Insistent complaints from right-wing pundits about the media’s liberal bias have been effective. Now even the most extreme right-wing notions receive a hearing in the corporate mainstream media. This tactic has been so successful that the right is now using it to gain more exposure in the black media—a venue they’ve long criticized as left-leaning. The strategy coincides with the… return to article
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Reader Comments (14)Page 1 of 1 pagesThere is no way the “street smart” black voters will back this administration on substantive issues. The only way TO reach them is through an emotional appeal through their religious leaders. Potentially all preachers come from the same authoritarian ideology that this administration does and thus some of them will feel at home with them. To the extent that these preachers can convince their people that Bush represents their interests, Bush’s numbers will go up. It is my view that Dems need to push back on the Preacher level to counter the push by Rove and Company. To either ignore this Bush push or stay focused on the black voter is to lose the battle.
The Democratic party is the best party for the black people on the real issues that confront them. Allowing the phony issues of gay marriage and school vouchers to muddy the waters with emotional nonsense is a mistake.
Posted by Merlin on Apr 11, 2005 at 12:09 PM Does something like Horowitz’s “10 reasons i am against reparations” make him a neo-racist? While i certainly admit that the reasons he enumerates can be debated, they seem like valid issues to me, and in no way racist. . .
To those who believe that they are racist, do you also condone the stealing of papers that carried his column? Is it fair to limit free speech by illegal means, such as theft? This would seem like the beginning of anarchy and terrorism to me. . .
Posted by Bob on Apr 11, 2005 at 1:49 PM Bob,
I think that the majority of people who post on this site would find the theft of papers to stop the spread of someone’s opinion reprehensible. That is exactly why we’re posting here, because everything that doesn’t get the “Bush stamp of approval” doesn’t get aired. Look at the ABC, NBC and FOX newscasts. Always little to nothing that contradicts Bush policy. Even when sincere Republican bloggers join the thread, people discuss the points of difference--not when it’s just a troll, though. Anarchy is always a bad idea, and not at all what most here espouse.
Merlin,
While many preachers of color are scrambling to get on the right side of funding through Bush’s “Faith Initiative”, you’re right in that most street-smart blacks won’t be fooled. While I am white, my pastor (Baptist) is openly starting to question not only this Administration’s direction, but the direction of American’s in general. There are many Christians leaving traditional churches (my family left Calvary Chapel after 16 years) because they find the hateful mentality at these churches anti-Christian. Go to sojo.net and see what REAL Christians are saying about this Administration.
The thing that really scares me is that the majority of Hispanics in my state voted for Bush. Do they really think they’ll fall onto the “rich” side of the divide once he’s done his dirty work? I have bachelor’s degree, my own business, and I have grave doubts that I will fall on that side.
Posted by Margaret on Apr 11, 2005 at 2:15 PM Hi Margaret,
You said:
“I have bachelor’s degree, my own business, and I have grave doubts that I will fall on that side.”Oddly enough, it is just your point here that is the reason that they who have far less do believe they will. You recognize your limits and (if I may assume,) you are not money “driven.” The poor are further from the reality of what it takes to be “riding the gravy train” that they dream of, and thus in my view, more vulnerable to living a fantasy.
I also am an educated, business owner (for some 37 years for what ever its worth,) a lifelong Democrat and liberal/progressive. Throw in that I’m a secular Humanist to complete the picture and see the mess a long life creates. With these admissions I soon expect the CIA/FBI to be knocking on my door and hauling me off to Gitmo, never to be heard from again.I enjoy your thoughts.
Posted by Merlin on Apr 11, 2005 at 3:38 PM Hi Margaret,
Your point about mainstream Christians is well taken. Sadly we are in an era of authoritarian rule brought about, in my view, by reactive fear on the part of the American people. The two part cause of this fear is the reaction to the strong leftward push of the 1960s and 70s creating insecurity, coupled with the current (actually started in the Reagan years and brought to fruition in the current wingnut case, Bush) neocon use of fear as a tactic to control them.
The flock always looks for a benevolent (yet authoritarian) father figure to take care of things for them. In 2000, Bush poses as that, in the form of a “compassionate conservative” and strikes paydirt. This phony pose was quickly abandoned, having done its job, and providence (9/11) allowed the neocons to frighten the people and easily switch to the need for a “strong” (but still compassionate) father figure who needed to protect everyone first. (Vision of John Wayne clippity clopping onto the set.)
