The preferred tactic of conservatives when it comes to dealing with the rampant racism on their side is to change the subject, or failing that, deny it even exists. Por ejemplo:
Media Bubble, Oct. 8 — John McCain’s bid for the Oval Office suffered another stunning blow yesterday when the Arizona senator referred to Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, as “my opponent.” The campaign-shattering remark came during a vicious, Hitlerian speech before an audience of drooling right-wing drones in one of those states in the middle, possibly rectangular.
“I believe that we should do things one way,” McSame sneered, his shrunken, twisted body and hideous visage producing overwhelming revulsion in all sane people who beheld him. “But my opponent feels we should do things a different way.”
Ha! Get it? Anyone taking issue with McCain-Palin supporters wielding monkey dolls or calling black news photographers “uppity Negroes” is just hypersensitive and reaching.
That reflex to trivialize bigotry raises an interesting question: are these people sympathetic to racism, oblivious to it, or just unwilling to call out their ideological brethren?
UPDATE: A commenter actually posted this in complete seriousness.
I understand Black people wanting this historic moment. I like that aspect of it myself. But (and you knew that was coming), Obama is not the man he should be. Colin Powell, Alan Keyes, Bill Cosby…now these are Black men of solid experience and inner conviction. You don’t want just any old Black man up there. You naturally want one that you can be proud of. At least I think you do. I would. If the situation were flipped about, and it was the first white president, I’d want someone that even his opponents were forced to grudgingly admit had great skill and moral integrity.
If you had Powell, you’d have a certified genius, and the architect of a brilliant war. With Keyes, you’d have a man on fire with love for God and his country, and full of courage. With Cosby, you’d have a man able to speak truth even when it hurts which is the most important time and a very good actor (which is an important skill for pols and our last actor, Reagan won the Cold War so thats not bad at all).
Ay Dios mio.