The Reverend Al Sharpton was right when he thundered at his Reclaim the Dream rally that he had the message but talk show exhibitionist Glenn Beck had the Mall. The Mall of course was the Lincoln Mall. But Beck owns more than the Mall. He now speaks for the majority of whites in America. White voters made up nearly 80 percent of the 2006 midterm electorate and nearly 75 percent of the 2008 vote. The trends show that white voters vote in even greater numbers than blacks, Hispanics, and Asian voters in midterm elections.
Despite the PT Barnum, con man hype, Beck speaks to the majority's unvarnished hostility to liberal Democrats, big government, the elites, Wall Street, abortion, gay rights, taxes, and obtrusive government, and most of all President Obama's policies, and him. Beck and Palin have masterfully stoked white disaffection with Obama. A July Washington Post/ABC News poll found that a bare 40 percent of whites approve of the job he's doing. This was the lowest rating among this crucial voter demographic since the start of his presidency.
There was more bad news. In rapid succession, forty-three percent of white voters strongly disapprove of the job Obama is doing, while less than 20 percent strongly approved. More than half of college-educated whites disapproved of the job he is doing, and, among white college-educated women, Obama's approval numbers dipped below 50 percent for the first time in his presidency.
The disaffection with Obama was not just from white Republicans, or even white independents. That was expected. It came from white Democrats. The racial split among Democrats was evident in the Democratic primaries. Democratic presidential foe Hilary Clinton consistently and in some states handily beat out Obama among white Democrats. The split did not evaporate with Obama's win. Conservative congressional Democrats get elected largely with white votes in conservative leaning districts and they have been the least enthusiastic about Obama's policies.
The ABC/Post poll then is no aberration. Three months earlier a New York Times poll found that the Tea Party activists who are Beck's fervent backers are overwhelmingly white, male, conservative, middle-income, and GOP-leaning. Nearly all passionately believe that Obama is shoving the country to socialism. All harangue the federal government for giving the company store away to the poor. The poor in this case are blacks, and Hispanics. To many the equation is government programs equal hand outs to undeserving blacks and the poor and that in turn equals money snatched from the pockets of hard working whites.
That Beck plays hard on their fear and loathing of Obama, Democrats and government with a generous underlay of race is nothing new. It's a recycle of the media buzz depiction of the angry white male. Richard Nixon stoked the fury of blue collar, white ethnic, rural voters with his slam of the Democrats for coddling criminals, welfare cheats, and fostering a culture of anything goes permissiveness, and of course, big government Great Society pandering to the poor. The crude thinly disguised code words and racial cues worked. Nixon eked out a narrow victory over Democratic presidential opponent Hubert Humphrey.
The tag of law and order and permissiveness became a staple in the GOP attack play book for the next four decades. With tweaks and refinements, Reagan, Bush Sr. and George W. Bush used it to ease their path to the White House. In the mid 1990s, Newt Gingrich and ultra conservatives recycled the strategy to seize Congress, and pound out an agenda that made big government, tax and spend Democrats, and soft on crime liberals the fall guys for everything wrong with America. It touched the familiar nerve with a majority of white males.
The 2008 presidential election was a near textbook example of how you can win an election, and still lose a key voting bloc, in this case white voters. The deck was horribly stacked against the GOP. It had a failed, flawed George W. Bush presidency. It was plagued by corruption and sex scandals. It was widely blamed for crashing the economy. It had an aged, politically disheveled, presidential candidate, and a laughingstock vice presidential candidate. It lugged the baggage of two unpopular wars. Yet, its presidential standard bearer, John McCain still got nearly sixty percent of the overall white vote. In each of the three major elections since 2008 -- the GOP's wins in the 2009 New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races and Republican Scott Brown's stunning upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate contest -- the GOP candidate ran far better among whites in their state than McCain did against Obama in 2008.
Beck knows that history and the political mood of the majority of white voters well. He's stoked it for months on his TV show and he stoked it again at the Lincoln Mall and mocked Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement along the way. He speaks for the white majority in America.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts a nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk show on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efWtwuJL89A
T. West
CART/AfriSynergy
Now you have the audacity to gripe about Koch funding rightwingers, yet Soros, Buffett, Gates, Disney, most of Hollywood and the movie and music industry funds Libs.
