1. They are Obama supporters
2. They’ve all stated recently that varying degrees of the criticism directed towards Obama are motivated by racism.
I suspect they have a third thing in common also: They want Obama’s critics to be racists.
Please note that I said I suspect that they want it, not that they do. I am no more able to see into their hidden desires and motivations then they are able to see into Joe Wilson, or anyone else they associate racism to based on criticism of Obama’s administration.
Assigning racial motives to any criticism of Obama, however, does afford them some benefits. It allows them to feel morally superior, to look down on someone as a backwards bigot. To the extent someone is a backwards bigot, and you are not, you should feel morally superior. But only to the extent that both of those are true. If someone isn’t motivated by racism in criticizing Obama, however, and you look down on them as a racist, I think you’ve lost more than a little of your moral high ground.
It also spares them of having to deal with the inconvenient reality that whatever proposal of Obama’s is being criticized may actually make things worse. An honest, objective assessment of whatever it is may lead you to the conclusion that, in that particular instance, Obama is wrong. Really understanding an issue honestly and objectively, however, takes a lot of work. You can certainly spare someone having to do that work by dismissing any criticism of Obamacare, for example, as racially motivated.
I have no doubt there are people in America who can't stand Obama because he's black. But what of those who criticize Obama based on a different view of the role of government than he's been promoting? Joe Wilson's pathetic outburst may be viewed by some as a gift to be exploited... an opportunity to change the discussion away from the wisdom of an expanded federal role in health care to the racial motivations of those who question that role.
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