News Tips?
-- tips@phblend.com

PHB Mobile


33|175:175

About
-- The Blog
-- Pam | My home page
-- Autumn
-- Daimeon
-- Julien
-- "Radical" Russ
-- Terrance

Contact the Baristas

The Blend Blogrolls

Activism


Best of the Blend
Blog Posts

Special Events and Interviews

Blend-o-licious endorsements...



The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."

He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior." (CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)


Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).

"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008



Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:

A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)

"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)


Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush


who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"

Content © 2004-2008
Pam Spaulding

House Blend logo © 2005
Melissa McEwan

Photo of Pam Spaulding
© Judy G. Rolfe
All Rights Reserved.


SITE TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Support the Blend




An Online Magazine in the Reality-Based Community.


White dog whistles no more

by: Pam Spaulding

Thu May 08, 2008 at 07:02:10 AM EDT


Last night in another thread, I commented again about how poorly Hillary Clinton has been served by her hired campaign guns. Of course, the senator has stuck her foot in her mouth on her own as well, but nothing compares to this. From a new USA Today interview, she manages to top any dog-whistle race-baiting that her husband put out on the campaign trail with this naked appeal.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Wow. Just. Wow. That didn't blow by without comment, even in the article.
Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Clinton's comment was a "poorly worded" variation on the way analysts have been "slicing and dicing the vote in racial terms."
Is that another variation on "misspoke"?

You see the problem and beauty of Senator Clinton's statement is that it boldly embraces the undiscussed fear in this Reagan Democrat demographic, the people who do consider race a major factor -- concern that white privilege is being threatened, that somehow Barack Obama as president would exact retribution against "hard working white Americans" for past or present institutionalized racism. You know, like this candid Kentucky voter:

I've talked to people-a woman who was chair of county elections last year, she said she wouldn't vote for a black man." Patrick said he wouldn't vote for Obama either.

Why not?

"Race. I really don't want an African-American as President. Race."

What about race?

"I thought about it. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race. That's my opinion."

The frame is specific -- that's why Clinton referred to hard working white Americans. What happened to "blue collar Americans?" Oh wait, there are a lot of hard working black and brown blue collar/working class Americans, and many of them they voted for Obama, so she had to slice that demo down to the bottom line. Dog whistles no more.

I want to believe that it wasn't a purposeful slip of the tongue because it's too painful to contemplate that the black vote is now perceived as a "problem" because it skews to Obama, and because there are more white voters who have a problem with him based on his race, we have to nail that demo. Remember, the black vote has been the most reliable Democratic vote, not the Reagan Democrats. Black voters don't turn out for Obama solely because he is black. I've blogged before about this bizarre train of thought -- if the affinity vote is so powerful we would have seen a bum rush for Alan Keyes. What Clinton is saying is not inaccurate (polls slice and dice this way), but its use here is inappropriate and inflammatory. It's because the last core demo left for her to appeal to is resistant to Obama for reasons that have little to do with policy differences, or 3 AM readiness. She's brought the microtarget out into the light and it's one many of us don't want to face talking about, with a different name -- scared white people.

She is naming her remaining trump card, and considering our country's pitiful history of not frankly dealing with or discussing race -- aside from painful, fumbling defensive fits and starts -- we're left to deal with the fallout of a "poorly worded" statement, lacking a sufficiently stocked toolbox to deal with the ramifications of courting a vote with implicit and explicit biases.

The question never explored is why are these people scared more about a black president (regardless of political viewpoint) than the prospect of a McCain presidency and four more years of failed economic policies that have left this very demographic high and dry? What do we want to do about this as Americans? Apparently nothing, that's a third rail topic and there's an election to win.

Naming it means acknowledging problems we haven't dealt with, and exploding the myth of a post-racial America. Barack Obama may be the first post-racial candidate because of his personal heritage, but the United States of America is nowhere near "post-racial" when it comes to politics.

Pam Spaulding :: White dog whistles no more
Tags: , , , , (All Tags)
Bookmark and Share
Print Friendly View Send As Email
I...think Hillary meant to say. . .
that the lighter-skinned Black people are almost as "hard-working" as White Americans. . .

