WASHINGTON -- It appears that another of the Clintons' 1990s
goals has come a cropper, to wit, ending the "Politics of Personal
Destruction." It is election time in the Great Republic, and that
means that for a few months candidates for high office might be
beset by charges that have never heretofore been an issue. If they
do not respond to those charges with great adroitness, even
deviousness, they might be defeated and perhaps spend the rest of
their lives under a moral cloud.
Right now in Virginia Senator George Allen and his Democratic
challenger, Jim Webb, are sweating through questions over whether
they have at any time in their lives used the racial slur,
"nigger." Never before has the matter been a vexed issue in either
man's adult life. But for a few days, maybe a few weeks, they will
fend off questions over whether they used the word. The impression
left will be that they did; and, worse still, that America is a
racially divided nation, perhaps even a racist nation. Actually,
America has done more to eliminate racism and racial animosity than
any multi-racial country on earth. Here again an American political
campaign does not clarify issues but rather spreads misinformation
about the country, all very useful to our enemies, many of whom are
vehement racists and religious bigots.
The other day Webb was prevailed upon to say: "I don't think
there's anyone who grew up around the South that hasn't had the
word pass through their lips at one time or another in their life."
Well, that sounds perfectly sensible to me, and I do not think Webb
had to limit his reference to the South. The real question is, what
was the intent of the speaker, and does he harbor bigoted thoughts?
Yet, here is the response from the Associated Press: "Democratic
Senate Challenger Jim Webb declined to say definitively Tuesday
whether he had ever used a common derogatory word to define
blacks." Maybe there is some journalistic convention forcing this
obtuse response, but as far as I can see the AP's response is a
nonsense. Webb is not a bigot, and race as an issue in Virginia
politics is dead.
What we see here is the creation of a false issue working
towards "the politics of personal destruction." Senator George
Allen after nearly a quarter century of public service unblemished
by racist behavior and distinguished by service to all races, is
now belabored with charges from remote figures he knew three
decades ago that as a youth he used racial slurs. Oh yes, and he
publicly used an obscure word, "macaca," with no relevance to
American rhetoric that happens to be a slur in some faraway land.
Finally his mother, a Holocaust victim who kept the experience
quiet perhaps even from her children, is Jewish and apparently
through the years Allen should have talked about it. As candidates
in recent years, John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton discovered
Jewish roots in their families and that was good for them. Allen's
recent discovery is supposedly bad for him. Here is another example
of liberals having one set of rules for themselves and another set
for conservatives.
Friends of Allen and teammates from the University of Virginia
football teams of the early 1970s are now lining up to say that
Allen never used racist terms. Black ministers from Virginia
churches are now defending him. "We're standing for his character
and for his integrity," the Rev. Martin Brown is quoted as saying,
"We should be focusing on the issues instead of focusing on
character assassination." Yes, that is true, but what can we do for
Allen's aged mother?
She is the most deeply injured party in this controversy and now
she is a victim of crude politics on both sides of the Atlantic.
During World War II she was a French Tunisian Jew who suffered
first-hand from the Holocaust. Her father was arrested by Nazis and
put in a concentration camp. Her family survived, and she came to
America but was so badly traumatized by the racial and religious
hate she had experienced that here she was reticent about her
Jewishness. How was she to know that America was not as capable of
turning against a Jew as Nazi Europe had been? Children of
Holocaust survivors tell me their parents too lived with such fear.
All were secondary and tertiary victims of Nazi evil. Mrs. Allen's
security has again been invaded by politics. One hopes that this
time she recognizes that in America her physical safety is secure,
if not her personal feelings.
topics:
NATO
