Voting While Guilty
At Slate, Ron Rosenbaum says that it’s not wrong to vote for Barack Obama because of his race. This is an assertion I’m highly resistant to. I believe my vote ought to be for the candidate who is most likely to do the things I believe are right for the nation - the candidate who earns my vote, in other words.
Ron’s justification? Guilt caused by men and women long dead, in an era filled with gross miscarriages of justice among which black slavery was arguably among the worst.
Not one of us is a slave owner today, segregation is no longer enshrined in law, and there are fewer overt racists than before, but if we want to praise America’s virtues, we have to concede—and feel guilty about—America’s sins
This is, of course, utter tripe. I can no more feel genuine guilt for actions my ancestors might have taken 6 generations ago than I can foresee the effect my life may have on future generations so far removed from me.
I do regret that black American’s ancestors were brought here in chains and forced to work and live in slavery. I truly do. But that has no more to do with me than Ben Franklin flying his kite in a thunderstorm or Lewis and Clark exploring the American northwest. I can learn from history, celebrate the great things that were done in America two centuries ago, and reject the bad. But feel guilt, true heartbreaking guilt? No.
Rosenbaum goes on the play amateur psychologist by disparaging Sigmund Freud, of all people, and conservatives alike.
Shouldn’t conservatives feel guilty about slavery and racism and the consequences thereof, or must they disdain such feelings, however moral, because they are associated with liberals? Do they choose their moral priorities because of their popularity among others?
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Or could it be that conservatives disdain liberal guilt about race because they have historically more guilt to bear for the perpetuation of racism and segregation?
Talk about your unfounded ad hominem attacks! This one is just sad, like the whole idea of voting a man into office to make amends for a historical wrong none of us were witness to.
To heck with guilt. Let the best man - or woman - win.
He’s clearly speaking for his own imagery of guilt on the subject, although he’s blind to the fact that that a lot of the steps taken to address the evil of slavery has caused its own resentment and lasting harm. Many would say that blacks would have been accepted sooner if not for Radical Reconstruction projects which caused a Southern Backlash. Conservatives today have misgivings about the use of the issue of slavery to fuel an expansion of federal power (under the idea of positive liberty), activist judges in the Warren court, and affirmative action programs. Finally, a lot of people are reactive to an attempt to completely recast the history of America and Europe as a history of bigotry and warfare; in a stereotype so bad that rivals how some Europeans viewed Africans and Native Americans.
Can we not say then, that someone might not want to vote for Obama, not specifically because he’s black, but he’s tied himself to liberal to radical black politics in Chicago through figures like his wife and Rev. Wright?
The emotions Mr Rausenbaum is projecting on all Americans smells too much like emotions projected when people say ‘everybody agrees that Bush is the worst president ever’, and ‘the international community hates Bush’. They’re bouncing things off their own echo chamber. Most Europeans didn’t like Bush before he ever became elected, for one simple reason: European politics is more liberal than American politics. Most Europeans didn’t like Bush for the same reason most Democrats didn’t like Bush. They didn’t agree with him.
Let me get this straight. The man wants me to feel guilty about something that happened before I was born, because the perpetrators have the same skin color as I do. The man is a putz.