Jackson and Obama: Unfortunate words?

by: erik rush | published: 07 18, 2008

I try to avoid making commentary out of commentaries of news items. I also try to avoid using the word "I" in my columns overmuch, but the reader shall see how that worked out. This is actually a commentary on a commentary of a commentary on a news item, if that makes any sense at all.

Last Friday evening I had the honor of joining Mr. Hannity and Mr. Colmes on their Fox News television program. They, along with the urchinesque Tamika Mallory (Director of Al Sharpton's National Action Network) and I, analyzed the July 11 New York Post column by the Post's D.C. Bureau Chief, Charles Hurt.

In his column, Mr. Hurt addressed civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson's recent on-air sotto voce claim that he wanted to castrate Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama. The comment, supposedly made during a time Jackson did not know his lapel microphone was live, was subsequently "heard around the world," as it were. Jackson later apologized (equivocally, some suggested) and his apology was ever-so-magnanimously accepted by the candidate.

Hurt's claim is that Jackson knew his microphone was live and "somewhere, deep down, he wanted the world — and Obama — to know how much he wants to 'cut his nuts out.'"

A daring statement; hence the analysis in which I was invited to participate.

Neither Hannity nor Colmes nor Ms. Mallory nor I actually believed that Jackson had done this intentionally — but it did make for some lively speculation. The core message this columnist tried to convey is that while it illustrated the seething hatred Jackson probably does have for Obama, more importantly, it illustrated the hypocrisy of both men and race politics in America.

It was surprising to see how many people were puzzled that Jackson would have animus toward Obama. I would have been astounded if he did not. The perception of Jackson as a person of prominence and power in the eyes of black Americans is his very life. Suddenly, this was threatened by an upstart, just-add-water sage who captured the Democrat presidential nomination after a half-hour or so in the U.S. Senate. He is more articulate and far easier on the eyes than Jackson, he usurps Jackson's message, his audience, and then has the nerve to remind him of the credibility he lost (with the 2001 revelation of his love child with a Rainbow Coalition staffer) by chastising black men who don't raise their children.

Far be it for me to excuse anything Jesse Jackson says or does, but colloquialisms for castration are quite often used figuratively in many sections of our culture. Jackson might well have been speaking to "castrating" Obama in the arena of politics or his general credibility.

"It's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is 'merci beaucoup.'"

- Sen. Barack Obama

Well, of course they do. European countries are geographically situated like our states. What choice do they have?

That night I would have far more relished discussing Sen. Obama's admonition that Americans learn Spanish as a second language. I found it a bit disconcerting that the television news outlet that has broken every big Obama story wasn't on this one like white on rice. That issue alone — properly packaged, which is what it seems to be all about these days — could easily cost Obama the presidency. Last week at a campaign event in Georgia, Obama not only made the above declaration, he also pooh-poohed the notion that we have a problem with immigrants not learning English and scolded Americans for their lack of multi-lingual skills.

"Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they'll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish."

 

- Sen. Barack Obama

 

Make sure my child can speak Spanish?

Forget the fact that we have a radical element in America that is vigorously denying the necessity for immigrants to English. Obama points to Europe. Let's examine that for a moment. Look at the shape Europe is in culturally; ask yourself why we're moving in that direction and who wants us to do so. It sure isn't conservatives. Europe opened the door for the wretched refuse of Africa and Asia. Many were Muslims; now there is real concern when radical Islamists take to European streets in numbers. The far Left answer to incursion always seems to be accommodation: Let the scum in. Cater to them. Short term sacrifice for long term... sacrifice.

Wait a minute...

The fact is that people have been emigrating to the U.S. and emulating American culture for decades because we are all that and a bag of damn chips. It's far Left invertebrates and puke-gutted Bolsheviks like Obama and his puppet-masters who seek to convince us otherwise, and to compromise America on every level possible. Obama's assertions are treasonous propaganda based on perverted, flawed logic. There is every reason for émigrés to the U.S. to learn English. For the European, travel means speaking another language. It is analogous to a New Yorker discovering that folks in New Jersey speak a completely different tongue. Unless a European plans to work in a hometown factory or vineyard for their entire life, the only way to successfully interact with the people they will meet is to learn other languages.

People in Europe and in other parts of the world learn English for the same reason. For the last hundred-plus years, America has set the standard in commerce, politics science, and a host of other areas. In order to remain competitive, people found they had to learn English. There is no reason Americans should be made to feel guilty about this. Obama's comparison of Europeans to American tourists visiting a densely-populated, extremely diverse continent is beyond disingenuous.

This is what we get, however, when we rashly look to the political left. The Democrat Party is no longer one we can use when we're miffed at Republicans, like a child playing one parent off of the other. Had Ronald Reagan not come along and infused our citizens with confidence, our economy with stability and our enemies with fear, Bill Clinton would have been voted out in 1996.

Until Democrats either take their party back from the far Left, or Americans realize that the party has been compromised to the degree that it no longer even approaches viability, our spirit, culture, economy and national security will remain in the gravest danger.

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