Are reparations McCain's last hope?

[JohnnyRingo]

He hasn't pulled that card from the Republican fear deck yet, but he's come close. I've been expecting to hear it all along, but it hasn't happened.

I began thinking that perhaps they're afraid of a negative backlash for such an overtly racist attack on Obama, then it occurred to me.... They are using a modified version of reparations to rally their working class base to get out the vote. We see Palin do it every day.

Since I was young, back in the '60s, the fear of many hard working whites was the welfare state. Conservatives pounded home the stereotype of black people on welfare driving a new Cadillac to stoke the racial fires of division. It seems cartoonish now, but decades ago it was a standard tactic to bolster the white middle class to a cause.

The back then was that while "Joe the Plumber" had to work 10 hour days to feed his family, those on welfare could afford to drive a new luxury car that the working man couldn't buy on his take home pay. Of course back then they threw food stamps in as a caveat to this perceived "life of Riley" on the common man's dime, but that Cadillac was symbolic of unearned entitlement.

When Palin or McCain's audience hear "redistribute the wealth" they aren't thinking that money will be taken from the rich, they think they'll be taxed, and the money "spread around" to the welfare class. They fear the day that people who don't want to work will be financed by their hard earned dollars. (I know plenty of white people are on welfare, but you can bet those supporters at the rallies assume they're "just down on their luck".

It's a form of reparations to these closet racists to imagine all the African Americans who would benefit from Obama's social programs, and "Joe The Plumber's" views cement the image of that white working man who would give up his lifestyle and dreams to fund minorities who don't try to help themselves.

I guess using Archie Bunker would be too obvious.

[billyoc]

1. Oh, PLEASE let them try to do that.

I'd love to get the real welfare statistics out in the open. The red states would starve in the dark without the blue states, that's why they stopped bitching about it so much.

[Indi Guy]

2. If McCain plays the "reparation" card -- all Americans will know...

...he's forever abandoned his "maverick" status.

[Heidi]

3. Since reparations are something McCain's racist, lying base has tried to smear Obama with,

I do wish McCain would try that tactic.

[JohnnyRingo]

4. Indeed, "Joe The Plumber" represents white fear of reparations.

That's who his tax money would theoretically be "spread around" to.

It's clear working class republicans don't mind their money passed up to the "trickle down" class. They resent the money being passed down to those "who don't pay taxes", as McCain calls them.

[Heidi]

5. My feeling on the matter of reparations

is that you do what's right, even if it costs ya. Many, many people have died waiting for justice. I can't understand those who fear confronting the past and making things right with those who've been wronged.

[Berry Cool]

6. You can't? Think of it this way.

Many white people in this country (mine included) have ancestors who weren't even on these shores yet back in the days of slavery. And those whose ancestors were here at the time? They didn't all own slaves. Many were poor, hard-working people--and even if they weren't, the descendants of those people don't feel they should have to bear the burden of guilt for what their ancestors did or didn't do before they were even born.

They don't see why other people--people who were never slaves themselves, just the descendants of slaves (although not all of them are even that)--should get "reparations for when their ancestors were slaves" from the government. They regard it as an unfair punishment to themselves and an unfair handout to the recipients.

And it's just a short step from there to persuading people who are resentful of that notion that they are going to be forced to hand over their hard-earned income to lazy blacks who just don't want to work, and are taking advantage of their status as the alleged "descendants of slaves" to kick back, take it easy and enjoy the good life on the backs of hardworking white folks.

That's how it works. That's how you get the cliche of the welfare queen driving her five babies by five different baby daddies in her brand-new Cadillac to the store to buy caviar and champagne with her food stamps while poor Joe the White Plumber foots the bill--and who teaches her babies to grow up to live as she did, rather than go out and get a job.

Of course it's exaggerated. Of course it ignores the way welfare has helped keep people of ALL colors who desperately need it afloat until they could get back on their feet.

But it's how you create a class war: convince white people, especially those that are not well off, that lazy black people are taking advantage of them and their work ethic.

[Heidi]

7. I'm rational enough to know that I benefitted from wrongs perpetuated against others,

even if my direct ancestors didn't directly perpetuate those wrongs. I realize there are many who disagree with me on this issue, but if my ancestors (even in the context of that period in history) stood back silently and benefitted while others were wronged, they're guilty and I'm guilty, too, if I do the same. I also realize that some bells cannot be unrung, but ya do the best you can.

[elkston]

8. The problem with reparations is identifying who exactly should get them

I agree with you that something SHOULD HAVE been done. But its too late now. Reparations should have been paid DIRECTLY to slaves when they were still alive or at least one generation out.

But devising a system now that could "authenticate" a black person as a legitimate descendant of a U.S. slave would be problematic and prone to fraud. Too much time has passed and no reliable paper trails exist (to my knowledge).

The best we can do now is make good on equal opportunity and funding quality education for ALL people. But the resentments amongst my people will remain, and they have a right to be angry.

[genna]

9. WHAT IMAGE DOES REPARATIONS CONJURE UP?

World War 2 internment camps for Asians?

The Bureau pf Indian Affairs?

African slave trade?


Indentured servants to build the railway system?


Is it any of those unworthy people?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

10. Has Obama ever taken a position on reparations?

If not, how can he attack Obama on it (or is it just assumed that since he's half-black that he would automatically support it)?