Saturday, January 23, 2010

It May Be A Bloodthirsty Mob, But At Least It's a Colorblind Mob

I just finished reading Charles Blow's latest NYTimes piece, which I first noticed at Legal Insurrection. I have a question...

Does Blow read his own articles? Seriously, he seems to be suffering from short-term memory loss in his handwringing comparison of Massachusetts voters to the spectators at the Roman coliseum:

"Welcome to the mob: an angry, wounded electorate, riled by recession, careening across the political spectrum, still craving change, nursing a blood lust."

Huh. Well, that's one way to describe the voter attitude toward the Obama administration and its disastrous policies. But wait... I seem to remember (my memory is better than Blow's, I guess) another description of how voters feel about Obama. In a different article - which I posted on here - Blow lamented the fate of black voters:

"...supporting a president who is loath to even acknowledge their pain, let alone commiserate in it."

I argued that Charles Blow, and blacks who share his point of view, were following a dangerous and self-defeating strategy of continuing their support of Obama because he happens to have brown skin. Even as he acknowledged that:

"Obama can get away with doing almost nothing to specifically address issues important to African-Americans and instead focus on the white voters he’s losing in droves. This has not gone unnoticed. In the Nov. 9 Gallup poll, the number of blacks who felt that Obama would not go far enough in promoting efforts to aid the black community jumped 60 percent from last summer to now."


--he also pointed out that as of November, support for Obama among blacks was still at 90%.

"The racial animosity that Obama’s election has stirred up may have contributed to a rallying effect among blacks."

--snip--

"However, the rallying creates a conundrum for blacks: how to air anxiety without further arming Obama’s enemies. This dilemma has rendered blacks virtually voiceless on some pressing issues at a time when their voices would have presumably held greater sway."

Perhaps, instead of comparing Massachusetts voters to a bloodthirsty mob, Blow should open his eyes and use his column to do something positive. He's made it clear that blacks are supporting Obama because he's black- despite the fact that he's done next to nothing positive for them or anyone else - and that:

"Meanwhile, black people are also living a tale of two actions: grin and bear it."

He should instead be motivating black voters to do the same thing as the Massachusetts voters... Hold this administration and this Congress accountable for their failure to lead, and join the mob to take back our country. Then, maybe they won't be left "Black (and blue) in the Age of Obama".

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