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September 12, 2008, 11:40 AM ET
Racing the Vote ...
Barack Obama went up to Harlem this week and lunched with former President Bill Clinton, their first meeting since the Democratic National Convention. But even as Obama seems to be focused on trying to win (or win back) certain white voters, the media have started to focus on African-American anxiety about the possibility of a McCain victory.
The Wall Street Journal ran an article today about how African-Americans might interpret an Obama defeat—as an example of continuing American racism, as a justification for violent outrage, as another reason to opt out of the political process.
I’m not a gambler, and I won’t even pretend that I can see where this wild election ride will end, but one thing seems clear. Unless there is another major plot twist between now and November 4th, McCain-Palin will win this election.
Obviously, even before the energy that Palin brought to the campaign trail, this was, by all accounts, a very tight race. And that already didn’t work in Obama’s favor. Neck-and-neck polling could translate into as much as a 10-point deficit for Obama in a context where some whites would rather avoid publicly admitting their intention to vote against a black candidate.
Most Republicans don’t want Obama to win because he is a Democrat; not because he’s black. But that doesn’t mean that a racial logic, what I’d even call “racial paranoia,” wouldn’t grease the wheel for opportunistic attempts at pandering to the suspected racisms of some potential voters—Willie Horton style.
Identity politics are real politics. No doubt. And they can be deployed by the political left and the political right—in both productive and counter-productive ways. But the more we get away from overly simplistic (and sometimes sinisterly cynical) versions of identity politicking, the more we can leave aside accusations and counter-accusations of racism or sexism for rigorous discussions about policy issues and their implications, including their racial and/or gendered implications.
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