I had the unfortunate pleasure of turning on CNN this evening and finding Lou Dobbs reassuring every intellegent American that he is anything but (why am I even surprised?). Anyways, I'll give you the important part of his rant about the recent dustup involving Bill Cunningham and Senator McCain:
I'm really very concerned about -- you remember one of the most famous generals in World War II...Guy by the name of Bradley. A hero of D-Day. He was named after the Second Caliph of the Sunni Muslim faith and Islam. And the fact is, Omar Bradley was a pretty good fellow. We are getting into a political correct bunch of nonsense when a man can't even take his given name. Come on. Give everybody a little more credit...I hope we keep our sense of humor and don't get too overwhelmed by political correctness in this campaign. Just a thought.
So, because a general had the name Omar Bradley in the 1940s, invoking Obama's middle name is meaningless? Hmm...Where to begin? Well...
I would be more than willing to give everybody a little more credit if I didn't know the last half century of American history.
Perhaps Lou Dobbs doesn't realize that irrational hatred of arabs and muslims, and all associated names, wasn't a priority for some Americans before September 11th. Perhaps he doesn't remember that September 11th occured on September 11th, 2001 not September 11th, 1941 - after all it's called September 11th and without the year in the name it can be very confusing. Perhaps he doesn't recall that neither the Emperor of Japan nor Hitler had the first name of Omar. Perhaps he doesn't believe that a large plurality of Americans erroneously believe that Saddam Hussein was partially responsible for September 11th. Perhaps he hasn't heard the conservatives confuse the names Obama and Osama. Perhaps he doesn't know how divisive race politics have been in the last four decades. But when you do know all of this, there is no where else to go but:
- The Omar Bradley defense is flimsier than the meaning of is
- Republicans invoking Barack Obama's middle name as often as possible is complete and utter...(drumroll please)...SMEAR-HAPPY, FEAR-MONGERING, HATE-DRIVEN, BIGOTRY-DRIPPING POLITICS.
This is not to say that Obama should be ashamed of his middle name, or people shouldn't be allowed to use it. He should be proud and people are more than welcome to use it, however in the realm of political correctness context matters just as much as content.
Just a thought.