Totally Rad, Dad!

The current flurry about Obama and his ("former") pastor brings to mind the issue of how militancy, or radicalism, is defined in our society. To begin with, it seems axiomatic that only people who are _not_ part of the controlling -- read "white" -- power elite are allowed to be radicals. (Kind of makes you wonder about the Clintons, though, doesn't it? Either they aren't really radicals or they weren't really in charge.) Now, that's not to say there is no such thing as a "white radical", even though it sounds like a contradiction in terms. But if that term has any meaning, it must, according to the rules set down by the MSM, be confined to people like the KKK or Aryan Nation -- you know, drooling, slack-jawed yokels with the big adam's apples who wear Caterpillar caps and camouflage parkas. Ron Paul, on the other hand, while not being a racist by any stretch of the imagination, really _is_ a white radical -- although it has very little to do with being white per se -- but he is never termed as such. Rather, he's characterized as a reactionary, a dreamer, or -- when more precise clinical terminology is called for -- a "nut". In any case, radicals who happen to be white are always looked down upon by the power elite and by their mouthpieces in the MSM.

Black radicals, on the other hand, are not only recognized and given air time -- and a passable degree of respect -- but they are provided at least token hearings by the white power structure. In the long run, however, these shows of compassion (if not solidarity) involve little more than a pat on the head and a condescending, patronizing smile at the antics of our "little black brothers". No one ever really feels threatened -- unless they pull a stunt like taking over Oakland, California the way the Black Panthers did a ways back. Then it gets serious. And the regime has plenty of tools with which to neutralize radicals. (Has everyone out there figured out that the so-called "War on Drugs" is, first and foremost, a means by which the white power structure exerts control over the black underclass? Well, if not, you're not alone. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton haven't figured it out yet either.)

I suppose in a sense you could say that the white elite and the black radicals "need" each other, to provide self-definition and insure continued support -- the way immunity to certain diseases requires an occasional booster shot. If either side should disappear, the other would start to lose vigor. So what we have here is a sort of symbiosis, and the few honest people on each side would be willing to admit this if the point were pressed. But to get back to Obama and the Democrats, we see that black radicalism, which is tolerable when properly segregated, compartmentalized, and contained, becomes an entirely different story when it threatens to go national -- or at least party-wide. At that point, the wagons are circled and the pushback begins -- _especially_ on the part of liberals, who are so used to patronizing and duping the black community. Suddenly, the race hustling and "identity politics" that come in so handy most of the time start to look threatening, and like a liability. So the threat must be opposed and neutralized, and we see that the MSM are more than willing to participate in the political policing action. Suddenly, no degree of disavowal will suffice, because Obama attended this guy's church for 20 years. He could convert to -- well, to Islam, for instance -- and it would be too late to make a difference. It sort of reminds me of what happens when American liberals find out that a prominent German was once a member of the Hitler Youth -- or served in the regular German army during World War II -- or had a cousin whose brother-in-law once served a beer to a member of the SS. Suddenly, we are confonted with an unforgivable sin, where repentance avails nothing, and no degree of reparation suffices. The black radicals -- long beloved of the white liberals because of their convenient street smarts, and their attack-dog capability -- have, once again, been put in their place, and a candidate has been identified as "their" candidate.

The only thing more radical than this would be the idea that the black community would finally catch on to the ongoing scam by the Democrats, and do something about it. That, I fear, is simply too radical to ever come to pass.