Hillary Clinton leaves us heading into the Memorial Day weekend puzzled over her Robert F. Kennedy assassination remarks.
One would have to possess a deficit of political history not to realize that a “big unsaid” looms over the presidential race especially if Barack Obama is in fact the Democratic nominee. That, of course, is the unspoken worry about harm coming to Obama like Robert F. Kennedy (and Martin Luther King). Simply put, there are people in this country who are so racist and hating of blacks (or other ethinicities) that they would do whatever they could to stop someone of a group they hate from becoming president.
We don’t like to talk about it because it makes us uncomfortable. But as one who was born in Jasper, Texas, and lives 10 miles from the former Klan haven of Vidor, Texas, such worries are inevitable for anyone with a sense of social and political history.
Throughout Bush the Younger’s presidency I have heard the right wing harp on how Gee Dubya has been such a target of hatred from the left of a type the rightist pundits have never seen. Well, apparently they have amnesia because the same rightists hated Hillary and her husband as badly as any political figure I can remember in my lifetime. But I can imagine that the race haters will hate an Obama candidacy as a nominee with a capital “H.” And that really scares the s**t out of me.
Some right-wingers such as Limberger are talking about such a prospect and seem to be whipping up white fright of what the blacks of America might do should something happen to Obama. And such incitement scares me even more.
Let’s just hope Hillary was just using RFK’s untimely death as a point of reference today. And good thoughts, or prayers if you do that, for the continued good health for all of our presidential candidates.