BlogHer - America's Dark Night of Soul: I'll Take Hope Where I Find It For Now - Comments

Sitting down Palin and Bachmann

Nordette — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:47:44 -0500

Thanks for your comment Imani.

I felt good for a split second when I heard that the RNC had pulled ad money from Bachmann's campaign. I thought, well, maybe we have more hope that McCarthy-like insanity won't be tolerated, but then I read that the RNC denies pulling the ad money out. I guess they want to make it clear that they sort of still stand behind Bachmann, even though she's put her foot in her mouth until her toes peek through her eye sockets. She has, however, been running about attempting to explain herself.

Palin's not going anywhere. Despite her likability dropping in the polls, I think she hasn't lost the credibility that she should have. The Republican base keeps defending her and making excuses for her. And yes, that's chilling. The only thing that's happened is a few more conservative public figures have backed away from McCain and Palin's backtracked a couple of times to eat a few of her words.

I see in some prominent Republicans this election season a desire to win at nearly any cost, even the destabilization of American democracy and society, in which racial and cultural tolerance already hang off kilter, to a point explosion.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.

Thanks

BrownImani — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:24:38 -0500

Thanks for this post and the Moms Mabley links. I remember watching her as a child myself and laughing at her antics and risque humor, some I'm sure was over my head at the time. I also remember her commenting on civil rights issues much like Chris Rock does now. I really miss her voice and wonder what pearls of wisdom she would grace us with if she were alive now to speak on this mess that lays before us.

I don't know why but for some reason the women who are out here spewing racist vitriol are scarier to me than the men. I expect it from them but these women truly chill my blood. Palin is bad enough. I honestly thought the GOP would sit her behind down but now this Michele Bachmann !! I never even heard of her before yesterday. These women are in law making/changing capacities and they have these views ? Chilling.

I want my children to grow and live and love in a better place too but I'm feeling a little discouraged right now. The hate is in so many hidden places and people (as in mothers of children). I'll take hope where I can find it too but it is gettin' harder to find !

Watching Moms on the Ed Sullivan show

Nordette — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:31:27 -0500

I remember my cousins and I sitting in the den at my grandmother's house with our parents and our grandmother, "MaDear," watching Mabley on The Ed Sullivan Show. I hear her voice clearly in my head even now. A very funny lady, and here's a good article on her.

But she was also in a kind of political movie, Amazing Grace, in which she was a community organizer. :-) Here's a clip from that.

Thank you for the comment, Megan.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.

A Little Sanity Peeking Through

Megan Smith — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:47:17 -0500

Good for the Louisiana Republican party for removing this jerk. Too bad they couldn't remove him all the way back to whatever district he came from.

As always, I'd have more respect for the Republican party as a whole if they all showed the integrity and class of Colin Powell.

On a side note, I remember Moms Mabley. My grandmother used to love her and for a while there she was one of the view black comedians around on TV.

Megan

Megan Smith

BlogHer CE, TV/Online Video

My Personal Blog: Megan's Minute

America's Dark Night of Soul: I'll Take Hope Where I Find It For Now

Nordette — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:02:44 -0500

And now for some uplifting news. Louisiana Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, has lost his position as vice chairman of the House health care committee in that state's legislature. In September, the Louisiana statesman unofficially proposed paying welfare mothers $1,000 to undergo sterilization as a solution to poverty. He further proposed giving incentives to "well-educated" citizens to broaden the state's tax base, suggesting that both "positive" and "negative" eugenics would save America.

Here at BlogHer, CE Lainad joined a throng of bloggers nationwide denouncing LaBruzzo's proposal, and I condemned his idea at my personal blog. While decrying LaBruzzo's suggestion, I supposed that Louisiana might actually approve such a bill if it made it past the "research" phase in LaBruzzo's mind. Given my state's history on race relations, it seemed plausible to me that LaBruzzo's reprehensible proposal could make him a popular candidate. And he still may win the hearts of a certain type of white, conservative Louisiana voter because LaBruzzo has his defenders, those who say he's been misunderstood. However, I believe those who opposed him understood him perfectly; therefore, I was overjoyed to learn that earlier this month someone yanked LaBruzzo from his perch.

Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, will remain a member of the House Health and Welfare Committee but will no longer serve in a leadership role, House Speaker Jim Tucker announced.

Tucker said the Legislature soon will begin debating ways to improve and change health care in Louisiana, and he said LaBruzzo's statements damaged his leadership abilities.

"Some of the comments made by Rep. LaBruzzo recently have impeded his abilities to help lead critical health care reform and be an effective member of our leadership team," Tucker, R-Terrytown, said in a statement.(NOLA.com)

Given the divisiveness of the presidential election, I saw LaBruzzo's removal as a sign of hope, the possibility that a blatantly racist agenda will not be tolerated even in the great southern state of Louisiana. I want that to be so.

I need to feel I'm raising a son and leaving a daughter in a world that's learned from its mistakes because lately I've been wondering if we'll be those people who forget our history and are condemned to repeat it, to suffer again some of the worst atrocities of humankind. I've heard the vicious hiss rising from conservative rallies and talk shows, the spine-chilling McCarthyist madness from the lips of Minn.Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, and robocall ugliness. Do these Americans who declare themselves more patriotic than others know history and the hounds snarling behind their allegations: The Crusades, the Blacklist Era, Jim Crow, The Third Reich?

As Moms Mabley used to say, "Don't tell me about the good ole days. I was there, where was they at?" Mabley, an African-American comedienne, referred to segregation and living in a climate of state-sanctioned oppression. I'm too young to make a statement like that, yet old enough to have with elders with back-of-the-bus stories, black enough to have faced institutionalized bigotry head-on, and educated enough to spot the brooding clouds of nationalism, fascism, and the dangerous mob drunk on fear and propaganda.

I'm glad that someone, especially someone in the Republican Party, recognized that a man spouting LaBruzzo's ideas does not make a good leader. A man willing to push such a dangerous, divisive agenda lacks the judgment to lead.

I'm gladdened further to see other conservatives such as Christopher Buckley step up and reject the hateful tactics embraced by the McCain Campaign as "mean-spirited and pointless," and journalist Bob Schieffer, a man who clearly admires John McCain, acknowledge that Colin Powell is not the only Republican disturbed by McCain's campaign nastiness:

Well, I’m sure they don’t like it but, you know, this is — what Colin Powell said yesterday and why it was so riveting to hear him, he was saying aloud what a lot of Republicans are saying privately, I think, or at least what I’ve heard some Republicans tell me. They think the pick of Sarah Palin reflects on John McCain’s judgment, they think the campaign has turned too nasty and is not inclusive. I think Colin Powell said aloud yesterday what some Republicans, at least, are saying privately. (Quote from Suzie Q. via HuffPo)

In addition, The New Yorker reports that Goldwater conservative Ken Adelman will vote for Barack Obama. Some of Adelman's reasons are similar Gen. Powell's. The first reason he gives for not supporting McCain is the Arizona Senator's erratic behavior during our economic crisis. His second reason?

... judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick. (New Yorker)

Others, probably not Republicans, have wondered how John McCain can say he puts "country first" and yet unleash the pitbull on America to bark narrow-minded, fear-mongering rhetoric. I've wondered that as well.

So, while I could look at the crowd of 100,000 people at Obama's St. Louis rally and take them as my ray of hope that many Americans have open hearts and welcome inclusion, while I can listen to conversations between older white women in New Orleans's City Park discussing how uncomfortable they are with Palin's rhetoric and believe we will heal America after Election 2008, I look elsewhere. I turn my eyes instead to other glimmers of light--conservatives here and there who are public figures and reject winning at any cost, who believe the soul of the nation should not be ripped for political gain.

I consider that it may be safer than I thought for my children, nonwhite Americans who are not conservatives now, to grow and love in America after all. And I am comforted that some people with whom I rarely agree can read the danger signs in fact twisting, xenophobia, racism, and witch hunts just as I can and will lift up a hand and say, "Stop. Enough."

This post is cross-posted at WSATA.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor to BlogHer.com, and you may read her personal blog post on another site at WSATA.