That’s the lesson that John Lewis was trying toteach John McCain.
(There’s also a “lesson” for Anthony Asadullah Samad and John Lewis at the bottom this piece. Thanks. –Roman)
Much ado has been made over Georgia Congressman’s John Lewis’statements about the nasty turn the Presidential campaign took atRepublican rallies last week. From Palin saying Obama was “pallingaround with domestic terrorists, to Republican rally supporters callingthe Democratic nominee “an Arab,” “a terrorist,” and calling forObama’s death, shouting out, “Kill him!”, the rhetoric of the campaignfinally crossed the “colorline” last week in a way that we alwaysunderstood was just beneath the surface.
At least, black peopleunderstood it was just beneath the surface. It was no longer just aboutpolitics and political choices anymore. It became about violatinganother black man in a way that black men, and African Americans, inprevious generations were violated when they made serious challenges togain civil, social and political equal rights—through extralegal andillegal means (usually mob violence). McCain/Palin rallies didn’tresemble political rallies last week. They resembled Klan rallies, onlyabsent the sheets.The venom spewed deep and the television cameras caught it. So didJohn Lewis, who said the McCain/Palin campaign was sowing the seeds ofhatred and division. Lewis, as one of the most racially assaulted ofthe living frontline activists remaining from the civil right era,called it as he saw it. If anybody would know when a change in racialtone has occurred, I would trust that it would be John Lewis. He’sheard it before, and he’s been in the midst of mob violence—even underthe collar of authority—having been assaulted on the Edmond-Pettisbridge in March 1965. Code language is John Lewis’ second language, andcode language has become McCain/Palin’s first language or nativetongue. Lewis was simply warning McCain, Palin and the rest of thecountry that this was getting ready to get uglier than we couldimagine. Lewis’ code language for, “White folk getting ready to act up.” **
Now before y’all start tripping, I’m not talking about all whitefolk. There are good white folk, then there are “those” white folk thatwere active in upholding America’s race caste system. They used thesame coded language, and usually stayed in line until it appeared thatBlacks were too close to being equal, then they voiced their biases oracted in unlawful ways. There’s always been right minded, upright,straight ahead white folk that were fair-minded enough not to engage inthe racial divide, and some of them even advocated in the variouscauses for equality throughout the nation’s history. But most werecomplicit in supporting the race caste system. That’s the only wayslavery and later, legal segregation, could survive as a sociallyacceptable normative deeply engrained in America’s cultural norms.However, there were many, in significant numbers, that tried to do theright thing—what our grandparents and great grandparents called, “Goodwhite folk.” We see that in those who are really giving the Obamacampaign a chance to be heard, and are finding out his candidacy mayprovide a viable solution to this country’s problem. And Obama is onlytrying to exercise his constitutional right to run for President of theUnited States, and he’s getting too close for some white folks’comfort. So now they want to put the terrorist mob on him like theyused to put the lynch mob on generations before him. Different periods,same language.
McCain got upset when Lewis provided him the analogy ofGeorge Wallace, who Lewis said, “never threw a bomb, never shot agun…he created the climate and conditions that encouraged viciousattacks against those Americans who were only trying to exercise theirconstitutional right.” Remember, John Lewis was named as one of thethree “wise persons” McCain said he’d seek advice from if he were tobecome President. Yet, when called to respond to the call for violence”through hated filled rhetoric by some of his supporters, McCain claimedhe was insulted to be compared to Wallace and that he can’t control the“fringe element” in his party and defends his supporters, 99% of whomare “good people.” Sounded like more than one percent of the people inattendance at those rallies were booing to me, but John McCain totallymissed the point from his anointed “wise man.”
All Lewis was saying was that McCain and Palin, like Wallace,were being complicit in creating an environment for hostility andviolence to be waged against Obama, by not checking their “fringeelement” as McCain likes to call them. 99% of the people of Alabama andMississippi were “good people” who were complicit in upholdingsegregation for 68 years. The fringe element, the Klan, enforced thesocial norms. The intolerance of terrorism, like the intolerance ofdesegregation or integration, started with the conversation—therhetoric—that went unchecked and spread once people knew hate talkwould be tolerated. That’s the lesson that John Lewis was trying toteach John McCain. McCain said he was stopped in his tracks. Yeah, butit was for the wrong reason. Not because John Lewis was right, butbecause the Republican spin machine used it as an opportunity to shutdown any inference that this really might be about race with a“terrorist” subterfuge attached to it. John Lewis knew exactly what itwas, and being the wise man that he is, and that McCain, himself,thought he was, let Johnny boy know what time it was; that white folkwas getting ready to act up if he left the crack in the hate door open.
Truthbe told, I think John Lewis was right, and I think some white peoplestill getting ready to act up as it becomes more obvious that BarackObama might win this election. Watch.
**Sowe’ve had nearly 8 years of lefty assassination fantasies about GeorgeW. Bush, and Bill Ayers’ bombing campaign is explained away as aconsequence of him having just felt so strongly about social justice,but a few people yell things at McCain rallies and suddenly it’s a signthat anger is out of control in American politics? It’s nice of McCainto try to tamp that down, and James Taranto sounds a proper cautionarynote — but, please, can we also note the staggering level of hypocrisyhere? (And that’s before we get to the Obama campaign’s thuggishtactics aimed at silencing critics.)
The Angry Left has gotten away with all sorts of beyond-the-palebehavior throughout the Bush Administration. The double standardsinvolved — particularly on the part of the press — are what arefeeding this anger. (Indeed, as Ann Althouse and John Leo have noted,the reporting on this very issue is dubious). So while asking forMcCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to startdoing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory?–Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit