Bitter Beer Face

So let's see...

...Hillary Clinton lies about her trip to Bosnia, lies about her support for NAFTA, lies about her role in her husband's presidency, lies about her position on Bush's failed war of aggression in Iraq...

...but the issue du jour is Barack Obama's suggestion that white, small-town America is often embittered and driven by single issues that have nothing to do with their day to day lives??

Clinton spends a month lying her ass off about this, that and the third, but the media wants to scold (President) Obama for actually telling the truth??

As Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick might say to his ex-chief of staff: LOL.

The President (to be) was right. Here in Michigan, the evidence surfaces every day. Millions of white folks fled the cities (presumably to get away from poor black folks) and are now fleeing the bedroom suburbs (presumably to get away from middle-class black folks) for even more far-flung pastures. Tens of thousands of white state voters, stirred up by the delusional and self-loathing Wardell "I Gotta Make Sure The White Man Gets A Fair Break," Connerly eliminated affirmative action in an effort to stop even minimal black gains. Even a casual glance at the message boards for local news outlets reveals deep-seated, irrational anger and hatred toward anyone urban and/or of color.

Small-town white folks are NOTHING if not bitter.

But Barack Obama wasn't trying to attack them. He was simply pointing out that eight years of failed federal policies and plans have broken this nation, leaving its citizens adrift and bereft of any faith in government to even address their needs, let alone fix 'em. Few pundits pointed out that he also offered parallel assessments of the anger and despair that have swept over African-American young men.

No, instead, we have white folks railing on and on and on against Sen. Obama for having the audacity to suggest they might be a little mad. Truth is, though, people aren't so much mad that he told the truth. The problem is that a black man said it.

Had Hillary the $109-million woman made the same suggestion there would be no attacks, no ongoing "debate" over the veracity of her remarks. But the black man who grew up in a single-parent home and only recently paid off his student loans is somehow "elitist" for making a sincere effort to articulate what is plain to anybody who bothers to really pay attention??

Give me a fucking break.

Seems I recall a few years ago, even white folks were open and honest about their senseless rage. News outlets everywhere were serving up "the angry white male," that GOP-voting, gun-clutching genus of white man bound and determined to take back his "rightful" place in society from black and brown folks bypassing him on the thrust of federal social programs. And who can forget the white boys who rioted in Florida in 2000 right outside the local center where election workers were counting ballots? Oh, they were bitter alright.

You couldn't throw a rock without hitting some white dude who had left the Democratic party because the party no longer seemed to blatantly cater to the myth that white folks "deserved" success whilst blacks had to "earn" it. These white boys have gone by various names over the years: "Reagan Democrat," "the new Republican voter," "the white evangelical," and yes, even, "the angry white male."

Back then (yesterday?), all you heard about was the need to overturn affirmative action because it was "unfair" and no longer necessary. Blacks were now beating out the white boys for jobs, jobs that the white boys "deserved," and this shit had to stop. (Never mind the countless generations of black men and women both then and now who were passed over for jobs they'd "earned" in favor of white folks who were "a better fit for the company.") White men —buffeted by the declining economy, the evaporation of jobs and superpower America's slow but steady ride off into the sunset — were none to silent about their bitterness.

But now we're supposed to believe that that was all just an illusion? The angry white male was just a product of our elitists imaginings?

No, what's clear about this latest "furor" is the same notion that came through during the "flap" about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Barack Obama is free to tut-tut black folks, free to bitch about the "excesses" of the 60s, free to rewrite and diminish the long sad history driving African-Americans' outrage. (Sorry, but he did.)

But white folks are off limits to Sen. Obama when it comes to criticism this presidential election. Even the most innocuous, bland and vague reference to unflattering attitudes and behaviors among whites is met with stiff resistance and ire.

For decades now, black folks have been saddled with destructive, evil and outright false characterizations of us as a group: lazy, irresponsible, dumb, criminal, unpatriotic, genetically inferior. We've had to stand there and take it, too, even from so-called "sympathetic" politicians like Bill Clinton, who for eight years alternately wooed us and tossed us under the bus when convenient as though we were just another White House intern. We hung in and endured the worst portrayals, hopeful that "our candidate" was just "playing the game," believing that he'd "be our best friend" once he'd been elected after convincing enough white folks that he'd be sufficiently tough on us.

Now, along comes Sen. Obama, far and away the better of the two Dem choices, and many white folks get downright apoplectic if he does anything but kiss white ass and say it tastes like vanilla fudge.

To his credit, Obama has defended and elaborated on his comments. But still, Clinton, her minions and media lapdogs and the bigots in the GOP continue to falsely accuse him of elitism and to try to undermine his campaign with lies and racist overtures to the worst in human nature.

To me, Obama sounds like a man trying to appeal to the soul of this nation, trying to offer frank assessments with one hand and, with the other, a salve for the wounds inflicted by this GOP-perverted government. He sounds statesman-like, caring, genuinely concerned.

Clinton and her screeching peanut gallery? Hmph. They just sound bitter to me.