Posted by Jed Lewison on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 5:12 PM Pacific

Debunking Buchanan: False characterization of Barack Obama's speech (Post 4 of 5)

The central thesis of Pat Buchanan's response to Barack Obama's speech is that Obama's speech was really just a list of demands made of "white America."

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

This is a completely false characterization -- Obama's speech did not place the burden of racial division on any one racial or ethnic group. In fact, he treated the problem as an American problem, and identified areas where not just whites but also blacks had responsibility, at point point saying that black anger was often counterproductive. Obama made the case that there really is no such thing as black interests or white interests. For example:

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Now Pat Buchanan is not a dumb man. He knows that what he said was false. He watched the speech. He read the speech. And I fully recognize why it frightens him: the prospect of a coalition of black and white working-class Americans frightens conservatives to the core. Such a political alliance would absolutely wreck the Reagan coalition, as Obama suggested.

It's a reminder that in many ways for people like Pat Buchanan, racial division is not an end unto itself: it's a critical tool for preventing the formation of a durable progressive majority. In short, the prospect of racial unity is the biggest threat conservatism faces today.

This is post 4 of 5 posts on this topic:

Post 1: Suddenly, Pat Buchanan makes Bill O'Reilly look moderate
Post 2: Debunking Buchanan: Jeremiah Wright served in the Marines, but Pat Buchanan didn't serve his nation
Post 3: Debunking Buchanan: Taxing and spending edition
Post 4: Debunking Buchanan: False characterization of Barack Obama's speech
Post 5: Debunking Buchanan: Violent crime and racial fearmongering

Debunking Buchanan: False characterization of Barack Obama's speech (Post 4 of 5)

The central thesis of Pat Buchanan's response to Barack Obama's speech is that Obama's speech was really just a list of demands made of "white America."

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

This is a completely false characterization -- Obama's speech did not place the burden of racial division on any one racial or ethnic group. In fact, he treated the problem as an American problem, and identified areas where not just whites but also blacks had responsibility, at point point saying that black anger was often counterproductive. Obama made the case that there really is no such thing as black interests or white interests. For example:

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Now Pat Buchanan is not a dumb man. He knows that what he said was false. He watched the speech. He read the speech. And I fully recognize why it frightens him: the prospect of a coalition of black and white working-class Americans frightens conservatives to the core. Such a political alliance would absolutely wreck the Reagan coalition, as Obama suggested.

It's a reminder that in many ways for people like Pat Buchanan, racial division is not an end unto itself: it's a critical tool for preventing the formation of a durable progressive majority. In short, the prospect of racial unity is the biggest threat conservatism faces today.

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