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The Value of Symbolism

By dcmediagirl on February 26, 2008 at 11:07 AM in Barack Obama, Cult, Current Affairs, Democrats, Media, Messiah, Obama, Presidential Candidates, Republicans

I swear that there are times when I just want to hang up my mouse and keyboard and tune out.  When you’re bombarded on a daily basis with so much drivel and nonsense passing for journalism, it’s tempting to tune out and drop out. I haven’t done so yet because there are a few people who care about what I have to say and insist they like the way I say it, but more importantly, I don’t want to incur the wrath of Larry Johnson. God only knows what they taught that man at The Farm.

In any case, please read the following article.  I won’t post excerpts because, well, I just can’t. 

I have a response for Gary Kamiya.  If I’m to follow his so-called logic and agree that symbolism trumps experience, why not nominate Keith Ellison to be the Democratic presidential contender?  He’s not only black, he’s a real, honest-to-God Muslim!  Now THAT’S a twofer! Imagine the rich symbolic value of such a nomination.  Someone might want to write to Kamiya and ask him what he thinks of this idea.

Your comments are always welcome.

  • http://www.despair.com/in24x30prin.html Smilin’ Jim

    It is testimony to the sinkhole in which your craft finds itself that I view Gary Kamiya’s article as representative of American political journalism, if you will excuse the oxymoron.

  • ces

    Would now be a good time to remind everyone that Barack is also half white?

    • Simon

      Actually, Obama is Britney Spear’s back up singer.

      I read an interview with Chrissie Hynde once, in Musician Magazine. The reporter asked her opinion of a group called “Night Ranger,” a generic, 80′s no talent formulaic guitar band, one of many, at the time. And Hynde answered ” Whom?” The reporter stood back, aghast, as Night Ranger’s tripe, passing for music, was all over the radio.

      And Hynde said next, to the reporter “Are they good?” And the reporter said “No.” And Chrissie said “then why would I listen?”

      I feel the same about this type of wannabe reporter.

  • rjj

    Ergo, Kamyia would choose the black intern over the white staff surgeon to do a complex critical emergency procedure on his dog.

    Seems more silly than noble.

  • BernieO

    What an idiotic article.

    Unfortunately even NPR has a lot of drivel on it. I heard a discussion yesterday on “Talk of the Nation” on how Obama and Clinton differ on their policies and the “experts” basically said they did not differ, derisively called any perceived changes “flip-flops” and basically said nothing of substance. The highlight for me was that a caller had to inform them that Obama proposed raising the SS cap. They admitted that this was a substantive difference but obviously had no clue about it.

    Today on Diane Rehm, Frank Sesno hosted a similar show comparing the econommic policies of all three candidates. A past president of the right wing Club for Growth kept spouting the “tax cuts cure everything and pay for themselves mantra” and the other guests let him get away with it.

    Meanwhile most of the media is ignoring the right wing’s egregious prosecution of Alabama Governor Don Siegelman for committing the crime of being a Democrat. Thank God for sites like this one. So please keep up the good work!

    • Fred C. Dobbs

      Op-Ed in this morning’s LA paper was titled: “Even Reagan Raised Taxes.”

  • mimi

    If white America has been dying to bridge the gap in the racial divide as this article insists, why haven’t they done this before now. Electing Bush for 2 terms isn’t indicative of that. There are a lot of local issues that whites could have shown a commitment for in terms of bridging that gap. Police brutality, discrimination in banking practises, the real estate market, education… Oh I could go on. This is more of the same: “We’re the change we have been waiting for.” HUH!!!!

    As an AA, this article is pure and utter bullshit. All these people admitting that Hillary is more qualified but won’t vote for her because they don’t like her or because Obama is the ‘cooler’ candidate. We’ve become a nation of morons.

    It would serve the media and all these smug Repubs right if Obama does in fact get elected. Bet they won’t try something like this again. They better stop underestimating him and overestimating their ability to go negative and win. This is why you don’t play with fire. You can, in fact, get burned.

  • Anne

    My first reaction to the Kamiya story was that it was a convoluted load of garbage.

