Jesse's Jealousy of Obama helps McCain target Jews

Call me a cynic, but when Jesse Jackson started spewing to the NY Post (of all places), I knew the Hymie-hater was absolutely beside himself that Barack Obama and not Jackson himself had a real shot at ascending to the Presidency.

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.

Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.

Jackson of course knows that that a vote for Obama will put those uppity Jews in their place because, while he isn't an official adviser to Obama and his campaign, he is a supporter of Obama and

Obama has been "a neighbor or, better still, a member of the family." Jackson's son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson's daughter went to school with Obama's wife Michelle.

My uncle, being of another generation & living in a land with few "hymies", reacted the way the Christian Nationalists (who just love Israel so long as it provides them with their whole end of days scenario) want a little ol' Jew to act. He forwarded a copy of Jackson's comments, as part of a Ha'aretz article on the piece (of course), to a bunch of us in the family. I was in no mood for it at all and fired off a missive

Jackson's an ass (it's one thing I do agree with Al Sharpton about) and he's obviously really pissed someone other than him has a shot at the presidency. I think Biden's record on Israel is thoughtful so I doubt there's any plan to throw Israel to the wolves. McCain served on the board of the Council For World Freedom despite the ADL's concerns of that organization's close ties to its parent organization that was a gathering place for neo-nazi's and other assorted Jew haters. Take a look at Palin's connections - hers are not past tense, they are current associations with the fringe organizations and a church that pretty much hates Jews (she didn't leave or otherwise protest David Brickner's sermon at her church in which he blamed Israel's woes on Jews who won't convert).

Please think about the generations that would be left to deal with the hell of a McCain-Palin administration and the rights they would, most assuredly, abolish. American Jews can't do jack shit for Israel if we lose our rights here. You wouldn't have to deal with their end of days plans, but a lot of us will.

Shortly thereafter, he forwarded yet another article questioning Obama's character and his associations. My cousins joined in with our counters noting the guilt by association game is a dangerous one for McCain and Palin to play and I got really annoyed:

I don't know about you, but I've been annoyed at the sexism (towards Clinton) and assumptions of racism that came about during the primaries. This being said, I wasn't surprised by them, but I am absolutely shocked & disturbed at the how stoked the fringe element has become in the past few months and how McCain-Palin rallies have become brought them out in droves. . .

It's been bad under BushCo, my moderate self is now considered some sort of ultra granola liberal (g-d knows what the far left wingnuts are considered if I'm now a leftist). The rhetoric is so bad that I've heard regular (non-fundamentalists) buying into Bill O'Reilly's war on Christmas bs - while things are worse in fundie strongholds (an 11-year old interjected religion into an elementary school student council election for crying out loud), it's not just schools in the deep south or delmarva border in which non-fundamentalists are marginalized. Unfortunately, this election isn't just about running the country - it's about preventing this cultural/religious war from over-riding our ability to run our own lives, it's about repairing our image and relationships outside the US, it's about regaining at least a modicum of fiscal & corporate responsibility. . .

I am no Obamamaniac. He was not my first choice to receive the Democratic nod. He has grown on me as I see (and always believed) he is a thoughtful man (as in, he really does think things through). I may not always agree with him but I am confident he's not just looking for any lame reason to justify his actions after the fact and isn't creating fake reasons to do what he wants (yellow cake, anyone?). His first decision, to select Biden as a running mate, significantly improved my confidence in this ticket.

John McCain isn't the McCain that ran against Bush in 2000, frankly, I'm not sure he ever was the person he represented himself to be, but even if I were to give him the benefit of the doubt, McCain's selection of someone with a such a narrow world view that she didn't think it necessary to learn about critical issues and current events prior to agreeing to be McCain's running mate was cynical and irresponsible at best. If I have a greater depth and breadth of understanding of the world than someone, that person is most certainly not qualified for VP, let alone POTUS.

I'm tired of incendiary rhetoric, especially the kind that marginalizes people - the words "Muslim" (or muslin, if joe six-pack doesn't know the difference b/t religion and fabric) and "Arab" shouldn't be considered derogatory any more than "Jew" should be. Of course, to the McCain-Palin base, anyone who isn't "Christian" is suspect and the only way to defend those who are suspect is by pointing they are "Christian".

I, then, wondered when the McCain campaign would jump on Jackson's statements as further "evidence" of Obama's allegiance to terrorism, lack of patriotism, heinous status as a non-Christian, as well as a reminder to his overall blackness to rile their base and, now, Jews for whom the Holocaust and Pogroms are all too vivid a familial memory, and voila!:

"It should not surprise anyone that Obama’s supporters see what others, from the terrorist group Hamas to Iranian President Ahmadinejad, have seen: an Obama presidency would bring real change to America’s policy of support for Israel," said McCain senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann.

This ties in quite nicely with the emphasis on Obama's middle name, focus on his father being from Kenya and mis-identification of him as an Arab and a Muslim. Jesse Jackson will be the Republican Jews poster boy in next week's Jewish Exponent, of this I'm sure. The tact may appeal to some frightened folks who don't see that erosion of our rights here will just bring modern day pogroms here and abroad, but I don't think it will work on too many of us since we see the ploy for what it really is.


Tags: Jesse "I'm the only black man qualified to be a leader" Jackson; Religion; civil rights; religious freedom/freedom of expression; McShame; conservatism; Sarah PalinConstitution; Christian

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