I was working out at my local gym when I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. I believed he was a good solid democrat, and knew that he even liked to think of himself as a liberal. Some months before we attended a Bill Maher show together at HBO (and of course, only liberals appreciate Bill Maher.)
In the past, we had spent some time railing about George Bush and what he had done to this country. I assumed we were on the same page about the presidential candidates because of our mutual dislike of Bush.
While discussing the candidates, out of the blue, he expressed some discontent with Obama. This was a surprise to me because in the past I had assumed that we basically held the same attitude about who we were going to support in the election.
"I have some misgivings about Obama," he said.
"Oh?" I responded.
I also had some misgivings about the man, but not anywhere near the reservations I had about Clinton, especially in light of her sleazy campaigning and her husband's racist rantings of late.
"I don't like the fact that he didn't hold his hand over his heart during the pledge of allegiance," he said, peering at me to see my response.
For a moment, I was dumbfounded. Only those who celebrate their "common" sense seem to fall for this most obvious of misrepresentations. After I collected myself, I went on to patiently explain that the still picture of him floating around the internet was taken during the playing of the National Anthem and not the pledge, a big difference since there is no "unwritten" rules about holding your hand over your heart during the playing of the Anthem.
My God, I thought. There doesn't seem to be any hope for this country. I always thought of this man as being very bright, someone who knew immediately that the mistruths and shams practiced by the Bush Administration were false, but here he was, falling for such simple-minded tricks.
What was going on here? Who cares even if he hadn't put his hand over his heart...or whether he wears a *******flag pin on his lapel? All of this is absurd and a way of disguising the real issues we should be discussing.
But then I saw the exit polls in Pennsylvania on how many Clinton voters admitted that race played a role in who they decided to vote for--over 20 per cent (I suspect more).
I believe that there are many more who were polled but didn't admit this because they were intelligent enough to realize that admitting that race is a factor in who you choose makes them...you guessed it...a racist.
And I believe that falling for unsubstantiated rumors about Obama is a way to justify their racism--such rumors as Obama is a Muslin or he served on a nonprofit board with a 60's radical which makes him a radical by association, or his preacher said some radical things, therefore he must be radical since he didn’t get up and walk out of the church, or he doesn't hold his ******* hand over his heart and so on ad infinitum.
These illogical lines of reasoning are simply designed to give racists a reason for not voting for a black man.
These people understand that having a socially accepted reason for explaining who they are going to vote for is important. They need this quasi logical reason because they are racist and that is hard to explain to other people. What do you say, I don’t want to vote for him because he’s black?
Why not just come out and state the real reason? I'm a racist and that's why I'm not supporting him. I would almost have more respect for them instead of hiding behind a reason like not holding the hand over the heart during the pledge of allegiance, or because he doesn't wear a flag pin.
I hope that my workout buddy was simply blinded by the patriotic crap. After I explained the trick used in the photo, he seemed to understand and appeared to be angry that he had been tricked(I didn’t get into why he should give a good **** if he didn’t put his hand over his heart). Here's hoping this was a legitimate mistake and not the racist seeking a reason to be able to live with himself.