If Romney wins definitively I do not believe there will be serious race based riots.
Which is to say I’d expect scattered nonsense to erupt here and there as it fits the Obama Pod mentality, but nothing on a national scale. The key word in the first sentence is “definitively”, which in the post Florida 2000 world means by 3-5% and a solid majority in the Electoral college.
The possibility of riots is being discussed openly in some quarters. This is upsetting. I find it patronizing to black Americans. To many – of all races – come to this from an unconscious assumption that black Americans are petulant, crazed children who might have a violent fit if Obama loses. This is a false and offensive image. Thomas Sowell’s comments here are unhelpful. Sowell can say whatever he wants, of course. But his reasoning is suspect, condescending and plays into the scare tactics of the current crop of Obamatons. Which is odd as he’s a conservative.
Progs have queued up the “stolen election” narrative. If Romney wins they will run with it. We already know they’re perfectly willing to pour gasoline, light matches and not care who gets immolated. They really don’t care if downtown Detroit or Watts is torched. They take it as proof of their all important grievance narrative. Their real attitude: Screw the people in those neighborhoods. They exist to prove us right. If a few dozen mom and pops go up in smoke it’s for the greater good…which is to say re-electing Obama…which is to say proving wrong all those mean-old-white-daddies-who-won’t-give-us-free-stuff.
Louis Farrakhan’s race baiting bigotry here dovetails with the belligerent childishness among the progs. And it’s fully within Obama’s Chicago wheelhouse to use the genuine scare tactic of a mob to try to stay in power. I question the Obama cabal’s stomach for the obvious eventualities of such a tactic though. The only acceptable response from a President to race riots would be to call for calm and send in the national guard. Anything less and he’d be unable to govern without a military junta – which he isn’t going to happen – not with this President. Obama couldn’t rally a division of one branch to his side. Much less the entire military.
The periodic dark fantasies about race wars exist in a world in which the races are equal in numbers in the U.S. These fantasies are often, but not always, indulged in by white men working off the historical fear of being killed by slaves while sleeping. Which, at the time, was a legitimate fear one supposes. I’d sleep with one eye open too if I’d enslaved millions. Drudge partakes every so often. Alex Jones world view can’t exist without an eruption of some sort that invites a military takeover. Potential race riots are naturally part of his schtick.
The reality is that those who’d find race riots appalling after an election far out number those who’d riot. Progs for their part would stay indoors in their white neighborhoods and tweet while sipping Perrier. That’s how most of them “riot”. 140 characters – with Maddow or QVC lilting in from the other room. The Twitterverse is twittering about riots if Obama loses. So what? It ought not be taken too seriously or too lightly. For most “tweeters” the tweet is the beginning and end of the protest.
If Romney wins a razor-thin election would Obama provoke a Constitutional and military crisis by not putting a halt to riots? Yes. Yes he would…if he could win the battle. He can’t. If Obama were to go to war after a close Romney win he’d be defeated. Like them or not, as of 2010 the other side is larger, more organized, and utterly unwilling to roll over. If the election ends up being in doubt the lawyers will have the final say. Again. On that front Obama could well win.
Race is an issue that is fading fast. So fast that many who’ve constructed their entire lives around identity politics haven’t noticed they are dinosaurs…yet. The battle lines now are generational. (Don’t blame me for this. I’m merely reporting the weather.) This divide will become unmistakeable sometime…hmmm…in December I suspect. “Fiscal cliff” is our current code phrase for this battle. Listen closely. The argument is actually about one large, aging generation versus the ones coming into their prime now.
In the mean time those indulging their apocalyptic fantasies about race wars ought to shut up. Or at least think long and hard about who they are actually serving. And who they actually harm.
Anita and I will have a post-debate round-up at 7:30pm Tuesday. Click here to listen.
“Progs for their part would stay indoors in their white neighborhoods and tweet while sipping Perrier. That’s how most of them “riot”. 140 characters – with Maddow or QVC lilting in from the other room.”
Thank you. I can now go to bed happy.
Hey, lay off QVC – that’s conservative. They have HSN on.
