Anti-Obama Hatred is Racially Healing

If the right hadn't despised Bill Clinton so brutally and viscerally, and so far beyond any sane justification, America would now be embroiled in the most savage race conflicts of its history. Because without the precedent of Bill Clinton, the right's vicious disparagement of Barrack Obama would have been seen as flagrantly and exclusively racist.

While some anti-Obama hatred does likely stem from racism, recent history of ferocious white-on-white hatred re: Clinton (and, for that matter, Bush) makes it reasonable to chalk much of it up to politics. And having working class Americans detest a black man for his party affiliation is really quite a wonderful thing, unimaginable just a couple of decades ago. It's comparatively easy to elect a charming, brilliant African-American president. But to have him despised for his politics - now that's transformation!

But, again, it weren't for anti-Clintonism, anti-Obamaism would register as a pure and relentless torrent of racism. Outrage in the black community would have erupted, and that's where the real harm would start. Because in reaction to such outrage, white Obama haters - including those against him purely for being on the wrong political team - would have accepted the gauntlet and escalated the conflict. It's what we humans do. We respond to side-taking by taking sides and escalating conflict.

Thank heavens for Clinton and his insane blow job impeachment trap, etc.. As a result, hatred of Obama, even with its occasional innuendos, is the most racially healing phenomenon in America's recent history. The country sees conservative blacks who are rabidly anti-Obama, and liberal and moderate whites who are avidly pro-Obama. We see an African-American man under widespread attack for reasons largely unrelated to race. A shift has occurred, swiftly redrawing the lines of "us" and "them", and, as a result, racial side-taking no longer has a place at the table among the grown-ups. This has got to confuse the bejesus out of those who still see the world in terms of old conflicts and polarizations.