woman for president. All my life I have wanted to vote for an African-American for president. I wonder why God gave us this dilemma." It isn't a dilemma if you follow King's dream and place character above colour (and gender), allowing one to judge Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as mere candidates instead of as Super Woman and Hero Black Guy. You'd vote for neither of them. To presume on behalf of the Almighty, the reason He gave us Clinton v Obama may have been to expose the madness of identity politics. If Clinton and Obama were both male and white, they'd be judged unremarkable, inexperienced and blunder-prone. Identity politics - a leftist speciality by which a candidate is elevated via racial or gender characteristics - have launched this pair to a level they'd otherwise not have reached. It's interesting that identity politics don't play so well for conservative black politicians and others on the Right, who are frequently described by leftists as subservient-to-whitey "Uncle Toms" for believing in the primacy of market forces and such. Any number of progressive, leftist, avowedly non-racist websites use that term when attacking the likes of US Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, economist and columnist Thomas Sowell and even Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson, whose Uncle Tommish qualities are slightly diminished by him being Australian, never having lived in a cabin and never having been being sold into 19th century American slavery. Don't even get them started on Condoleezza Rice, who, being black AND female, ought to be the pin-up girl for every racially-sensitive feminist. Instead she's despised. Oddly, they'd probably hate her less if she was white. The Left's notion that skin colour (at least in the case of leftists) is an indicator of goodness is purely racist. And inaccurate; just look at black leftist Robert Mugabe. To paraphrase Barack Obama: Can we destroy Zimbabwe? Yes we can! Meanwhile the Democrats are destroying themselves via their endless contest of race and gender, which also features - thanks to both candidates' attempts to prove that they are down with the workers - elements of class arrogance. All we need for this to become the biggest leftist brawl of all time is for an environmentalist to wade into it. Al Gore has been silent of late, but was recently heard on US radio insanely claiming that the Burmese cyclone was linked to global warming. He's back in play! Let's hope Obama selects Gaia's boyfriend as his vice-presidential running mate - or (dream of dreams) Al decides to make a last-minute run himself. It'll be a three-way left-fest to the death. |
| Posted by:Mike |