Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I'll Take "Simple And Suspect," Thank You

Victor Davis Hanson is always worth reading, and he has a great column on the Rev. Wright/Obama issue today.

However, in a posting at National Review Online, he makes a more telling point in two paragraphs than the moronic Chris Matthews could make last night in an entire hour:

Two corollaries always follow the Obama victimology: moral equivalence and the
subtle suggestion that any who question his thesis of despair are themselves suspect.

So we hear of poor Barack’s grandmother’s private fears in the same breath as Wright’s public hatred. Geraldine Ferraro is understood in the same context as Reverend Wright. The Reagan Coalition and talk radio are identical to Reverend Wright — albeit without similar contexts for their own purported racism. Your own pastor, priest, or rabbi are analogous to Rev. Wright.And then, of course, your own motives are suspect if you question any of this sophistry.

For Michelle it is always “they” who raised new obstacles against this deprived Ivy League couple and their quest for the Presidency; for Barack it is those who play “snippets”, or the system of “corporate culture” that has made Wright the object of anger to similarly victimized poor white pawns. The message? Wright’s motives for espousing hatred are complex and misunderstood; your motives for worrying about Obama and his Pastor are simple and suspect.
I am often accused by MoveOn.org callers of being "simple," of lacking "nuance" and reducing every issue a (pardon the analogy in this case) "black and white." I plead guilty. Most questions in life can be reduced to simple issues of reason, principle and balance.

Most people who claim "nuance" are really saying "I know what I've done is wrong, so I'm going to complicate the question so that my answer looks right."

Yesterday's speech by Sen. Obama was a classic example of that Natural Truth."