    It is race, it isn’t race, it’s okay if it is unless it isn’t – I mean, come on.

    It’s articles like Kamiya’s that make me realize we really have not evolved as far as we think we have. Obama is a man contending for the nomination of the Democratic Party to be the next president. Hillary is a woman in the same position. Take away the race and the gender and look at the resumes. Look at their positions and their statements and their records. If Kamiya’s standard is the AUMF vote, then he doesn’t need to explain the race factor. Or the gender factor. If his standard is experience, and he allows race to trump that, it is, first of all his right to do so, but he shouldn’t be making excuses for it.

    We all judge others on a hundred different things whether we know it or not. Looks, speech, manner, background, associations, education, weight, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, what kind of clothes they wear, what kind of car they drive, where they live, what kind of work they do, how big their house is.

    If Kamiya wants to support Barack because of his race, what do I care? But what he may discover is that his decision to do so may prove to disappoint when it turns out there was a whole lot more to being president than race or gender.

    • Fred C. Dobbs

      >>> My first reaction to the Kamiya story was that it was a convoluted load of garbage.

      Mine was that it was a steaming pile of horseshit, but that would insult the integrity and intellectual acuity of horses’ asses everywhere English is spoken.

  • Kathy

    This article is drivel, plain and simple. What divides us more than race is class and some of the things Anne talks about i.e. looks, background, education, weight, gender, sexual orientation, how much money you have.

    Why I won’t vote for Obama is because I do not know Obama. Didn’t he have any friends? Was Michelle his first girl friend? Where did he come from? Who were his teachers? What was he doing his first three years of college? There are so many questions not only about his past, but his recent history. Doesn’t anyone want to know more about this guy personally? I know everything about Hillary, her family, where she went to church, her sunday school teacher, her pastor, who she hung with, how she spent her time as a young girl, etc.

    The only thing I do know about Obama is that he lies. He knows what Hillary stands for and has even copied some of her solutions. On the campaign trail, however, he continues to misrepresent her. I thought that was one of the things we were suppose to admire him for. He wasn’t suppose to be like other politicians. What a joke. He must think we are all stupid. He even misrepresents his own record and thinks we won’t find out. What is he saying about us to even do these things?

    He is destroying the democratic party. Why would a democrat try to destory the record of Bill Clinton? Why would Obama speak against the agenda of the democratic party? I don’t trust this man. Most Americans voting for Obama do not have a clue about what he stands for or what he is going to do. The MSM has told the country this man is wonderful and the country should vote for him. The media lies about the Clintons and the public has bought it hook, line and sinker. They don’t care what Obama stands for or his record or who he is.
    The news media from the top down and the political pundits are unable to tell the truth.

    I feel like a character out of a Rod Serling story. Does anyone remember him? He lived in the “twilight zone.”

    • Black for Bama

      Kathy, why are you such a racist? Admit it, you can’t stand a black man, plain and simple.

      • Xeno

        Typical obamambot strategy: When you don’t have a comeback, race-bait.

        • TeakwoodKite

          A standard of behavior given tacit approval by Senator Obama. WOW 4 years of this militant attitude?

          Black for Bama: Instead of displaying respect towards someone elses’ opinions and questions from someone you nothing about; you go there?

          • Simon

            Black for Bama has a small penis, is both intimidated and attracted by black male sexuality, feels acutely sensitive about his inferior intellect, and is physically unattractive.

            Profile: male Kos reader.

      • Simon

        Kathy, why are you such a racist? Admit it, you can’t stand a black man, plain and simple.

        You have a small penis, don’t you?

        Oh, the insecurities a black man must inspire in the minor white troll.

        So, in order to psychologically survive, the would be minor white troll must co opt, ala Kos, the mighty black penis.

        But then, perhaps Obama might take after his mother’s side, white, like you, so , no threat.

        Too bad your group doesn’t worship the mighty big brain.

        Shithead. Shithead with a small penis.

        God, are you stupid.

        (I’m sorry, Susan, the trolls are SUCH morons, not even funny, or clever, just an old template strewn about by has beens and wannabe PR twits, those who don’t even know what a metaphor is, fercryingoutloud, but try to troll, anyway.)

