Ferraro: Whites feel they are being pushed out of the Democratic party

Geraldine Ferraro’s previous controversial remarks on Obama had not struck me as particularly coherent, but she has a column in Friday’s Boston Globe in which she says something extraordinary, even radical:

As for Reagan Democrats, how Clinton was treated is not their issue. They are more concerned with how they have been treated. Since March, when I was accused of being racist for a statement I made about the influence of blacks on Obama’s historic campaign, people have been stopping me to express a common sentiment: If you’re white you can’t open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama’s playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They’re not upset with Obama because he’s black; they’re upset because they don’t expect to be treated fairly because they’re white. It’s not racism that is driving them, it’s racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don’t believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory “Our Time Has Come” they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.

This is strong support for my oft-stated hope that an Obama presidency would wake up white America to the anti-whiteness that is inherent in both liberalism and black America. Also, connect Ferraro’s remarks with our discussion about a possible racial breakup of the Democratic party.

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Mark Jaws writes:

I predict that by the end of an Obama administration, whites will be able to discuss in the public arena black-on-white crime. Life and history are awash with such delightfully delicious ironies.

James N. writes:

I felt pushed out, even though I wasn’t a real Democrat any more, in 1988. I voted for McGovern in 1972 and Carter in 1976, but in 1980 I voted for Ed Clark and in 1984 I voted for Ronald Reagan. I was watching the 1988 convention with my two sons, then aged 8 and 4. Michael Dukakis had just been nominated, and an Angry Black Woman was being interviewed (I think it was Donna Brazile, but I’m not sure). “The good news”, she said, “is that this is the last time a white male will win the Democratic nomination for President, ever!”.

As I sat there with my two little white males, I felt that something had changed. Not in the Democrats, in me.

LA replies:

> As I sat there with my two little white males, I felt that something
> had changed. Not in the Democrats, in me.

I had a similar moment when I read that Bob Dole had said in his 1996 acceptance speech, “for any haters out there, the exits are clearly marked.” I thought, “I’m obviously one of the haters, so goodby.” And that November I changed my registration to Independent.

> Michael Dukakis had just clinched the nomination,

I can’t help pointing out a pet peeve of mine. “Clinched”—at least when I was coming up—does not mean “won.” It means getting to the position where you cannot be stopped from winning. But in recent years, “clinched” has turned into a synonym for “winning,” and so has lost its distinctive meaning.

If the Yankees are two games ahead of the Red Sox and each team has two games left to play in the season, and the Yankees win their next game, the Yankees have clinched the Pennant, whoops, sorry for the anachronism, the division title, because the Red Sox can no longer catch up to them. They haven’t won the division title until the regular season is over.

If a candidate gets enough pledged delegates to assure the nomination, then he has clinched the nomination. But he doesn’t win the nomination until he is actually nominated at the convention.

So what you saw at the Convention was Dukakis winning the nomination. He had clinched the nomination some time before that.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 30, 2008 09:27 PM | Send