Reader says I was attacking a straw man when I said Carter was attributing opposition to Obama’s policies to white racism

C. writes:

Re your entry on Carter, I don’t agree with Carter that an overwhelming proportion of anti-health insurance is informed or spurred by racism. And I certainly don’t agree it was useful for him to say so even if he thought it. This has nothing to do with that.

Carter—a former southern Governor, someone politically astute enough to became pres of the US and a life-long southerner—is entitled to his judgment about whether race or racism motivates anti-health ins. I am sure there are racists in this country, and I am sure some number of them loudly oppose health ins reform and anything else Obama tries to do. I can’t imagine you would deny that, and I believe it is more than fair to assume it is true.

Neither that fact, nor what Carter said, supports your illogical jump in characterizing him as saying “the entire anti-nationalized healthcare movement … is racist….” Not only did Carter not say that, I don’t believe anyone, even the most ardent health insurance reformers, would make that claim. But you do so with ease for the purpose of then tearing down your own straw man.

What Carter referred to as abominable was that racism still exists and some people believe that no Black is qualified to be Pres, automatically by race. The audio makes it even clearer than the printed word that what Carter found abominable was the closest antecedent in his sentence (no Black Pres), not that there are people who oppose health ins reform.

Fight what’s real, Larry.

LA replies:

You always find a little escape hatch from the truth. What do you think Carter was talking about? Four days earlier there had been this stunningly huge demonstration opposing Obama’s health plan and other policies in D.C. That was the context of Carter’s remarks. And my interpretation is backed by the fact of many columns which have said exactly that: that people oppose Obama’s policies because he’s black.

Get real, C.!

LA continues:

I told you that many columns have said that people oppose Obama’s policies out of racial motives. Here, from many columns taking the same tack, is Joe Klein’s column at Time Magazine: Read it, and then tell me that the left is not saying that opposition to Obama’s policies is driven by racism. And Carter through his statements liberated this view.

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

I have reproduced the Klein column in the next entry.

Sage McLaughlin writes:

Carter’s did not simply say that some people think a black man shouldn’t be president and that’s bad. The word he used that caused the uproar were this: “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

Note his use of the words “overwhelming portion.” Here on planet earth, that’s what we call “plain English.” C.’s reading of Carter’s words seem to be a completely private one, since even Obama’s acolytes in the media aren’t denying that’s what Carter meant to say. According to my earth logic, when someone says that racism is “overwhelmingly” responsible for the outrage so many people are expressing, he means to say that the opposition to the president is largely racist.

LA replies:

Thank you for nailing it so well.

* * *

Here is further exchange with the reader. (The first two comments below were made before Sage McLaughlin’s comment was posted:)

C. writes:

Yes, Larry, some people, including Carter, are saying that some opposition to health insurance reform is because of Obama’s race. (Do you deny that?) That’s not what you said in the first post you sent me. Using a method you often do, you restated your subject’s words, except incorrectly and with no logical basis for your “in other words…” or however you phrased your insupportable extension this time. Carter didn’t say the “entire” anti-health ins reform was racist. You said it. There is no natural or fair way to read Carter to say he thought it was “entirely” racist. I try to avoid hyperventilators, but as far as I know, *no one* who supports reform has said that all opposition is racist.

What escape hatch are you talking about?

LA replies:

What you your talking about? There were numerous town hall meetings on Obamacare. There was a demonstration with hundreds of thousands of people in D.C. last Saturday. If you’re accusing this movement of being driven by racism, then PROVE IT. Provide evidence. Your free floating statements accusing “some” unnamed unspecified people of racism, and then somehow associating that supposed racism with oppostion to Obama’s policies, is the essence of YOUR BIGOTRY which you DISHONESTLY DENY.

And if you’re just talking about some unnamed unspecified racists somewhere, why would that matter, why bring it up, unless it was playing a part in this movement? This movement is the subject, not some guy living somewhere that we don’t know about.

So you really have it both ways. On one hand you deny that you’re saying that the movement is driven by racism, On the other hand you keep bringing up unspecified racists and that these unspecified racist justify Carter’s statements. But of what significance are these unspecified racists, unless you (and Carter) bring them forward to tarnish the anti-Obamacare movement?

C. replies:

What do you mean? What your questions now ascribe to me are the opposite position of what I have sent to you today. Re-read, if you care to. Otherwise, I’m not going to take you by the hand and show you what you refuse to see.

LA continues:

You said:

Yes, Larry, some people, including Carter, are saying that some opposition to health insurance reform is because of Obama’s race. (Do you deny that?) … Carter didn’t say the “entire” anti-health ins reform was racist. You said it. There is no natural or fair way to read Carter to say he thought it was “entirely” racist.

Unbelievable. Here’s what Carter said:

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.

If the statement that the “overwhelming portion” of the opposition to Obama is based on his race is not a statement intended to tar the anti-Obamacare moement as such, then what is it?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 17, 2009 03:13 PM | Send