I wondered how long it would be for the media and candidates to start dragging out the most willfully ignorant of Americans to explain that we have to have a white person (or even better, a white man) as President cuz....well, just cuz we've always had one. That's the foundational philosophy of conservative thought.  


White dog whistle
That might have worked in 1984 (see Gerry Ferraro), but blowing that whistle is a suicidal activity if you want the votes of the under 30 crowd, who strongly reject that sort of politics. This generation (the children of boomers)will write off Clinton and her surrogates as total racial retrogrades.

I suspect this is why Obama is so popular. He's very tuned in to THEIR values, which also resonate with those of us who are in the "grayinng hair" set, who puke almost every time Tweety starts singing love songs to white male pols.

While I originally was a Clinton supporter, her racist games pushed me out. Enough is enough. Obama is right. That's OLD politics, and that dog doesn't hunt any more (see the general public's collective yawn at the supposed "radical nature" of Rev. Wright.... a non-story that was hyped to death by TeeVee)

Hillary needs to get out and shut up, before she becomes forever equated with Bull Conner and George Wallace.  


It's even worse than you say, Pam
Pam, her use of the descriptive "hard-working" is vile, and degrading of the entire Democratic party, the campaign, the country, and what's left of the Clinton legacy. The clear, unstated opposite is people who aren't hard-working--those shiftless nigras.  How DARE she say what she's said?  Has she no shame?  Has she no sense of reality?  Died-in-the wool Clintonista Lisa Caputo the other night praised Obama for his magnanimous speech and said she had to deliver one in the same tone.  Well, it was dry, cold, delusional.  She had a chance to rise to the occasion and she fell way beneath even her own rhetorical standards. It was a huge disappointment.


"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

Apparently I'm shiftless and lazy too
Because I am a white, college-educated man who supports Obama. Sure, it is not as huge or divisive an insult to me than it is to Obama's African-American supporters, but I am still pissed. How dare she indeed?

The implication, of course, is that these "hard-working" white voters won't vote for Obama in the fall when he is up against McCain - is she arguing all her support is based solely on her race? Or maybe it's her gender? Clearly it can't be her policies, cause the gas tax holiday pandering didn't get her anywhere.


[ Parent ]
At least it's out there
What is a great advantage for Obama in the case of race division is that he WILL talk about it.  Probably not from the stump, and he won't parse and manipulate the way Clinton has, but one on one I think he would talk to folks like this guy from Kentucky and say, "let's be honest about this and figure out a way to get past it."  

To offer some encouragement, my mom is a Baby Boomer Southerner from Arkansas.  I love her, but all my life I've heard her and my family say racist things.  When I told her I was headed to an Obama rally in IN, where I live, she said "I really hope he wins.  I think he'd make a great president."  Believe me, that is huge.  At least some opinions can be changed.  


Tired
I'm sick and tired of pundits endlessly re-hashing poll numbers (without a jot of analysis) about the so-called racial divide.  Conditions now do not remotely obtain in the fall when it's the Democrats vs. Republicans. But far more important is what almost everyone seems to miss: the huge surge in young voters and their overwhelming identification as Democrats. We are seeing a seismic shift in the electorate and Obama is its representative: multi-racial, young, a man of many backgrounds.  I'm a baby boomer and my only references to the past are these: he reminds me at times of the very best of JFK and RFK.  Hillary is not attracting these voters.  Hillary's day is past.  I, for one, have been longing for years for a new generation of leaders because the old ones leave me feeling sour and disappointed.  Am I disloyal to my fellow baby boomers?  "Very well, then, I'll go to hell!"

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

"Baby Boomers Sold Us Out"
A favorite comment that I got in an interview with Keith Stroup, in reference to how the Summer of Love generation, once in power, actually ratcheted up the War on Drugs.

I have a brother who is 25 (I am 40).  You're right on with the analysis of their views.  They don't experience black/white straight/gay red/blue left/right the way the punditocracy thinks they do.  They grew up with Will Smith as a leading man, Will and Grace as a prime time comedy, and have seen virtually no difference between the politics of either party.

They've grown up always having the internet and instant access to any subject they choose.  Unlike rebellious teens of the past who had to get a motorcycle and run away from home to escape the parochial confines of their small-minded hometowns, these young adults could learn the truth about anything, seek wildly different opinions, and communicate with anyone in real  time online.

Don't trust anyone over 50! (apologies to Abbie Hoffman.  Or was it Jerry Rubin?  How would I know; I'm not a baby boomer.)

"If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson


[ Parent ]
Hilary's Last Stand
OK folks...I really think it is time for Hilary's friends and supporters to take here aside for a heart-to-heart and say: Hilary honey, it's time to surrender and let Obama make his run for the White House.John G.

Yes!
She needs an "intervention."

As opposed to a surge.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report


[ Parent ]
Kos said it best...
I feel kicked in the stomach every time a Clinton operative or the MSM chock up Obama's success to the Black vote. HELLOO! How many Black people are there in America - more so in the states where he kicked her butt? Utah, Iowa, anyone?  I saw this on Daily Kos today and it says it better than I can. (Hope the cut-n-paste from another blog is OK to do.)
------------------------------
Who else could've cost Obama yesterday's victory?
by kos
Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:16:00 PM PDT

Boy, I keep hearing from all over the place that if it wasn't for those meddlin' blacks, Clinton would've won big yesterday!

Yes, it's true. African Americans were a big component of his winning margin in NC and paper-thin loss in Indiana. But who else was a big component? Let's look at some other demographics Obama got, with the percent

                            % of vote  % for Obama
IN: People with college degrees  35       56
NC: People with college degrees  44       57

IN: First time primary voters    19       69        
NC: First time primary voters    22       60

IN: Independents                 23       54
NC: Independents                 19       45*

IN: Liberals                     39       56
NC: Liberals                     42       63

IN: Urban                        33       60
NC: Urban                        27       66

IN: White 17-29 year-olds        12       54
NC: White 17-29 year-olds         8       57

IN: All 17-29 year-olds          17       61
NC: All 17-29 year-olds          14       74

IN: 17-64 year-olds              86       52
NC: 17-64 year-olds              80       60

The 17-64 number is particularly stark, but there are a ton of demographics that have voted heavily for Obama. Anyone under 64, first-time voters, young voters, urban voters, educated voters, etc. What about rich elites? Actually, Clinton won those in Indiana (52% of those making over $100K, which in Indiana, is a lot).

I should go around talking about Clinton's "non-senior problem". It would make far more sense, given that they're about 80 percent+ of the electorate, than bizarrely fixating on race as though it's the only factor at play.

(*) North Carolina is only the fourth state in which Clinton has won the independent vote.


I think your post is a much better argument
than just talking about comments that have been made about race.  It is hard to understand the complaints about race being an issue when people see that Obama has received such a large percentage of black votes.  However when it is framed in the context of him also getting a large percentage of other demographics, race becomes a much smaller issue.

[ Parent ]
No more
But Pam, is it even true? I thought I read that Obama did better in Indiana and North Carolina among white voters than he did in Ohio or Pennsylvania.  

You're right
HRC was using a poll from March 3rd, rather than the actual votes to make this claim.  She lied.  I used to admire her even though I never fully supported her, but she has, to be nerdy, embraced the Dark side of the Force.  I hope she comes back some day, but for now we all need to turn away from her for the sake of the future.  It's sad and infuriating to watch.

[ Parent ]
White Privilege
It is sad that even when it is blatantly exposed, people are still afraid to relinquish their white privilege.  And what's worse is we don't call them out on it.  Sorry, folks, but times are changing and you don't just get to hold on to your white power and control anymore.

Our country needs a good President, and I would go so far as to say our country deserves a black President, and Obama just happens to be both of those things.  As a white male, I was particularly proud to caucus for him.


It's always wrong...

   to bring up white and black. This just perpetuates the myth of race. We are all people and I decided years ago, whats good for the blacks is good for the whites too and that holds true in a democracy of diverse peoples for "justice for all".  Discrimination is wrong and to elliminate it is good for all peoples. We are no longer a black and white society.  Her roots are showing. We are a diverse nation but to single out color is immature and short sighted. Issue's honey, not color.

   I am "now" an Obama supporter. After living through the 60's I'm sick up to here of hearing about race, the polarization of peoples by bigotry, by political tacticians or when ignorance speaks. Lets get on with democracy, please, and leave this horrid past in the grave to plague us no more. . 



I'd rather be a lion for one day, than a sheep for my entire life.


Me, too
I grew up in the 60s and I'm ready for a change from the same old stale rhetoric and race-baiting.  American is changing, and should always be appealed to nobly, not ignobly.


"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report

[ Parent ]
Clinton's Five Mistakes
There will be endless analyses of what went wrong, but TIME has made a good start at examining five major weaknesses/mistakes in her campaign.  I'd add a 6th one: letting Bill off the leash.  

Well worth reading:

http://www.time.com/time/polit...

Add it all up and it spells: overconfidence verging on arrogance.

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report


I'm so relieved I didn't vote for her.
Back when California had its primary, I was still a disgruntled ex-Edwards supporter, but I was also still in the "Oh, either Obama or Clinton would make a great candidate - it's a win-win!" camp.  So I pondered voting for Hillary, but in the end went with Obama just because he was the more inspiring candidate, and stood for change.

I am SO glad now that I went with Obama.  Seeing what Hillary has turned herself into, these past three months, it's beyond appalling.

What I would be curious to know is, how many people were in my shoes and DID vote for Hillary, and are now experiencing buyer's remorse?  I would be genuinely curious to see the pollsters go back and re-poll all those Super Tuesday states and other early primaries - including the ones Hillary won, like California.  Knowing what we now know about her, could she (among Democrats) still win even the states she DID win?


Buyers Remorse
I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I read that a poll was taken of New Jersey voters recently - after their primary he has closed the gap considerably there - they are are definitely feeling buyers remorse. It made a little tiny bit of news because New Jersey neighbors her "home" state of New York.

[ Parent ]
How Ironic
It seems now that both Hillary and Rush Limbaugh are in total agreement that Obama can't win working, hard-working Americans, white Americans.

Frankly, I find this whole line of thinking insulting.  So does this mean that all hard working white Americans are racist and wouldn't support a black man under any circumstances?

Maybe, just maybe, his support from white America comes from his stand on the issues and his ability to give us some hope again after 8 miserable years.

All in all, I think Hillary's grasping at straws and we're seeing a soon to be ex-presidential candidate "whistling" in the grave yard.


Take A Deep Breath and Count To Ten

Certainly and of course it was tacky and wrong of Hillary Clinton to have said it.  But it is not anything that serious political people of all races have not thought about.  Remember the earlier Northest state where all the voters told the pre-vote polster they were for Obama and then voted for Clinton?  They even had a name for the phenonenom.  It is racism in the voting booth by white Americans.

We have had beginning open discussions about race in the USA here at Pam's.  I am glad to hear that some of you are color blind and live in a race-less society.  Real glad to hear it.  One of the things I dearly love about the Internet is that I don't know your race or age or sex or sexual orientation unless you choose to tell me ... I can't see you ... only your thoughts.  I think that is wonderful!

But I do believe America is a racist place to live and work and VOTE.  Hillary said so.  It was tacky of her.  But I think she is correct.  It works in her favor because there are more whites voters.  

NOW WAIT!  I read the KOS figures and I believe them to be true!!!  I am white and I will vote for Sen Obama in November.  I believe my folks in Delaware and my brothers in Alaska, SC, and Florida will too.  In all our white male privlege. But I believe some whites will vote McCain just because he is white.  Some, not all, not even many, but some.

Because racism is alive and well in the USA.  Sen Obama addressed it.  Rev Jeremiah Wright addressed it.  I am not afraid to address it either.  Hillary addressed it as in her favor ... that is a tacky and inappropriate way to address it ... but she is telling the truth none the less.

I say that we should be patient with Hillary Clinton.  She is watching her life long dream go up in smoke.  Her husband and James Carvell are urging her on.  She is asking herself what kind of example she is leaving her daughter.  It is going to take her a day or two to come up with the dignity to bow out gracefully and with the demands of Obama she needs ... a Supreme Court Seat plus ????


The fight for full LGBT Equality is NOT over.  Be strong and be ready to really fight!  And read my blog in your spare time! http://ravenhurst-ravenhurst.b...


I hope you're right
she needs to make things right soon if she expects forgiveness.  If it's scorched-earth all the way to the convention, she should never be forgiven politically.

[ Parent ]
Great Point
I underestimated how much race still does matter. I visited a friend in the 'burbs of Phoenix. She says she doesn't discuss politics because folks there can't even get past Obama's middle name, much less even think about his policies. Compounding this is that she knows they would never admit that publicly, much less to a black person. So, agreed on much of what you said.

But, Hillary still doesn't get a pass from me on this one. When I first heard her comment, my impression is that she is framing this contest as basically - a white vs. black vote and since there are more white people in the country than blacks, she should be the nominee. This feeds directly into the gross oversimplifications the MSM loves to loop 24 X 7, not to mention does damage to DNC's efforts in the fall - oh yeah and its incorrect.


[ Parent ]
so clinton can't praise her voters
by calling them hard-working, without someone inferring that she is saying everyone else is a slacker?  and it's ok to talk ad nauseum about obama getting almost all the black vote and the "educated" white vote, but clinton can't talk about the fraction of the white vote she gets?

big double standards here.

Lurleen on Twitter


Even the NYT objects to what she said
We endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and we know that she has a major contribution to make. But instead of discussing her strong ideas, Mrs. Clinton claimed in an interview with USA Today that she would be the better nominee because a recent poll showed that "Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again." She added: "There's a pattern emerging here."

Yes, there is a pattern - a familiar and unpleasant one. It is up to Mrs. Clinton to change it if she hopes to have any shot at winning the nomination or preserving her integrity and her influence if she loses.

Full editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05...

"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report


[ Parent ]
Hillary is Zelig
And Hillary is wrong according to Kos statistics.  Obama won all age groups from 17 to 64.

Her base is the over age 65 group.

The OLD group
The RETIRED group
And since women live longer than men
The older WOMEN group

These are people who came of age before the civil rights movement.  They are the McHales Navy re-run group that Matt Taibbi talks about.  These are the voters who, if Hillary does not win the primary, will turn coat to McCain.
And god damn these people to hell if they tip McCain over Obama in November.

I am white, over 50 and an Independent who registered for the first time as a Democrat so I could  vote for Obama.  I have a sister, a rich Republican who voted for Bush twice, who is voting for Obama.  She lives in ARIZONA.

I told my father, a McCain supporter, that if he loved his 8 year old great grandson he would switch to supporting Obama.  I truly feel this way, this election is that important to the future of this America and the world.

I am ashamed at what Hillary has become in this election.  She is wrong, so wrong.  I crown her the Queen of Appalachia, because a crown of dirty coal is the only title she deserves at this point.


Clinton and George Wallace?
For a nuanced view of Clinton's latest comments that seem to be on the edge of race-baiting, there's a solid piece in Salon that probably won't satisfy Clinton diehards or Clinton haters, which makes it especially worth reading:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/c...


"In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant."  The Colbert Report


Dynasties
Frankly, I'd vote for her if she were the eventual nominee, but I really believe it's time for a change.

Since 1988, we've had Bush, Clinton, Bush, and if Hillary were to win, Clinton.

What happens in 2016; another Bush?  And in 2024, Chelsea runs for office?

I just think it's time to break this Bush-Clinton cycle.  


Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?


Report TOS Violations



Join the Blend Chat Room



Premium Sponsors



BlogAds






Search the Blend
Current site


PHB 2.0 Web
Search Blend 1.0 Archives
Ad Networks


BlogSheroes BlogAds


Miscellany

RSS Feeds

Subscribe with Bloglines

Visit NCBlogs


frontpage hit counter

Stats

Powered by: SoapBlox