How the bad guys win

PE Bird has the answer. I think he's right. The following is taken from his comments to an earlier post:

the general atmosphere for change is strong is the electorate. The theme of a historic, symbolic act (elect an African American) that can absolve the US of the Bush Years has some resonance.

There is also unconscious racism throughout the country, encompassed most strongly in white males. However, this is not as strong as in the past - these voters are split between doing "what comes natural" vs. "the right thing". They need a reason to stay the course and not make a break.

So the Republicans give them that reason - vote for a women for VP and you can vote against the black man with no guilt.

Comments

[Bob Allen]

Two problems with this: first, the white guilt meme was constructed by elite conservatives like Thomas Sowell- another instance of the Left buying into a narrative constructed by the right- Joe Six Pack knows no guilt, this is a straw man invented by neocons. Second, it IS a gendered thing like the guest poster said-- Palin as VPILF, it is about T and A, ask yourself if a frumpy old gal with a body less acceptable to "adolescent" petty bourgeois tastes, less desirable, would attract so much attention- Sarah as Maxim crowd pinup girl. Politics is gone the minute you began with the white guilt thing, now it is "floating signifier"-ville, Palin as a simulacra, copy of the perfected sexy mom who never was

[Jodi]

Those are good points, Bob. Is it possible that there are different 'white guys'--Joe Six Pack and the unconsciously guilty? Or maybe that the two impulses (guilt and VPILF) are entangled. I confess that the latter never occurred to me and I find it strange. I shouldn't, though, since sexual attraction is often an element of politics.

[pds]

Yeah PE Bird could be right. BUt the choice to put Palin on the ticket gives the GOP way too much strategic credit.

Notwithstanding that African-Americans consider Obama a little more than "symbolic," it seems to me that the Dems cling too much to 90s "identity politics" WHILE ALSO simultaneously trying to out-Republican the Republcans.. A DOOMED STRAGETY. It makes them look like they want to go both ways.

The issue is obvious: If Obama cant beat Mccain after the last 8 years who the hell needs the Democratic Party?

[pds]

whites who like obama may certainly be about assuaging "guilt,"or at least making themselves feel better for wearing an obama button but for JOe Six Pack who justgot turned on, yeah...its mostly about the VPILF thing, and, of course, racial resentment.

[Bob Allen]

http://www.learnaboutguns.com/2008/08/30/sarah-palin-firing-a-rifle-video-clip/

This ideologically compliant and technically proficient superwoman of capitalism always knows what do and when, and who to report to, and even kill. You can bet that, like all good military leaders, she never apologizes either...shows weakness..and no there aren't any unconsciously guilty white guys sorry about Bush's election, unless they are in a different class than me though I don't mean to disparage pebird's theory, just polemicizing. BTW look at the gun video speaking of mixing sex and politics, the phallic symbol, in the capable hands of a Joan of Arc-Christian Warrior, Joel's Army etc, she is the castrator, this Fruedian Oedipus thing-I-barely-understand, but it ain't good...she , or we, have killed the father, Mcain, shunted him aside like the wrinkled bag of impotent bones he is, and now we envision sex with the Mother as she prepares to do racial (or on a certain level sexualized?) holy war with Obama the Other, in the name of the Homeland and its security...this fighter for capitalism who books a plane while her water is breaking, there is no question of her allegiance...

[Geert Lovink]

Such a short, precise diagnosis. It becomes clear, at least here in Europe, that Obamamania has had its media moment and that the controversy between him and Hilary, in the end, has worn out the energy. What PE Bird writes here is about the small differences anyway. It is enough for McCain to win the presidency with a few more percentages, so we're really talking about cleaver, tactical moves inside an overall campaign strategy, not about some psycho-analysis of THE white US-American male. To influence a few percentages of this group over the next weeks is enough in this case.

[patrick j. mullins]

Oh. My. God. Ms. Palin on 'The Bush Doctrine'.

She is like somebody training to be a dental technician. Funniest things I've ever seen.

[patrick j. mullins]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_assistant

No, more a 'dental assistant' than 'dental technician', who would fool with gold and crowns and such. The assistant can 'pass instruments', as is listed under her 'traditional duties.'

[Bob Allen]

the kind of dental assistant who needs pass only one instrument: "Drill, drill, drill"...