The Ascendancy of Barack Obama in Small Town America

UPDATE, 1-30-08: Exposing Racism: A Worthwhile Thing To Do

For those of you wondering how the Obama ascendancy is playing out in Small Town America, I offer you this column from the Independent, a weekly newspaper published on the East End of Long Island by Jerry Della Femina, the former advertising executive turned restaurateur and columnist. This particular piece was written by Rick Murphy under his weekly "Low Tidings" column. Murphy is also credited as a publisher of the Independent.

This article has caused quite a stir in East Hampton and beyond. So much so that the paper has pulled it from their website and Murphy, a regular antagonist of the Democratic Party, both locally and nationally, and the Clintons in particular, has replaced it with a brief apology. The Independent is considered the more right-leaning and Republican-endorsing paper of the East End community. Della Femina himself is regarded as one of the great Hillary-Haters in all of the world.

On the heels of Barack Obama being endorsed for the presidency by the normally close-to-the-vest Caroline Kennedy, whose invocation of her father's enduring legacy carries, in some people's hearts and minds, more weight than any ten such endorsements by others, please read what the local Republicans in my home town are thinking, and publishing, about Senator Obama. This is, quite clearly, not to be believed.

Article shots from Hamptons Plum

Comments

[VOTER]

07:33 AM on 02/04/2008

Please keep us informed about Mr. Murphy.

Has he been suspended?

Has he been fired?

Or did he do the right thing and resign?

Or did life go on with no changes

at the East Hampton newspaper?

We really will appreciate your update.

Again, thank you so much for bringing our

attention to Mr. Murphy and his articles.

[Guitarsandmore]

02:22 AM on 02/04/2008

This article proves once again how Republicans think: “It’s not about the issues, It’s about we don’t like you”. Thank you for lowering the national dialogue down to school yard name calling when there are important issues to be discussed.

[sollosi]

09:24 PM on 02/03/2008

Ha-ha-ha funny stuff. Actually, the funniest I have read in a while. The writer should be commended. Those frothing at the mouth and angrily pounding on their keyboard should be glad that we live in a country where anyone can say anything they want, particularly about any candidate running for president.

We should be happy we live in a country where Mike Savage can say anything he wants without fear of retribution. And, we should be glad we live in a country where Nazi sympathizers can freely match with police protection. It's call freedom of speech, people!!!

The day you shut someone up because you don't like what they have to say is the day we all lose our freedom.

Obama should be ready for more hate free speech if he aspires to the presidency. It ain't racism. It's politics, dirty politics that every US president has to endure. Ask Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H Bush, Billary Clinton, Dumbya

[LightningJoe]

07:14 PM on 02/03/2008

Oops, I lost my own bet. There WAS a by-line on that article!

Too bad for that fruitcake, but now everyone knows what a racist, sexist, and ignoramus he is.

These guys must be getting really desperate to get their fellow ignoramuses into office, because they're coming out of the woodwork all over.

------

Kill your TV, and free your mink!

[LightningJoe]

07:03 PM on 02/03/2008

Was there a by-line on that article? I bet there wasn't, because whoever wrote it has opened themselves to charges of rank racism.

They can defend themselves from libel charges by claiming the refuge of satiric license, but several of their characterizations of Obama are frankly racist.

Wouldn't be a bit surprised if this play boomeranged on them. Even relatively socially ignorant Republicans like to think they are enlightened non-prejudiced types. Anyone who genuinely IS non-prejudiced will see this hate-speech for what it is.

----------
Kill your TV, and free your mind!

[BlueBoomer]

03:52 PM on 02/03/2008

That article is appalling beyond words... But should it be that surprising?!?

If you look at recent history, when it comes to electing our leaders, almost without exception ever since JFK's assassination, the American people have completely screwed it up.

In 1968, the beginning of the crassification of America, they voted for Nixon over Hubert Humphrey...

Then, AFTER KENT STATE, they RE-ELECTED Nixon!...????????????

In 1976 the Democrats then proceeded to nominate Jimmy Carter as the ultimate "antidote" to the smarminess of Nixon, Consequently, we got an nice but weak president/administration that culminated in the first overt anti-American terrorist activity: the Iran hostage crisis.

In 1980, I don't even remember who the obviously unmemorable Democratic candidate was, but we had a strong third party choice in John Anderson. Unfortunately, the lure of celebrity was too great, and the country went Republican again... ...And again...And again...

Until Clinton, (a frankly messy choice)

Then in 2000 Al Gore, a smart "sure-thing" shot himself in the foot by acting arrogant and patronizing in the debates (WOMEN WILL ALWAYS VOTE AGAINST ARROGANCE AND PATRONIZATION... ALWAYS), and in 2004 John Kerry couldn't even mount an effective defense against the Swift-Boat sleaze...hardly indicitive of a strong leader...

So here we are... AGAIN.

