Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
There's a certain irony to all this - the Boston Tea Party was inspired to some degree by the Boston Massacre which occurred a couple of years earlier. In that disaster, the first person who was killed in the quest for liberty was Crispus Attucks who was a Black man.
ReplyDeleteToday's "Tea Parties" claim to be quests for liberty. Ironically, the protests in Washington, DC and throughout much of the country, featured hostile, racist placards which depicted President Obama in stereotypical poses. Some used the nefarious N word and many accused him of treason.
Isn't that something else?
When Palin runs for the presidency in 2012 it's a good bet that her opponents will use photos of those placards because she is now the leader of these racists.
She seems to be trying to walk a fine line by speaking at these rallies, but not openly endorsing their positions. Of course, if they are going to pay you a hundred grand to give a speech, why not?
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, I'm curious how she plans to distance herself from all the racist rhetoric, including Tom Tancredo's call for "civics, literacy tests before people can vote in this country" at the convention. They may have kept the racist placards out of the convention hall, but not the sentiments.
Ah, come on, let's give Sarah Palin some credit. She didn't try to distance herself from those in her crowds in 08 who shouted for Obama to be strung up. These are her people!
ReplyDeleteAccording to Game Change, this really did get to McCain. Where did these people come from?
He should have saw them coming. He has to take credit for creating the Bride of Frankenstein.
ReplyDeleteAnd letting his campaign encourage her with the palling around with terrorist bit.
ReplyDeleteWhen you see how dysfunctional the campaigns were -- Obama's folks were the only ones who seemed to know what they were doing -- you wonder how on earth any of these men or women could ever dream of running a country, much less the one left behind by GW.
I think McCain let himself be taken in by the same tactics that led to his defeat in 2000. He figured if it worked for Dubya, maybe it would work for him, but he could never bring himself to fully embrace these tactics (I assume his conscience creeping in) and so decided to let the "pit bull with lip stick" say the things his advisors felt were necessary to win. Later, she tried to claim these words were put into her mouth. If so, they appeared to flow naturally out of her mouth, as they still do.
ReplyDeleteIt did seem to spiral out of his control -- but Game Change shows how he was growing increasingly frustrated and spiteful. Remember his "Who is the real Barack Obama? What does he plan for America?" Even Cindy McCain was on the attack.
ReplyDeleteIt really did seem to get out of control there. I even wrote a letter to the editor here -- which they didn't publish as I recall.....