In January, I suggested that Barack Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, would become an issue in the campaign. It's not that a candidate is responsible for everything that his minister or someone who has endorsed him says. Wright seemed to raise a particular problem for Obama because the candidate has identified Wright as a critical figure in his life and because Wright is a fire-breathing radical. In response, I was accused of all manner of exaggeration and unfairness.
Offline, I have been getting e-mails from an Obama supporter who is extremely worried about the political fallout from this. I think he's right. Obama has tried to run a campaign that emphasizes unity and claims to be post-ideological (whatever that means). In the course of that, he has been criticized for not being very specific and, as a relative newcomer to the national political scene, there are naturally going to be questions about who this guy really is.
In answering that question, Obama has directed our attention to ... Reverend Wright, even using a Wright phrase as the title for his campaign book.
Reverend Wright is anything but unifying and post-ideological. He views the United States as unrepentantly racist and evil. The problem is not so much that Obama sees things in precisely the same way but that he is comfortable enough with this view that he could attend Wright's church where it was part of the general milieu. It was seen, as Obama has called it, to simply be part of the "social gospel."
That becomes a problem because Wright's view of the country is not simply wrong, it is dangerous and counterproductive. I don't lack sympathy for anyone - even Rev. Wright - who is burdened by our racial past and I don't deny that this past affects us today. But failing to recognize how things have changed and giving credibility to bizarre and unfounded conspiracies that flame racial resentment is not simply a preaching of the "social gospel." It's toxic.
Obama's response to this has not been sufficient and his claim that he would have quit if he had heard these claims "repeated" (whatever that means) may backfire if it turns out that he did hear them "repeated."
It seems to me that he needs to explain how he could regard Wright as so important given the fact that this type of toxicity was not atypical for Wright. I assume that he will say, as he has, that Wright is about more than politics, but Wright is about politics as well and that's the part that is problematic.
16 comments:
Has Wright been Obama's Pastor for twenty years?
Do you see the tone and ideas presented in these statements by Wright having a place in an Obama presidency, in spite of the fact that Obama denounced them? If so, is there any evidence in anything that Obama has said or done to suggest that they will in spite of that denouncement?
The same is true for McCain. He denounced Hagee's anti-Catholic statements, which was good enough for me in the sense that I trust those views won't have a seat at the table in a McCain presidency. Now, if we could get similar denunciations from McCain about the views held by folks like Hagee and Rod Parsley -- the latter McCain just referred to as a "spritual guide" -- on destroying Islam, then we could move on from that, too.
As for why Obama connected himself to Wright, this piece by Ryan Lizza from last March gets into it:
From Wright and others, Obama learned that part of his problem as an organizer was that he was trying to build a confederation of churches but wasn't showing up in the pews on Sunday. When pastors asked him the inevitable questions about his own spiritual life, Obama would duck them uncomfortably. A Reverend Philips put the problem to him squarely when he learned that Obama didn't attend services. "It might help your mission if you had a church home," he told Obama. "It doesn't matter where, really. What you're asking from pastors requires us to set aside some of our more priestly concerns in favor of prophesy. That requires a good deal of faith on our part. It makes us want to know just where you're getting yours from."
After many lectures like this, Obama decided to take a second look at Wright's church. Older pastors warned him that Trinity was for "Buppies"--black urban professionals--and didn't have enough street cred. But Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity's guiding principles--what the church calls the "Black Value System"--included a "Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness.'"
The crosscurrents appealed to Obama. He came to believe that the church could not only compensate for the limitations of Alinsky-style organizing but could help answer the nagging identity problem he had come to Chicago to solve. "It was a powerful program, this cultural community," he wrote, "one more pliant than simple nationalism, more sustaining than my own brand of organizing."
So there was something very practical in it for Obama as a community organizer. Now that doesn't mean he wasn't or hasn't been taken by Wright on a spiritual level; I don't see any reason to doubt Obama's belief in Christianity. But I'd say first and foremost Obama's relationship with Trinity and Wright is based on community-building.
Which, of course, leads to the important question about Obama's campaign messages supposedly being contradicted by Wright's divisive message and tone. It's important to note here that Obama doesn't "use" Wright's stuff; he really co-opts it. Take the "Audacity of Hope" idea. Coming from Wright, it's a fiery sermon that has the effect of building up black pride, but doing so in a way that deepens racial division. Obama took that same "Audacity of Hope" idea and, in his book, transformed it into a call for pride through unity. That's a key distinction, and one that demonstrates how Obama's connections with Wright and Trinty reinforce rather than contradict his campaign messages.