While I am in favor of the Democratic ideologies, they are again making it way too easy for the Republicans to win...
We had THE MOST QUALIFIED, albeit uncontroversial/unhistoric, candidates running, who had the misfortune of being middle-aged white guys, so the media ignored them. Now we have the cache' of having TWO historic candidates, BUT in the process may very well risk THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ELECTION... because, at the end of the day, they may only be historic CANDIDATES, while a middle-aged REPUBLICAN white guy's wife gets to redecorate the White House!

Way to go, America.
Corsica 2012.

[VOTER]

03:23 PM on 02/03/2008

Thank you, Mr. Baldwin for bringing this to our attention.

[VOTER]

03:21 PM on 02/03/2008

FYI

I wrote an email to Mr. Murphy and copied it to

Mr. Jerry Della Fema. Within an hour, Mr. Murphy

wrote an email to me. All very interesting.

If you wish to write to Mr. Murphy and to Mr. Della Fema their email addresses are listed below.

Mr. Murphy

[e-mail]

and

Mr. Jerry Della Fema

[e-mail]

[Roose]

03:19 PM on 02/03/2008

I must admit, I saw this in Newsday, the Long Island newspaper and I was dumbfounded. Is this supposed to be funny? What is the point of this garbage and who reads it anyway?

[Blutus]

03:10 PM on 02/03/2008

For those who think racism
is confined to the South...........


First we take Manhattan

[TrueD]

02:41 PM on 02/03/2008

Baldwin is correct: East Hampton is representative of small-minded America. Here's a quote from a letter to the editor of the Tribune of Lewiston, Idaho: "As far as Obama goes, he don't believe in the Holy Bible or the American flag. I don't want a president in there who don't want to salute the American flag. I think what that black Muslim should do is get a little rug, go back to Kenya, get on his knees and pray to Allah or whatever they do back in Kenya.... So send that black dude back to Kenya where he came from." You can find people like this in East Hampton, in a small town in Idaho, or even in the White House, if we're not careful, AGAIN.

[brooklyncitizen]

12:54 PM on 02/03/2008

This post is interesting but has to be placed in the right context:the Long Island context. Long Island has been historically bigotted and the small mind mentality is homogenous .People that choose to live there do so because of an underlying fear of "the other".many won't even venture into that dangerous place: NYC (gasp).

Long Islanders are truly not to be confused with small town America. It is populated as a reaction to its proximity to New York City and the ethnic diversity that exists in NYC. It's communities are completely reactionary and its rapid gowth resulted from the "white flight" pattern as whites fled when the NY boros diversified.

Long Island's "legacy":

-luminaries and enlightenned people such as Giuliani and Bill O'Reilly (they are typical of this mindset)
-trashy lifestyles and scandals ..Buttafuoco and Amy Fisher
-Levittown, a planned community that had written it its bylaws that no houses were to be sold to blacks.

Long Island is creepy, maybe it's the water?

[MoralMirror]

12:53 PM on 02/03/2008

The Hampton's are small town america! Complete with pick-up trucks, farmland, and many small minds. Think of it like the carrbean. Rich visitors and poor locals. Basically if you don't own your own business then your kinda screwed. I'm black, was born and bred there, and I'll never move back. Every Thursday all of Manhattan's rich and arrogant filter out for a 2-hr + drive to their second homes. The problem is that their surge of the last 2 decades has driven up property taxes and value, and priced out all of the average people. There is no land left to build on, and no affordable housing. Gas has been at apx.$3 out there for the past 2 years. I know Doctors in private practice out there who can't get mortgages, and there patients have to decide between paying electric bills and buying food. I know a janitor who makes 80k/year, but still struggles to put food on the table for his family. It is unreal out there. BYT, these are the forgotten people that Edwards spoke so knowingly about. They are second class citizens out there, and Blacks are basically third class. In all fairness I have a great friend who's politician out there and she's trying really hard to push for affordable housing, land preservation etc, but it's politics. As far as Murphy is concerned-I've heard his version of "jive talk" for years-from locals and NYC elite. So his satire does reflect the presence biggotry, however these days it is expressed more so in ones abilty to secure a job, or get waited at a store. My husband moved back out there for a year after he graduated from college. He was pulled over 30 times that year. Never got a ticket, I guess the cops just liked him an awful lot.

[kirkland]

11:44 AM on 02/03/2008

UGH! I miss the days when nouveux riche intellects were considered laughable and blight-like. This article is despicable and I feel incredibly ashamed to even live in the same country with its author. No wonder Americans are so often considered to be the barking junkyard dog in the global scheme.
It is unnerving that the piece apparantly passed editorial muster with more than one person. The *New * Hamptons are a cesspool.

[jackpinesavage]

10:44 AM on 02/03/2008

Ah, America...land of the intolerant, home of the ignorant. And people wonder why the rest of the world calls us dumb and ugly (not that the rest of the world isn't dumb and ugly too, only that we are, without a doubt, the runaway leaders)