The problem is that the people doing the talking usually don’t separate culture from race. If we are honest we should admit that modern prejudices in America are based on a dislike of another culture, not race. Few people believe that blacks are genetically predisposed to commit crimes, but a lot of people would contend, right or wrong, that crime has become institutionalized in black culture. You wouldn’t call me racist if I said that I don’t like people in NY based on their cultural habits, but I could easily be labeled racist if I said I didn’t like blacks based on their cultural habits. Both are generalizations and neither judgment are actually based on racial characteristics, but because one culture is geographically based and one is racially based, there is a different perception. That muddies the water.

THAT is how the charge of ‘racism’ gets perpetuated forever. We need to separate white and black cultural from the tension-filled notion of race and have an honest discussion about those cultural differences which cause mistrust. If a white Dem fears Obama will push for slavery reparations, what he fears is that Obama has culturally-based motives that differ from his own. That person is not contending that Obama is genetically programmed to push for reparations. Prejudice verses racism.

that was what i meant in my earlier comment about “elite being the new black” … that some people might be getting around their problems with “black” by reasoning “elitist”.

and this vote will turn on the latino vote, for sure, which is no longer a sure bet for the democratic party, regardless of obama’s candidacy, but with obama, it is extra-complicated. the race relations between blacks and latinos are problematic, and it goes way beyond latinos wanting to be first in the minority-president column.

I urge all of you to look into the CFR, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome and the rest. Look at their agendas.

If you don’t have much time there are good Youtube clips out there.

If you have a little more time I suggest that you watch Endgame, it’s available for free on Youtube.

Why not be honest about the reality? A lot of Dems are not going to vote for Obama because of his race. I know at least three people who are lifelong Dems and are voting for McCain. I would not call any of them racist, but I would call them prejudice. They distrust Obama’s motives and they distrust his cultural background. The biggest fear I hear from them? An explosion of Section 8 housing in urban areas and slavery reparations.

Another aspect that has yet to be discussed in the MSM is the increasing liklihood that Obama is going to lose the hispanic vote. A lot of hispanics will refuse to vote for Obama. There is no love lost between the African American and Latino communities and they would prefer the first minority president be one of their own. lus McCain’s immigration policy is to their liking.

Dems can comfort themselves by saying, “We’re better off without all these racist pigs in our party,” but it may mean losing this election. Either heal the division or count yourselves out of this race.

There was talk a few years back about whether Bush could continue to keep wealthy businessmen and rural farmers in the same Republican tent.

The Democratic party has always had a split of its own too (it’s just as strange that university faculties vote the same way as prisoners and the urban poor; what can I say? American parties are weird.) and I think that’s what this is about.

Bill Clinton of Hope, Arkansas was in a perfect personal position to chide Republicans as elitists who only protected the powerful and to herald the Democrats’ watching out for the little guy.

And you don’t have to BE a little guy to get them to like you and to convince them that you have their best interests at heart (See Jack Kennedy and George W. Bush.)

But you sure can’t make the little guys feel inadequate, as in “you only cling to God and guns because of your Nietzchean resentiment.” And “look at the arugula prices at Whole Foods” in a state that doesn’t have a Whole Foods store and to people who might not know what arugula is.

Obama is going to have to take a lesson from the man he thinks he’s running against (Bush) and the man he thinks he is (Kennedy) if he’s going to get these efforts to identify with The People to succeed.

Anyways, the larger point IS that anyone who runs for president these days is going to be an “elitist” in that they enjoy doing rich people things, and are rich. The only problem is that some talk about it, thus violating the unwritten rule of American politics: thou shalt pretend to be poor.

That the American people fell for the whole “Bush is a Southerner” thing boggles my mind. Clearing brush sounds all rural and rednecky until you realize it’s his personal billion acre ranch, and one of a few vacation homes his blue blood Connecticut family owns.

Have you SEEN what Whole Foods is charging for arugula?