For Obama, unity is about reaching out to people you don't agree with on everything, and others who you agree with on very little (hence Obama's attempts over the past couple of years to reach out to people in the evangelical white community like Rick Warren, much to the dismay of some on the left..and the right). In fact, rejecting Wright -- and, as a result, Trinity -- altogether (which a politician like Clinton would do in a heartbeat) b/c of the views expressed in the video clips (which are clearly held by a good portion of the congregation, which is one of the largest in Chicago) is what would be contradictory to Obama's campaign message.
Of course, all of this takes more than a superficial look at the situation, which isn't something the mainstream media (or a large swath of the electorate) is known for doing. So, like the Obama supporter who's been sending you emails, I'm afraid this hubbub with Wright is only going to hurt Obama on the whole, though I'm skeptical about whether it'll take down his campaign in any significant way over the long haul.
darn as soon as i read this i was going to post: cue seth z lengthy diatribe. too late.
Seth -
I've seen people bend over backwards for a candidate, but it looks like Obama is requiring that you twist into knots.
Just b/c it doesn't reinforce your perceptions or hopes, Anon, doesn't mean it's twisting.
Obama endorsed Wright.
Seth, I completely understand your moonbattery, but you are making a donkey out of yourself Jack.
This hate filled racist pastor was Obama's mentor and the inspiration for his book.
This isn't some mildly red necked Christian.
You libs are funny
It's not just libs who feel Obama has adequately explained his relationship with Wright.
And you can continue to respond w/o actually responding to anything I write, Anon, but I don't think it's making me look like the donkey.
That a preacher said something one-half silly and the other half ridiculous reminds me of a friend of mine's theatrically comic reaction to his own passing wind.
He would let one rip and then, striking a pose of shock and concern, he'd say, "What the? Did you hear that? What was that? That's never happened before ... My God, I better see a doctor!"
WMC must be behind this somehow.
it -
have you seen tape of this Wright preaching?
In one part he is saying something like Bill Clinton gave it to us like he gave it to Monica Lawinski and when saying it he was making a humping motion. (Most people would be offended by this in Church.)
All this in support of your boy Obama.
Seth - I'm not the one that called you a donkey but I do think that your Obama support is making you look like a pretzel, twisted.
Although less crude, I'm not sure how just calling me a pretzel is much different than just calling me a donkey.
In other words, I could care less what people call me; I'm more interested in how (or whether) they actually respond to what I write.
have you seen tape of this Wright preaching?
I've seen a couple of clips. Ersatz radical political speech. Big deal.
In one part he is saying something like Bill Clinton gave it to us like he gave it to Monica Lewinski and when saying it he was making a humping motion.
Haha. I thought you guys loved Clinton/Lewinski jokes.
Most people would be offended by this in Church.
I'll take your word for it. Sounds like a pretty entertaining church, however.
All this in support of your boy Obama.
Not my boy. No idea what you're talking about.
I don't lack sympathy for anyone - even Rev. Wright - who is burdened by our racial past and I don't deny that this past affects us today.
The problem, Rick, is that the "racial past" now includes toxic things like "affirmative action" discrimination, black race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and misguided liberal welfare programs that have created huge dependency.
So please don't fall into the trip of believing the "racial past" is nothing more than the standard "white racism" of the politically correct types.
Deconstruction Zone
Seth Zlotocha: "It's important to note here that Obama doesn't 'use' Wright's stuff; he really co-opts it."
Illusory Tenant: "Ersatz radical political speech."
Tom Maguire: "It's Willie Horton driving a Swiftboat!"
/Deconstruction Zone
The problem, Rick, is that the "racial past" now includes toxic things like "affirmative action" discrimination, black race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and misguided liberal welfare programs that have created huge dependency.
Did you hear or read his speech yesterday? He addressed all of your issues, and addressed them more appropriately than anyone I have ever heard. He said all the right things, you can claim he is disingenious, but it is going to be a tough sell to claim that the stances he laid out yesterday are wrong headed.
Race is an issue in this contest. It was made an issue by the hounding of Wright's record. Obama deftly turned a liability into an asset.
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