What Base?

Bob Herbert: "... black voters ... have been hammered disproportionately by the recession and largely taken for granted by the Democratic Party.... The idea that we had moved into some kind of postracial era was always a ridiculous notion.... What has taken a toll is the perception that the president has consistently seemed more concerned about the needs and interests of those who are already well off, who are hostile to policies that would help working people and ethnic minorities, and who in many cases would like nothing better than to see Mr. Obama fail."

The Constant Weader comments:

Two points. First, this from Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, reporting on President Obama's CNBC townhall meeting of yesterday that was supposed to be about "Investing in America":

During the Q&A, "an African-American woman who identified herself as a chief financial officer, a mother and a military veteran," said to the President, "I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. I've been told that I voted for a man who was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class and I’m waiting sir, I'm waiting. I still don’t feel it yet."

Here's the exchange:

That lady speaks for me, & for millions of others, of every racial stripe. I don't know why Stolberg even mentioned the questioner's race, because the woman's complaint had nothing to do with race. But her race does speak to Herbert's point -- that black Americans aren't getting from the President what they had hoped for. Neither am I, and I'm white.

During the 2008 primary campaign, I had a discussion with some well-meaning white Democrats who appeared to favor Hillary Clinton because she was white. I was an Obama supporter, & I promised them that if Barack Obama became President, within weeks white people would be thinking of him as "the President," not as "the black President." I was wrong about that, because I hadn't counted on Rush Limbaugh & Newt Gingrich & Glenn Beck & all the other right-wing entertainers thinking up every way they could to keep reminding people Mr. Obama is black: "Imam Obama," "Kenyan anti-colonial," "racist."

But. When I'm not railing against the Rush/Newt/Glenn coterie, when I am able to push them to the back of the bus, as it were, I see Mr. Obama as "the President," & I applaud or criticize his policies & remarks on their merits, not within any racial context. I'm 65 years old, I grew up in the segregated South, & I didn't know any black people till I went to college (in the North). So yes, as a child, I did notice people's skin color. Frankly, now I don't, & I have to think about it when somebody asks the race of a person. Race, to me, is not a defining characteristic. I realize I would likely not have the luxury of that indifference were I not white.

Even better, I know plenty of people, including my own children, who are a generation (or more) younger than I for whom race was never definitive. They just don't think about it. So I think millions & millions of Americans do live in post-racial America. That there are still people on the right who will exploit racism, like the execrable Andrew Breitbart who published the heavily-edited Shirley Sherrod tape, & that there are still people who will fall for it, like the President himself, is a filthy stain on our country. It's true the media keep these racist creeps in a place of prominence, but that is because it is the business of the news media to expose evil.

Racial bigots are now their own minority, & their numbers continue to dwindle, which, of course, is one reason the ragtag remainder are squawking so loudly. The rest of us moved on some while back.

Karen Garcia "just can't relate":

Maybe the reason Obama has such trouble firing up his original base is that most of us just can't relate to these black-tie, thousands-of- dollars-a-plate fundraising affairs. We watch TV clips of the galas, and shrug, and think "there is no way I would ever get invited to THIS shindig."

It just struck a jarring note that the impeccably dressed president would urge the Black Caucus to head on back to the barber shops and beauty parlors to gin up the support of black voters. It occurred to me that the President doesn't have a clue about how most black people, white people, any kind of people, actually live these days. I think he got the hair care locales idea from some political ad from the 70s, depicting regular folks just hanging out. Either that, or his speechwriters have been watching too many reruns of "Roseanne" and "The King of Queens".

I don't know about you, but I can't really afford to go to the beauty parlor for a shampoo and a haircut. Hell, I can barely afford a bottle of shampoo. Any politician looking for me at the local salon will be out of luck. You might find me in my kitchen with a pair of shears trimming my bangs, though.

And then I read about the the fundraiser in tony Greenwich, CT the other night at a private home for a very exclusive and very rich bunch of limousine Democrats. I heard that the President dissed the crazy lefties again for just not letting that public option thing go. If a video of that particular speech exists, I wouldn't watch it - I am already disgusted enough.

So, the President is worried about reinvigorating the base. And I ask - what base?