Great essay. LOVED the same passage that Jay quotes above.
John, this article was posted in the last post. I think it also belongs here because it nicely dovetails with your comment about the generational battle upcoming.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/niall-ferguson-on-what-joe-biden-doesn-t-want-you-to-know.html
Oops — no idea how my comment above posted under Kim’s. It was meant to go in at the end, as a freestanding comment. The mysteries of nesting….
Black people won’t riot. Some of them are dealing with 23% unemployment and four years of broken promises. Contrary to media narratives, many black people are no longer invested in this President.
There are some Obot white folks who might want to riot, but they’ll just be in Starbucks trying to beat people with their iphones.
Exactly. I can also see them get into the faces of anybody in line who utters any hint of support for Romney. At the most I can see them throw their lattes in the haters faces.
“Some Obot white folks who might want to riot, but they’ll just be in Starbucks trying to beat people with their iphones.” hahahahahha!
Zinger rant, JWS! Right on, too. I think the riots talk is nonsensical (and rayyyyyycist).
This YouTube has nothing to do with anything but how hilariously stupid human beings can be. But it made me laugh and maybe you’ll laugh too.
She was putting them on.
Now that’s some delicious comedy.
This is sooo funny! But it seems to be a joke when she began cracking up when she said “so irresponsible” (1:23 mark).
Sorry if I’ve read this wrong…at around 3000 miles remove, but I think the link to Alex Jones’ world o’ moonbattery may be mistitled Larry Johnson of No Quarter?
Same difference.
Yikes! So sorry. My bad!
The race riot meme could be interpreted as a last-ditch attempt to play the race card (fear instead of guilt), but it’s more likely a product of:
1) Nat Turner fantasies of Road Warrior fetishizers;
2) Wishful thinking by proglodytes, who can’t figure out how to get obama re-elected, and desperately hope a modern-day Nat Turner will rescue their dreamworld.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vinI2Dqj9hc&w=560&h=315%5D
Stick with it until the Biden part.
Couldn’t agree more, as you very well know. And it’s evident in so much more than race and fiscal issues. The women screaming loudest about reproductive issues, for example, are mostly post-menopausal still caught up in the fights of their youth. They don’t yet understand that another war is starting, and its one they are unlikely to win: the fight for resources in a tight ecosystem.
These “dinosaurs” of all stripes argue that they’ve paid into the system their entire lives and they’re entitled to their benefits. But they aren’t taking into account that all that money they paid in was also spent as they went along. That’s the directive of the generation coming into their prime: self-preservation. It’s going to be ugly and tragic and I can agree with arguments on all sides. I don’t look forward to it. And I feel for both sides.
I have a feeling that if Roe v. Wade is overturned it will be young women screaming loudest about reproductive rights. It’s always been a given for them so they don’t know what it’s like to be denied reproductive choice; older women do, that’s why they’re so concerned. That said, I still don’t believe that Obama and the Democrats give a rat’s ass about this issue. Choice is just a bargaining chip or a billy club to them.
What I found interesting, as part of Generation Jones, was Ryan lumping me in with his generation. People my age are the ones who will be hit the hardest. We won’t have Social Security, which we’ve contributed to for well over half our lives, and we won’t have time to build a nest egg before retirement. Basically, we’ll never get to retire. I’m just hoping that whatever legislation Romney tries to put through gets held up long enough for me to hit 55 before it passes.
I doubt that, and here’s why. First, Roe v. wade is hardly the lynchpin keeping abortion legal. Some 30 states have independent abortion rights laws on the books. In addition, even IF abortion did go away, a very big IF indeed, women of my age group and younger would just get much more serious about practicing effective birth control. I doubt we will ever go back to the days of back-alley abortions, despite the hysteria coming from the left, because of medical advances.
This is true, and I’ve been saying it for several years now.
But unfortunately the generation coming into their prime now are heading us into something even worse. Identity politics is giving way to personality politics, and that’s an even wider distance from solutions for problems our nation is facing.
