My husband and I have been watching the John Adams miniseries on HBO these past few weeks. In fact, we upgraded our Dish Network package just to be able to see it.
It has not disappointed. It has educated me about the characters of John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the other players in the early American nation. The sets, the costumes, and the acting are all, in my opinion, superb. Next week is the last episode and I will be sorry to have this television class in American history end.
The thing that struck me the most about this most recent episode, however, was watching the construction of the White House using slave labor. As Abigail Adams said as she stared at the horrible scene of black men and women breaking their backs to build this house which at the time they believed would never be inhabited by a black president, "nothing good can come of this."
I also watched the documentary Finding David Wilson, last Friday on MSNBC. For those who may have missed it, it was a film depicting the meeting between David Wilson, the great grandson of a former slave, and a second David Wilson, the grandson of the former slave owner. Through the film the two get to know each other, and while walking in the ruins of the fomer slave quarters, the black David Wilson realizes that the sacrifices of his ancestors had not been in vain in that their suffering ultimately led to the benefits he enjoyed as a free and equal citizen of the United States.
Yet, in spite of David Wilson's optimism and reconciliation with the family that previously owned his family, we know that racism remains in America. It may be quieter, it may not be verbalized, but it is there. It is what is behind much of Hillary Clinton's pitch to the superdelegates that Obama is not electable. When she says she is the one who can win in big states like California it is at least partly because she knows many Latinos have animosity to African Americans. And when she says only she can garner the votes of blue collar workers, or laid off workers in the rust belt, it is because she knows many of them would never vote for a black man. That this may very well be true is distressing, that Hillary Clinton would use it to defeat her African American opponent is despicable.
Instead of being part of the solution to the ongoing racism in this country, Hillary Clinton, by using Obama's race against him, however under the radar she keeps it, is part of the problem.
We Obama supporters always knew it would be an uphill battle to elect the nation's first black president. We are neither naïve nor stupid. But the one thing we always hoped was that as democrats we would all pull together and defy the odds. We hoped that a powerful ex president like Bill Clinton would get behind Obama and urge every democrat, independent and open minded republican to vote for him. And we hoped that Hillary Clinton, realizing that her chances for the nomination were slim to none, would graciously concede defeat, and lend her support to him. Only by having the support of every influential former democratic president and vice president, governor and mayor, senator and congressperson, could the Democrats hope to overcome the lingering racism in this country and send the first black president to Washington, to live in the house that was once built by slaves, men and women who could not have imagined that a man of their own race would ever inhabit it.
But Hillary and Bill Clinton have chosen not to do that. They have demeaned Obama after his win in South Carolina, attacked him in Nevada, accused him of unfair tactics, of not being black enough, of being too black (after all, he attended that black church in Chicago) and now of being elitist. As Bob Herbert so brilliantly put it in his New York Times article today, Obama's awkward explanation of why some voters in places like Pennsylvania don't vote for their economic interests and instead vote on the basis of wedge issues like religion and guns, was partly the result of his being unable or unwilling to speak the truth that some of these voters simply will not vote for a black candidate because blacks, in their minds, are inferior.
The real truth is even more distressing. Hillary Clinton, instead of using her considerable influence and power to ensure that the first black candidate in the history of the country is elected president, is doing everything she can to ensure that he isn't, and that includes using republican dog whistle tactics to get voters in her own party to vote against him. And she is doing this because all she cares about is winning.
She doesn't care about the will of the people. She doesn't care about the Democratic Party. She doesn't care about the country. And, in spite of the fact that she was once popular among African Americans, she doesn't care about race relations in this country.
I still think Obama can defeat her. And I still believe, in spite of her pitch to superdelegates, that Obama can defeat John McCain. He is one of the most skilled politicians we have seen in our lifetimes, and I think he can weather any storm the she-demon stirs up to destroy him. It won't be easy, but it can be done. And in spite of Hillary's belief that too many racist white voters will not vote for an African American, I have a little more faith than that in the American people. In spite of what may happen in Pennsylvania, there are enough Americans who have moved past the abhorrent politics of Karl Rove. There are enough Americans who are not racist. And there are enough Americans who are not threatened by the possibility of a black president.
Hillary Clinton is the one who is threatened by Obama, and if we can only defeat her, John McCain will be a piece of cake. He is an extremely flawed candidate, and I think a united Democratic Party can defeat him. Hillary's power madness, and need to overcome the humiliation she suffered during her husband's administration, is causing her to act like a desperate, unhinged rejected spouse, and she more than anyone can defeat obama's bid for the presidency.
It remains to be seen whether she will continue to encourage the racism that is smoldering under the surface so that she can defeat Obama, or if she will finally decide to be part of history by putting aside her irrational ambition and helping him win the presidency. If there is any decency under her blind ambition, her power madness, and her need to overcome the humiliation her husband dished up to her, she will ultimately do the right thing.
Otherwise, we can only conclude she has no decency. And that would make her a terrible president indeed.