    • TeakwoodKite

      Kathy: Do you recall “Night Gallery” as well?

      In one episode Rod Serling introduces the audience to a man standing in front of a large painting of a beautiful landscape scene. Every day he returns to view the painting and an using his will power is transported in to the picture escaping the ruthless city streets and his own problems….he does this day after day and ultimatly can’t live eithout it.

      In the last scene he running from the street thugs who he owed, seeking refuge he ran to the painting and “jumped” in. Only the viewer finds out that the exhibition had been changed and what replaced the beautiful landscape scene was an equally large painting of the the Crucifixion of Jesus. He did not return.

      • Simon

        Only the viewer finds out that the exhibition had been changed and what replaced the beautiful landscape scene was an equally large painting of the the Crucifixion of Jesus. He did not return.

        What a great story, kind of like O.Henry.

        • TeakWoodKite

          It was good cinema; Sterling was a very creative man.

  • kenoshaMarge

    I read only a few paragraphs and then nausea necessitated a swift retreat.

    If this for real? Maybe trying to be funny?

    I guess it’s more important to some people to prove to themselves and those around them that they are not racist. I don’t feel the need to prove it and so I made my choice based on issues and not a certain amount of melanin.

    That said, I need to go lay down. The sheer, full-blown, mind-blowing, pathetic stupidity of that article makes my head hurt. Just when you think the dumbest thing in the world has been written, I would have nominated Maureen Dowd and her obsession with what the Clinton Campaign paid for doughnuts, but the Kamiya fella is even dumber than Dowd. And that takes some doing.

    Personally I think Dowd should get a lifetime achievement award for drivel. This guy could soon have one of his own if this article is any indication of his proclivity for drivel.

    Can we get a drivel meter please?

  • rjj

    Can we get a drivel meter please?

    What kind? Thanks to the free market and deregulation, you can get any kind of kophometer you want. They aare calibrated in different units, though: Dowds, BKs (Brooks-Kurtz), Goldbergs, O’Reillys, Roberts, Becks, etc. The high-end models allow you to select the units, several of the low-end ones have a built-in digital conversion feature.

    kôph-os = blunt, dull, obtuse, stupid

    • kenoshaMarge

      Let’s get one calibrated for Dowd and Beck. That should cover everyone.

  • Kat

    Has anybody read Andrew Sullivan’s drivel in last year’s Atlantic? I think that one is even better.

    “Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.”

    http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama

    • http://www.dcmediagirl.com dcmediagirl

      Yes Mr. Sullivan, until that young Pakistani Muslim realizes that the brown-skinned man running for president has repudiated Islam and wants to bomb the young Pakistani’s country at will. I would guess that would make the bloom go off the rose.

  • rosaleen

    Does anyone really believe that having a half-black POTUS who once went to a Muslim school is going to impress Muslims worldwide? Excuse me but Muslims are engaged in hating and murdering each other in a number of places. Just as Christians have done forever.

    If being from the same country isn’t enough to soften a Muslim’s heart for another Muslim, having once attended a Muslim school and converted to Christianity and being from America isn’t going to do it.

  • rosaleen

    Don’t forget that Andrew Sullivan was writing columns urging gay men to practice safe sex while he was advertising in magazines and newsletters for bare-back riders. He’s a loser.

  • rosaleen

    As for the article itself, who would dare to say that yes, they are voting for HRC because she is white?

    Nobody.

    • TeakwoodKite

      For those of us, regardless of our “color”, who take Dr. King seriously; how are we to be judged again?

      Good point rosaleen.

  • Gloria

    Here’s an exellent piece that should get some serious attention…

    Jamal McCoy “Did Obama Abuse Race?”

    http://www.stop-obama.org/?p=123

    Read the WHOLE THING…but the last paragraphs really say it beautifully:

    Now, for the larger argument, for those who still cannot come to grasps, or cannot cognitively compute, the way Obama uses race in his appeal to voters.

