One of the things I continue to hear morons like Scarborough (yes, I am a masochist) prattle on about is this: "Obama struggles with working class voters."
"Wow. That's a lot of voters he's having trouble with." I say to myself. And then I remember to pull the Q-tip out of my brain...
This idea gets repeated ad nauseam by the mainstream media (who are apparently largely unaware of the collective Q-tip shoved into their ear), now to the point where it is CW that Obama will not win "working class" voters' support.
One small problem.
He typically wins 80-90% of the black vote. Now, I'm not no sociologist, but I would bet that there are a hell of a lot of "working class" black people who very fervently support Barack Obama. Does the fact that they are black disqualify them for "working class" status?
This brand of institutionalized, racist commentary seems strikingly similar to the brand of institutionalized, racist commentary that permeates the sports world and its comparative descriptions of white and black athletes. Typically, white athletes are described as "gym rats" (in the case of basketball) or full of "hussle" or "grit." On the other hand, black athletes are described as natural athletes or "physical specimens." Just occasionally the commentator will venture into bizarre ramblings about slaves and breeding that almost always cost the commentator his job.
Excepting insane breeding analogies, can you read the racism between the lines? Black athletes have it handed to them, while white athletes have to work hard. Exact same thing at play in politics: Whites are working class, blacks are...welfare class. Lower class whites work hard, lower class blacks do not.
Of course, these arguments are not limited to Joe Scarborough and Jimmy the Greek...
Remember when Obama was racking up caucus after caucus following Super Tuesday? What was the argument (mostly from the Hillary camp) as to why he was winning? Hillary's supporters were too busy. Working. Obama's supporters, with nothing to do but check under their work boots for their welfare check, were free to skip off to the local caucus and browbeat the scattered Hillary supporters who had walked uphill 2 miles on their lunch break to cast their vote. The only other people capable of participating in such a process were America-hating professors who jumped into their electric cars and grabbed a latte before putting off to vote.
I believe deeply in Barack Obama's candidacy and will do what I can to help him get elected, but the nasty, divisive racism that the Republicans will drag out from under the rocks over the next several months is going to be, in my opinion, horrific. If you thought Willie Horton or "Hey, Harold" was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet.