I am not that old, but older than most Kossacks, probably. And certainly into my teen years there were many, many places in the South where, if a Black man looked a White man in the eye, even walking down the street but especially when the two were conversing, if he made it home without a beating he'd wake up in the middle of the night to a burning cross. Ironically (in light of the location of last night's debate), Mississippi was certainly one of those places. Before anyone goes off the air about this, know that below the fold I will argue against the validity of my own perception of Mac's no-eye-contact ploy, which, for whatever reason it was done, was arrogant and rude. And I know WE SHOULDN'T PLAY THE RACE CARD! DON'T PLAY THE RACE CARD!
But because I personally do believe that there is a very real possibility that McCain was playing his own race card last night, and frankly, because my heart goes out to Barack, who was subjected to it in front of maybe 100 million people, I think we at least need to discuss this. Unfortunately, after I write this I'm going to duck out to run some errands for a few hours. Talk amongst yourselves and I'll check back later. Feel free to flame. I've got the moral high ground on this one.
It's irrefutable, preserved for eternity in various electronic formats, and has been pundited to death, but as noted here on another thread, no talking head wanted to come right out and suggest that maybe McCain was making a racist appeal through his no-eye-contact with the Black opponent debate policy.
Be clear that I'm not calling Mac a racist--frankly I believe the opposite. But I also believe he and his scumbag team are cynical enough to make a subtle racist appeal to voters who are racist. And it was only body language, so how would anyone ever prove it. Which point may end the discussion for some, but I'll continue for the others.
Here's the best way to argue I'm full of shit: ask me, "Are there any racists who weren't going to vote for McCain before the debate?"
Glad you asked. My parrying response (just like Barack does it!): "Yes those who thought Mac wasn't a racist."
This is a close election, even now. Just like the last two presidential elections, every vote is going to count. (Hopefully they'll all get counted this time.) John McCain has a dark-skinned child, Bridget, although she is not African-American. Question #1--Seeing as she's dark-skinned, does a racist care whether or not she's African-American?" (Who can forget the "macaca" moment--Jim Webb's my senator because of it.) Question #2--Wouldn't a racist be a little suspicious, to put it mildly, of a guy with a "black" daughter? Question #3--Would it help McCain to allay those suspicions, if he could do it without getting caught?
Bottom line is, we can't prove it, so maybe just forget about it, especially given the probable backlash to PLAYING THE RACE CARD!
But I personally believe McCain was playing it. Not that it's going to change my vote.
(Sorry about all the parentheticals. That's the way I think and we can't do footnotes here.