    I enjoin you to find the category “white” in Obama’s “People” menu. To tell me, where and how a “white” like Hillary, can place her “white” category on her campaign website, to mirror her and Obama’s inclusion of the African-American category? Find me the last time Hillary said in a speech, “as a White, my story is your story.” Tell me, why Obama can keep the quote I cite (right above) on his website, after having said he personally hadn’t authorized the attacks his campaign carried out against Hillary for her Johnson remark? I ask critical readers to tell me, how our country’s liberal media can get away saying Obama does not mention, or use race to his political advantage, when his campaign has made it all but impossible for Hillary to so much as attempt to state the obvious fact, that she and her husband have a great deal more history delivering for blacks, than Obama could ever chalk-up doing Chicago community work or playing hooky in Springfield!

    With absolutely nothing to offer blacks in terms of policies, Obama charms them with vulgar identity politics. Oftentimes directly, generally by using the verbal gymnastics of religion, and civil rights. The media play not only the part of facilitator, but of prosecutor and judge. It is hardly a coincidence, that since the Johnson remark, Hillary’s commanding lead with blacks dissolved, and along with it went her general vote.

    Only a pathological liar, could claim Obama’s seeming victory has nothing to do with the role of race in this presidential primary specifically, and American society in general. Nothing to do with the pathological liar who benefited from these political dirty games, and is now proclaiming himself victor with gusto and conviction?

    Only a total idiot, could say that this abuse is good for America. It may be a useful political tool, but to think that it can be used to unify and reconcile our society, amounts to intellectual decadence.

    • ChrisXP

      Gloria added:
      —————————————————
      “Jamal McCoy “Did Obama Abuse Race?””
      —————————————————

      Ah, his supporters did when they called my Japanese mom a racist. The offense? Calling him Obaba, Japanese for “granny”.

      That’s one example they play both sides of the coin. One hand getting so hot and heavy if anyone mentions his color or ethnicity, the other hand, call other folks of different color and ethnicity, racists.

      That’s Black militancy for you. It’s no better than what the KKK preaches. Same hate for anyone but their own race.

      Until the US can even address there’s a thing known as Black racism, these double standards will continue.

      Those of color, be it Asians or Latinos know this first hand.

  • Gloria

    Here’s another analysis of Obama that is quite interesting:

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html

    Obama’s women reveal his secret
    By Spengler

  • Gloria

    Here’s another analysis of Obama that is quite interesting. Again, read the whole thing to get the full outline of the roots of his motivation:

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html

    Obama’s women reveal his secret

    SNIP

    Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother’s milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.

    There is nothing mysterious about Obama’s methods. “A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is,” wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world’s biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture. Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis’ cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power’s portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noire Nightmare Alley. The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech.

    America has the great misfortune to have encountered Obama at the peak of his powers at its worst moment of vulnerability in a generation. With malice aforethought, he has sought out their sore point.

    SNIP

    Both Obama and the American public should be very careful of what they wish for. As the horrible example of Obama’s father shows, there is nothing worse for an embittered outsider manipulating the system from within than to achieve his goals – and nothing can be more terrible for the system. Even those who despise America for its blunders of the past few years should ask themselves whether the world will be a safer place if America retreats into a self-pitying shell.

  • rosaleen

    Thank you, Teak.

    And you, Gloria. That is incisive as it gets.

    He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath.

    Nail, hammer, head.

    • Simon

      He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath.

      Nail, hammer, head.

      I don’t know, I see him as opportunistic, more a feeling of entitlement that’s been nourished over the years, a feeling of specialness.

      He is inherently narcissistic, a closed off shallow narcissist. There is simply no there, there, in a narcissist.

      • Fred C. Dobbs

        And, narcissm is not a skill set.

  • ChrisXP

    This is what I’ve been exactly stating. Folks have noticed it l-o-n-g ago, too…

    http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_12/feature.html

    O-Bomba wants to play the race card both ways. Since PCness has become so extreme that even mentioning color, race, religion is taboo to them (not to me, as I careless what they label people as), they can get away with it.

    Folks need to r-e-a-l-l-y pay attention with advocating PCness, because it can backfire — like it is in this election.