It is very difficult for people to give up the view that they hold of a father figure in whom they have invested their physical and economic well being. However with continued excesses an screwups it will happen and there are ample signs of the public awakening to the naked emperor. I am confident this trend will continue, provided that the neocons don’t bring about another 9/11 situation. ( Hersh indicates that Bush has signed off on an attack on Iran for June 5. A similar sign off on Iraq was done in 2002 leading to war in 2003.) If the Iranians are foolish enough to respond to our provocations by attacking us or Israel in any way, the neocons would have the justification to scare the American public again. (Clippity clop once again.) I hope, should that happen, the emperor will nor once again have his “clothes” on.
Posted by Merlin on Apr 11, 2005 at 4:18 PM I can’t think of any bigger fool than a Jewish republican . . . except for maybe a black republican. A Jew who votes for a republican would have voted for Adolf Hitler. A black who votes for a republican would have voted for Jefferson Davis. JMHO.
Posted by Lefty on Apr 11, 2005 at 4:36 PM I think Merlin hits the nail on the head. The driving force absolutely is FEAR. That’s why Cheney said during the election that we’d be attacked if Kerry was elected. He even said it with a smirk on his face, the one I recognize (after many years of university study and 2 years as a therapist in psychology) as saying, “do they really believe me...what idiots!”
Yes, Lefty, I cannot understand how more Jewish people voted Republican in this election than in the history of the U.S., or so I read. I think the majority still voted Democratic, but the mighty dollar does have a powerful pull, regardless of race or ethnicity.
All I can say is, we have to work this thing. We have to have conversations with people in line, with people online, everywhere we can. The media is NOT going to help us. I am active in MeetUp groups, and suggest we all work hard on education and not just preaching to the choir.
Posted by Margaret on Apr 11, 2005 at 5:18 PM Earlier in this thread, someone stated that the vast gulf between rich and poor give those at the lowest end of the economic spectrum little sense of what ‘the gravy train’ truly is, and therefore more susceptible to Repub promises of $ to come.
The exact words were ‘The poor are further from the reality of what it takes to be “riding the gravy train” that they dream of, and thus in my view, more vulnerable to living a fantasy.’It seems to me that the worst part of this scenario is that the more the Repubs drive the poor into poverty, the more they widen the gulf and drive the poor further into their fantasy, the more they increase their chances of gaining new voters. “The American Dream” is the promise that if you work hard and make good decisions, you can succeed. The more you widen the gulf between rich and poor, the harder you make it to ‘succeed’, and the more people cling to ‘the dream’. Repubs keep the dream alive.
This is the problem right now with the left, in my opinion. The left wants to offer social programs: welfare, social security, health insurance, and so on. We believe that America is better off when everyone lives a decent life. The problem with this view is that it is perceived as ‘defeatist’, as a statement that ‘the dream’ cannot be acheived by most. How unAmerican; how pathetic.If we on the left want to keep black voters, hispanic voters, and even white voters, we must change our language to emphasize the power gained when individuals are no longer wage slaves, no longer in poverty, no longer struggling to a minimum standard of living. If the focus of the left promotes the promise of ‘the dream’ the way that the right has done so successfully, and makes it clear that life (and government and our future) doesn’t need to be a one-in-a-billion lottery ticket, then the votes will be cast where they should.
Posted by matt on Apr 11, 2005 at 8:06 PM “This is the problem right now with the left, in my opinion. The left wants to offer social programs: welfare, social security, health insurance, and so on. We believe that America is better off when everyone lives a decent life. The problem with this view is that it is perceived as ‘defeatist’, as a statement that ‘the dream’ cannot be acheived by most. How unAmerican; how pathetic.”
I disagree. Why do you insist on adapting the false premises of your enemy as your own? The fascist right have made a cottage industry out of branding the left with false labels. You don’t have to voluntarily wear them.
Posted by Lefty on Apr 12, 2005 at 9:53 AM Let’s face it, the main problem with the “left” at this point in time is that we do not have a charismatic leader that engages people beyond our political scope. The centrists of both parties are not engaged by our outlook, which is seen (mostly wrongly) as anti-Christian, anti-hetero, anti-hard work. They see us as do-nothing union workers who want a cushy safety net so we can suck off the government. They see us as people who only criticize but don’t have a plan to make things better.
Now, mind you, I think all these assumptions are erroneous, but until we have a figurehead that represents what we hate as well as how we will fix it, people are going to continue to jump ship for a faux-conservative party, the Republicans.
