Racial resentment has been a motivating force for some on the right, and we have seen recently how racist messaging has been employed by the McCain campaign and how well their base has responded to it. While not as blatant as a Palin-McCain fill-in-the-blank "who is Obama" hate speech, he played upon racist messaging in the debate, specifically in his responses to the first two audience members.
But you know, one of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I'll bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis.
Oliver, the questioner who just happens to be black, strikes McCain as someone who is ignorant about Fannie and Freddie. He didn't make this pitch to Alan, the first questioner and we can only guess on what basis he made that judgement.
McCain continues and points out who is to blame:
But you know, they're the ones that, with the encouragement of Senator Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washington, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back.
Putting aside the lie of Fannie and Freddie loaning money to never-do-wells as the cause, just reading the last part leads one to wonder. He has just a moment ago trumpeted the success of the eBay founder, Meg Whitman, so clearly some people can be successful, whereas others, not so much. McCain's pulling out the right's lie that it's those people who could never afford to pay who dragged the economy down. Who are these people and what is wrong with them? Were they greedy? Lazy? They couldn't be "working Americans" because McCain just told us they were the best in the world! Well, they're not like Alan! Anyone who has listened to the hate mongers of the right would immediately hear this wolf whistle.
But here's Oliver's question "Well, Senators, through this economic crisis, most of the people that I know have had a difficult time. And through this bailout package, I was wondering what it is that's going to actually help those people out."
Oliver and his people are hurting - McCain only mentions people as those who could never afford to pay.
That's why we're going to have to go out into the housing market and we're going to have to buy up these bad loans and we're going to have to stabilize home values, and that way, Americans, like Alan, can realize the American dream and stay in their home.
With the mention of "Americans, like Alan", McCain gestures over to the first questioner, who just happens to be white, as he's speaking directly to Oliver. McCain's making assumptions on Alan as being a homeowner and Oliver as not, and those assumptions play right to the prejudices of his base.
For McCain, Americans, like Alan, can realize the American dream and they are the ones to be helped out by the bailout (as part of the institutions meant to serve them)...but as to Americans like Oliver, McCain offers no answer. He doesn't consider him a homeowner, he doesn't deem his question worth answering. They are left out in the cold, in a dark rhetorical space of the ignored.
The message gets clearer if we consider the usage of "American" in McCain's earlier ads. We've seen this before with the McCain campaign, we know the subtext. In his answer to Alan, McCain used "America/American" 10 times. America, America, my friends! The only time McCain uses it in response to Oliver's question is in reference to Alan!
"Working American", homeowner,
worthy of American dream | |
?????
Up to the viewer to decide |
In short, America and its accompanying Dream is for a certain group of people, according to McCain. Those who aren't members of this select group can be blamed for thwarting the American Dream. And if the hate and resentment that fuels the GOP base needs to look for a scapegoat, then someone who resembles Oliver more than Alan would be the pick. "That one" croaks McCain.
McCain employs a strategy of weakening political movements that have diversified membership - by playing up racial tensions. He'll continue to do this in all outlets available to him, covertly in the debate hall and overtly on the stump.
This is an example of the painful ignorance that would respond to McCain's message. Possibly NSFW for the language -
(Transcript can be reduced to "Obama is an Arab")
It has been mentioned in the comments that the exaggeration of "overt" racism doesn't help our cause. Overt racism isn't coming from McCain's lips, not even Palin's. Their brand of racist speech works largely in nuances and ellipses, and the racist merely fills in the blanks.