One thing that struck me about the speed that led to error with this recent Shirley Sherrod case is that I think it belies a belief in the racist judgment or stupidity of at least part of the Obama administration’s target audience. Certainly this administration doesn’t care to try to reach everyone. They aren’t advertising with Stormfront or the CCC. But it seems in this rush to get out ahead of this story by demanding Shirley Sherrod’s resignation without investigating or hearing her out, at least Sec. Vilsack and probably others at the WH believed they needed to do serious damage control without considering the source. Damage control for who and to what end?
Is it because Fox News viewers and right wing website consumers are too stupid to deal with the truth after hearing a lie and yet their support (or at least apathy) is needed in some way?
The power of the" idiocracy" is certainly upon us when smart people do stupid things in order to appease the stupid or those suffering from a social pathology. I don’t have the answers here but I think this incident shows that the "resign first" mentality that has shown up lately when the right challenges people in this administration has cost our government the services of talented people.
When our president correctly referred to the racial profiling inherent in our police and justice system—he was viciously attacked. And that attack was enabled by many in the media across the spectrum. Perhaps that attack, which threatened momentum towards health care reform, has left a deep scar for this administration and this president.
As the first non-white president, there are certainly people who want him to be colorblind to the needs of people of color and just be the president (like so many presidents before). The only racial opinion that seems to matter is that of white potential Obama voters who think all of this is some kind of a social experiment and aren’t yet sold on having such an obvious outsider in an office of such great cultural influence.
This administration has many different Americans’ interests at heart—that is obvious. But their reactions, language, and rhetoric indicate that the group that still matters most is the same group that tolerates inequality of opportunity and allows our system to continue on a path of increased disparities of wealth and social power; the ones who see the truth and a lie as equivalent sides of a story. Even as a conditional supporter, it is difficult to get excited about any administration that does that.