This topic is an ongoing interest of mine. I’m not convinced that the Gen x ers are all lost or the young ones are all vapid. When we talk about generational shifts we’re really talking about 20% of a generation. Most boomers weren’t Bill Clinton. The smart gen Y and millennials will rise and their attitudes will have a very different texture than what we see in mass media. The over arching function of Gen X is to facilitate the end of the new deal. Or to adjust us to it’s diminishment. I truly believe that. The size of the boomer generation is forcing this question now.
As Anonymous said – there will be no race riots. period. Blacks will vote for Obama, but in much less numbers than in 2008 because they love him as a “isn’t it great that there’s a black president” but they don’t LOVE him. And, black preachers are actively preaching in large numbers that their congregations should stay home rather than vote for Obama. Blacks aren’t going to riot anymore than they did when Dinkins (first black NYC mayor) lost to Giuliani or when any other transfer of power results in a black politician having to leave office. And, yes – it’s incredibly racist to “hint” that we’d better be “careful of all the black rage.” I think it’s more likely that the majority white OWS groups will riot. (There may well be some smashed windows in downtown Seattle, fer sure). But, that’ll die down quicker than the actual OWS did.
In fact, the distaste for Obama is more and more burbling up among the most unlikely quarters, like this quote from Neera Tanden – ultra progressive head of CAP and a woman of color: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/former-aide-obama-stunning-he-s-politics-because-he-really-doesn-t-people_654636.html
I think there’s likely to be much disappointment, but resigned calm from a little less than half the country when Romney wins.
” And, black preachers are actively preaching in large numbers that their congregations should stay home rather than vote for Obama”
Got some links on that?
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/31/black-pastors-group-launches-anti-obama-campaign-around-gay-marriage/
http://instinctmagazine.com/blogs/blog/new-coalition-of-black-pastors-turn-on-obama-due-to-his-marriage-equality-support?directory=100011
And, there are a bunch more on the googles – this is well known. You may say this is the ultra conservative and homophobic strand of the black church and I would agree. That also happens to be a large component of black faith – particularly around homosexuality, as unfortunate as that is. Obama made the calculation that his support for gay marriage wouldn’t hurt him with the black vote as where would they go – hmm – sit home. He also isn’t a student of recent elections, because the gay marriage referendum in OH, I’m convinced helped defeat Kerry in OH and therefore the Presidency as black preachers across the state told parishioners to vote against that referendum and people weren’t sure when they reached polling places whether this meant they had to also vote against Kerry.
Also, this is completely anecdotal, but actually went out to First AME and Mount Zion in Seattle in last weeks to see what the talk was and the message was there too – what has the president done for us lately, and maybe it’s time to send him a message.
Re: Roe v.Wade above, that is a dog whistle. The controversy is over Who pays for it. R v.W isn’t going anywhere..I can’t believe women still fall for this blarney.
Not this woman. And, I think it’s called “malarky” right?
I believe the technical term is “stuff.” That’s the the way the Irish say it, anyway. At least when they’re in church.
One can’t be certain about the staying power of Roe v, Wade. But, I too am sick of it being a bully club for Left and Right.
Also – more I think about it, more I think – let’s take on this effing abortion issue head on. Why do the Dems let the argument be defined by what the Supreme Ct. does. That body has only so much power. They said segregation in eduction was unconstitutional in 1954 – has that helped black kids get a better education since then. NO. I would argue that their ability to access a quality education has declined since segregation was declared unconstituional.
The real power to effect change in this country is through both legislative protection and the ability to evolve the message and change hearts and minds. THAT is why progressives who REALLY want a broad range of reproductive rights should be working on – ensuring protections state by state – or at least in enough states that people can travel to have access and winning the message. The overwhelming weight on presidential elections and the “supreme court scare” should tell you all you need to know about whether this is a meme to try to win an election or something that the Dems really care about over the Looooooong haul.
This makes me unspeakably MAD: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/16/pakistani-taliban-declare-war-on-media.html?
Nes, have been lighting a candle for that brave little girl several x a week, and another for the women supporting her.
here’s an interesting take on “wth was Hill thinking?”
http://minx.cc/?post=333870
On soon:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/johnwsmart/2012/10/17/finlay-and-smart-talk