Let’s talk about Race

Race is a factor in this election.

The math is really very simple. Southern Rednecks won't vote for Obama. White Evangelicals will, mostly, not vote for Obama and white working class folks will, mostly, not vote for Obama. What's really sad is that most of these people will be voting against their own economic interests.

If the man were white, this election would be long over. Apparently McCain is holding to his Pennsylvania strategy after all and McCain and Palin will be spending most of this week appealing to the baser natures of Pennsylvania's white working class. If they succeed, this thing could get very sticky. I see a number of scenarios with Obama stuck 5-10 electoral votes short while a half-dozen or so states remain in the "too close to call" category.

It could be a very long and frustrating night.

Democracy ceases to function effectively when a significant portion of the electorate ceases to vote in its own best interest but rather it allows itself to be swayed by false issues.

What is a false issue? A false issue is one which has absolutely no real effect upon the electorate but for which there has been constructed a passionate partisanship.

Gay marriage is such an issue. About 95% of the American electorate will never even encounter a gay couple never mind be negatively influenced by whether they call their relationship marriage or a civil union. It’s a false issue. It should be a big don’t care.

The same thing is true about a candidate’s race. It doesn’t matter. What matters are his qualifications and his positions on key issues.

I was just reading an article about McCain and Palin campaigning in Beaver County Pennsylvania where they expect to find fertile ground for their planned Pennsylvania comeback. Beaver County is on the Western edge of Pennsylvania, is 92% white working class and has a median family income of around $37,000.

When you talk about “the war on the middle class” or “the squeezing of the middle class,” the folks in Beaver are precisely those people getting hurt the most. They have been mauled by the economic decisions of the Republican Bush administration and are precisely the people that the Democratic campaign is looking to help with tax cuts, tuition aid and health care. Yet many, if not most of them, will probably vote Republican either because they’ve been hoodwinked into believing that Obama is planning to raise their taxes or because of Obama’s race.

The first point is a flat out lie and the second is a false issue yet you can be sure that the Republicans will pound away at both these points, the first overtly and the second by implication.

Please don’t tell that there are legitimate reasons why these people would be better off with a Republican administration because it’s sheer bull. I would probably be better off with a Republican in the White House but not most of these people.

The CEO of AIG, one of the major collapses in the current economic crisis, got a $6.9 million bonus last year despite $4 billion in company losses. No one deserves a $6.9 million dollar bonus. Even if the company had made $4 billion it wouldn’t be deserved. This is more money than the overwhelming majority of American workers will make in their entire working career. You will excuse me if I’m not particularly worried if he has to pay 39% of that in income taxes rather than 36%.

The poor baby will only have $4.9 million to spend rather than $5.1 million.

To the folks in Beaver, it’s only fair to ask you boys, whose side are you on?