All Things in Moderation

Many years ago I was doing some banking at a drive-up ATM machine and went to pull out a deposit envelope (back in the days when you needed an envelope). Instead, out came a poorly photocopied racist tract that someone had filled the slot with. The group credited with authorship had the usual assortment of white supremacist buzzwords in their organizational name but it clearly reflected the thoughts and opinions of the Klu Klux Klan and its even more racist brethren.

The premise of the poorly–spelled and grammatically-suspect tract was that Africans did not have the intelligence that White people had despite the attempts of the Liberal Media to make it appear otherwise. In particular, it asserted that all public speaking African-Americans (and that was a phrase used nowhere in the piece, the n-word and various references to primates being the preferred terms) were nothing better than trained chimps taught to parrot words given them by their masters.

The essay made a great fuss how most modern local news shows paired an attractive white woman with a supposedly articulate black man. It went on and on about how this was a terrible fraud since the man had no ability to understand the words he was saying. It then went into great detail about how this was a blatant attempt to make Blacks look like the intellectual equals of Whites while feeding the viewing public via happy-talk banter a pro-miscegenation message. The pamphlet was vile and vulgar and perhaps the most despicably racist thing I have ever read. I immediately threw it away with disgust thinking that nobody could possibly be swayed by that garbage.

Only the thoughts behind that screed live on today in The Teleprompter Meme. There is perhaps no more studied contrast in public speaking ability than that between Barack Obama and his predecesor, the infamously mush-mouthed George W. Bush. And while it usually is a left-handed compliment to call any black man ‘articulate’ as if it is as shocking to encounter one as it is to see a walking dog, Obama is truly articulate and eloquent, with or without a prepared text.

And while ascribing Obama’s poise to his ability to read off a teleprompter can be written off as typical Republican Big Lie Jujitsu (accuse your enemy of lacking their biggest strength) it also ties into the deeper racial subtext that somehow Obama is a fraud and a puppet. The sheer virulence and perseverance of The Teleprompter meme shows that it somehow resonates with the conservative base who see Obama’s presidency as being at some level illegitimate.

When a truck carrying the presidential speaking gear including the POTUS podium and the teleprompter was briefly stolen, all sorts of right-wing blogs snickered about the Obama presidency being paralyzed by the loss. TOTUS as a shorthand phrase for the demeaning Teleprompter of the Unites States is a catch phrase the wingnuts instantly recognized and even had its own parody blog and multiple Twitter feeds.

And while it can be argued that there is not an overtly racist interpretation of this concept, I defy anyone to explain how a theme designed solely to make the president appear far less intelligent and independent than he is does not play into racial stereotypes at some level.

And now Rick Perry is playing the Teleprompter Card. In his latest campaign commercial (as quoted by The Fix because the YouTube link has already been pulled) he says:

“If you’re looking for a slick politician or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that, and he’s destroying our economy,” an upbeat Perry says in the ad. “I’m a doer, not a talker.”

By specifically using the word ‘teleprompter’, Perry is making a dogwhistle directly contrasting himself with Obama.

Of all the slurs used against Obama, I find the Teleprompter Meme the most insidious because it reaches a dark portion of the conservative soul. People respond to it at a visceral level not even realizing how their prejudices are being played. Every time I encounter it, I immediately call it out as being crypto-racist and I always face some blowback. People refuse to acknowledge the racist underpinnings of the meme. But pay attention. See how it gets used and it what context. And don’t let people get away with it.

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As a registered Republican who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 (to no effect since I had long moved from Florida to Maryland so at least I don’t have that debacle on my conscious) and lost faith in the concept of compassionate conservatism, I am a Republican in name only (RINO) in search of a new home. While I have come to empathize with many progressive causes (having a spouse who is a public school teacher will do that for you), I still feel a duty to steer my erstwhile party towards policies which will aid and grow our country. Over the next few posts of mine, I am going to go down the list of candidates and note how I feel about them.

Which brings us to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee. Make no mistake about it, he will get the nomination. And while at this time four years ago Hillary Clinton was considered a lock on the Democratic nomination and Mitt’s hold seems a little more tenuous, but he will prevail in the end. Why? Because he is who the money men want. There are only two ‘Establishment’ candidates in the field and Jon Huntsman continues to get no traction whatsoever.

What is astoundingly odd is how tepid his support his. There even seems to a rather stealth Anybody But Romney movement working the fringes. I can only second guess what the motivation is but I suspect it is fear that Romney is a closet moderate. Heck, he was the governor of Massachusetts for christsakes. That alone makes him unacceptable to a broad swath of the Republican base who have been taught to despise anything on sight from the People’s Republic of Taxachusetts.

The biggest monkey on his back is ObamaRomneyCare. It is testament to the ability of the right wing flackmedia to shift the Overton Window that the goalposts have moved so far. Individual mandates were once the Republican straw alternative to universal coverage and single-payer. That individual mandates flew in Massachusetts scared someone somewhere. What should be his signature achievement, because it has been co-opted by moderate Democrats, has become his albatross.

His other claim to fame, his private sector career as a vulture capitalist, is also a rather double-edged sword. While making millions of money in finance is about as gold-star a credential as needed for the players who pull the strings, it’s not going to play well with populists either in general or within the tea party portion of the GOP. He keeps trying to make sympathetic gestures towards the lower middle class but they always come off as awkward and patronizing. Come to think of it ‘awkward and patronizing’ covers much of his campaign style. He is as close to Al Gore stiff as you will ever find in a Republican. Folksy, he ain’t.

He is really too slick for his own good and his waffling and back-pedaling is a tag that is going to dog him. Ultra-right wingers don’t trust him and probably for good reason. While he tries to parrot the current talking points, they just don’t feel right coming out of his mouth. He is insincere and smarmy and it’s clear where his loyalties lie.

The real drama for the next four months (and the campaign should be over by mid-March) is like watching a Columbo movie. You know who the candidate is, the suspense is in figuring out how he gets there.

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