Apparently Libs won't be satisfied unless every last broadcaster parrots PC kool-aid and no one backs anyone not a Lib, right?
You guys are too greedy. You want an unhealthy form of government where no one disagrees with whatever you do. Sad. That's exactly what our country's founders DIDN'T want.
If the liberal whites and all the minority groups just got themselves registered and made sure they voted in EACH AND EVERY ELECTION, even the small local ones, we could change this country for the better. Make those candidates represent us instead of the white rich minority and big corp.
As for white liberals being disappointed in Obama's preformance, it's because he isn't working like we who turned out in record numbers to vote for him expect him too. He has been too friendly with big corp and not hard enough on his fellow Democrats in Congress to get the progressive agenda going forward. We taxpayers bailed out big corp and our reward is loss of jobs, homes, decreasing income, inadequate healthcare. The economy stimulus has been lackluster at best-not big enough.
We white liberals voted for a progressive agenda. Liberals of all cultures and colors fail to go to the poles even though we are in the MAJORITY. If we don't vote we lose OUR freedom to these rightwing fanatics with an agenda of making the rich richer on the backs of the middleclass and poor. If we don't vote we deserve what we get.
He can undo some of the damage if he appointed Elizabeth Warren to the Consumer Protection agency. He appears to be listening to his corp friendly advisors. He needs to listen to the AMERICAN PEOPLE! We wanted change and we got too much status quo.
43 percent of whites votes for Obama in 2008. 40 percent of whites approve of the job he is doing now.
43 percent disapprove of the job he is doing, 57 percent of whites voted for McCain in 2008.
Where's the dropoff? Those on the hardcore right oppose ANY Democrat, and a cohort of this group doubles down because of President Obama's ethnicity. What's so different?
Right-wingers oppose Obama for two reasons. He is a Democrat, and he is Obama.
Most people of the left do not oppose Obama, but they do disapprove at what they perceive as tentativeness and incrementalism regarding progressive policy. That is explicitly NOT the same.
I am also disappointed in his fair weather supporters. Obama's legacy as a community organizer and his pervasive message of "Yes WE can," should've told voters that to achieve the outcomes he represents, we were likewise charged with a responsibility to participate and not just expect him to wave a magic wand and grant our wishes.
and?
If Glenn Beck was this overtly opinionated, we'd be calling him racist.
Now I disagree with Beck and Ofari in the extreme, just saying, what is the measure for being "racist?"
But when in doubt, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, he may be named Donald.
Many creeds, colors in attendance refute charges of racism against rally
WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of Americans – of many creeds and colors – made what ended up being a pilgrimage of sorts to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally.
Catholics, other Christians and Jews spoke to WND on site, many celebrating the themes of faith and reliance on God proclaimed from the platform.
As WND reported, Beck proclaimed the purpose of the rally, saying, "It has nothing to do with politics; it has everything to do with God."
Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union based in Washington, D.C., for example, stood on the platform with Alveda King as she recalled her uncle Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech.
Praising the entire rally, Gardner exclaimed, "It was phenomenal!
"It felt great to be up there with all these wonderful leaders, the black pro-life leaders from all over the country," Gardner said. "I was extremely proud of my sister in Christ and my dear friend, Dr. Alveda King. … Seeing her walk out where her uncle and her father were 47 years ago – my eyes welled up, and I had a lump in my throat, because we have come a really long way."
Many creeds, colors in attendance refute charges of racism against rally"
Not really no. The article about is wrong on its face, but let's not pretend that Becks infomercial was representative of "many creeds and colors."
The crowd was mostly White. We can the see pictures.
What percentage of the crowd was non-white? Representative of the general population?
Alveda King shares DNA and a last name with MLK. She does not share his views and dedication to the causes of equality and social justice and in no way speaks for him or represents him.
Equality? Yes. Social Justice? No. 'Social Justice' is not equality because it advocates taking from one peoples to 'get even' with another. Nor does it abide by 'judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin'. Social justice seeks to treat groups differently based on historical events.