I refuse to wear their labels and I am doing (as many of you who also blog do) what I can to try to bring damning information to general public’s attention. If people were actually aware of how they’re being boondoggled, we might get somewhere.
Posted by Margaret on Apr 12, 2005 at 10:38 AM If the right wing uses “Fear” I beg to ask you what I have been hearing from Left Wing & Black politicians concerning “turning the clock back” and the loss of government benefits? How can this be interpreted as anything other than fear mongering as well?
While many preachers of color are scrambling to get on the right side of funding through Bush’s “Faith Initiative”, you’re right in that most street-smart blacks won’t be fooled. While I am white, my pastor (Baptist) is openly starting to question not only this Administration’s direction, but the direction of American’s in general.
Sorry the numbers don’t add up to the level of undue influence that you claim that Faith Based Initiative has made.
In 5 years $2billion have been spent. Much of this money was money already being spent by previous administrations just not given this particular lable.We have 2,000 million in 5 years of the Bush Administration yet this has caused the Black preacher to become corrupted you say? First the majority of participants are not Black churches and thus they must compete for funds with the main-line religious organizations. Secondly many of the Mega Church Black preachers have operating budgets to which $1 million is but a drop in the bucket.
It is simply amazing to me that while you clearly see the Black leader(preacher) who is now seeing some favor in the “right” as having a “ring through his nose and being lead around” BUT YOU CAN’T BRING YOURSELF TO SEE THAT THE LEFT LEANING PROPOSALS BY WHITE “TED KENNEDY TYPES” HAVE NO STRINGS ATTACHED AND DON’T MANIPULATE BEHAVIOR.
Now I get it.
Posted by UTB on Apr 12, 2005 at 1:36 PM UTB,
You are so far off base, I can’t believe it. No one here has complained about the faith-based initiatives in and of themselves. As a Christian who gives lots of personal time in our church’s ministries, I think it’s great that the groups who have been doing this type of work for centuries is finally getting government help. I think there are probably few organizations who can give as selflessly as do church groups.
But that is not the point here. The point is that the GOP is attempting to garner support in an arena which they previously had no inroads to. And the reason they had no inroads is because they continued to pursue policies that were counterproductive to raising the levels of education, health and wages for people of color.
Now that they are cutting programs right and left that would have helped the disadvantaged, they have to have some way of appearing to “care” about the minorities or the poor. If you can look at Bush’s budget and tell me he’s not targeting the lower mid- to lower financial class of Americans, you are not really being honest.
Sure, non-Republicans do things to garner minority support, too, no doubt. But the difference is that Democrats and Progressives have been assisting those groups for 60 years and that’s why most of them vote Democratic. Now they are very confused with this ruse and, unfortunately, they will later pay a huge price for having voted that nutcase into office again.
Posted by Margaret on Apr 12, 2005 at 4:41 PM Notice you talk about PROGRAMS that are being cut but you don’t talk about the measurable results garnered from these same programs. The FACT is that Bush has increased educational spending in total. The various factions who are complaining are doing so over individual programs that have been cut.
In the hostility over “No Child Left Behind” I begain to establish a baseline for protests by considering the relative SILENCE from these same individuals as to the educational priorities in the 1990’s. During this decade educational advancement for all races was flat and there was little relative progress seen by Blacks against Whites.
NCLB despite all of the manufactured opposition largely because who brought it to the table brought needed focus to the acheivement of our students and the teachers who are instructing them.
The opposition seems to be more concerned about the teachers union and the education establishment than about the students.
Posted by UTB on Apr 15, 2005 at 6:36 AM I wasn’t only speaking of education here. I was talking about housing, healthcare, the gammet.
I wonder, UTB, if you are an educator? Perhaps a psychologist specializing in child development or learning? I suppose the question in regard to NCLB is is rote memorization of certain facts the desired result?
In talking with teachers since its passage, they find themselves without the time and tools to teach normal curriculum because everything is aimed at this specific goal. I guess we do need to have some sort of measurement when it comes to learning, but if that’s the case, then the program should have been fully funded. Kerry made this point repeatedly during the campaign. About 1/3 of the money appropriated was actually spent.
Given that, I don’t see how such a program can be taken seriously. It seems to be a ruse for eliminating teachers’ unions, as far as I’m concerned.
Posted by Margaret on Apr 15, 2005 at 3:11 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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