The dark rotten stink of racism

As have many others I have been focusing my political thought and activities on the economic future for the poor and middle class in this county.   Frustrated with the ignorance and ineptness which is the only thing both parties in government share in full measure I have been considering at the least not voting in the presidential election because I so disagree with many of the Obama policies.

But Tom Coburn speaks and exhales the dark rotten stink of racism that continues to pollute the politics of this sad suffering nation. And I am reconsidering based on what are emerging as even higher priorities than the economy or even whether I die early from poverty and Medicare cuts.

From the Tulsa World (Link Here ) with screen shots from the Rachel Maddow Show.

This man has a medical degree -- I regret to say, from the same school as mine.   He has been in the House and Senate since Gingrich.   Not incidentally he as have I benefitted greatly, in my case,  from the taxpayers of Okalhoma who almost totally bore the cost of my medical education.  If he went to medical school after Medicare was passed he benefitted also from the educational subsidies that are part of the Medicare act.

I am certainly grateful for this type program and any normal person such as President Obama would be also.  But Senator Coburn of course is not talking about any aspect of educational or other financial aids provided by taxpayers  to any of us.

He is of course defining African Americans as dependent and grasping, the cause of many if not all the personal and community woes.  In that statement he reveals he  believes our woes as a nation are brought on by a society that provides safety nets for the less able and also class mobility through access to equal opportunity.

Senator  Coburn's comments on both affirmative action and Medicare  is what we call a racist dog whistle, a message to be heard only by those who are resentful and,  as Campbell defines as,  cool to other races.

This is no different than what we heard in the 50s and 60s and way before,  among so many in the South and politically from Southern Democrats,   And we also  heard versions from well intended paternalistic otherwise liberals too.

It continues  now among those welcomed into the GOP by Nixon and their political progeny.

This along with recent conversations with good and thoughtful friends is bringing me to consider my responsibilities as a voter.   I will not change my opinion that the Obama politics is wrong and dangerous to the country, especially old people like me.  But that will out.

I wonder if the race thing will ever.  It is a battle for the heart of the US.   Indeed it makes me feel that a higher priority is to begin to eventually soundly defeat these people who think and operate in this manner.

President Obama has called Tom Coburn his best friend in the Senate.  And Tom Coburn has expressed his affection for him.  No matter how thick his emotional skin may be this has to hurt.  I suspect Coburn experiences his attitudes as commonly accepted.  and close to what a friend called me out on.  "They love  them like children."

In more thinking I see him in a predicament similar to the Jews in 1930s Germany who thought they had assimilated away their "Jewishness" and were Germans.   But the Nazis needed a scapegoat group to target all the hate, resentment and fear of poverty toward.   Many with Jewish ancestry who thought they were assmilated, some even turning on their orthodox brothers,  this were murdered without distinction.

I have off and on wished Obama would be more "black."  A sad fact of life in the US is that any physical sign of a drop of African American blood defines one as "Black."  (Maybe his obsession with compromise has something to do with angst over the hope to be all of himself.")   I have no idea what personal dilemmas he faces or best solutions.

But I almost wonder if now is not the time for him,  like Fritz in Cabaret acknowledging Jewishnes, declare himself Black for real -- not some opportunity for racist dog-whistling which so far both sides are showing no commpunction in using.  It would clarify where the core "ideologic" divide lies.

As in Germany of the 30s it's not personal liberties vs socialism.  Senator Coburn's comments reveal a primitive predatory tribalism vs diversity in inclusiveness and the social contract of civilization.

The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same.