N.C. Republican campaign rotgut
05:01PM Apr 23, 2008 in category 
by George W Frink
North Carolina Republican leaders demean the campaign heritage of Jesse Helms with that thin, inebriated wander of a television ad they plainly presume will volley his lightning.
The ad, which Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has asked them not to air, makes no scalpel cut to the organ in Southern minds where pockets of animating resentment sometimes lie concealed.
Instead it swings lazily at three different Democratic candidates, without quite yoking them all together with the minister whose censored speech predominates.
Then abruptly it ends with someone saying again that overused "too extreme for North Carolina" campaign code phrase, which always seemed to me to imply that we North Carolinians really cannot take care of ourselves in the big bad world.
The effect is somewhat less inspiring than I had hoped, since my taste in attack ads was shaped by the white hot malevolent focus of yesteryear. Whereas in its somewhat less than 30-second run time, this North Carolina Republican party campaign centerpiece can move a wide-awake Tar Heel from either major political party to heavy-lidded yawning.
Even one of dirt-road birth like myself, who became accustomed to and perhaps even addicted to boredom while growing up, cannot remain fully awake through repeated viewings.
Of course not. Good grief. We know that State Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue both want the Democratic gubernatorial nomination and, yawn, have both endorsed Sen. Barack Obama's bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee. We've seen, heard and read about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. We've heard or read about Obama's speech addressing the related issues. We've all heard Sen. Hillary Clinton and others tell us at length what they would or would not have done had they been Obama.
So why, oh why, are we going over parts of this again?
There's the rub.
Because there are those who believe it serves the interests of the state Republican Party to get us cranked up about it all. If they can get us cranked up about it all.
The leaders of that party believe it is not insulting when at election time they try to get us drunk on vaguely racist high dudgeon, the way other political operators tried to get our ancestors drunk on campaign rotgut. So that dirty old glass is on the table again.
Frink
Jon Stewart nailed the fear on the head when he asked Obama whether it was his plan to "enslave the white race"? Tongue in cheek, but that is the heart of the fear.
It seems to me that dragging it out from under the bed and dealing with it now is likely to be good for the country and all of us as individuals, no matter how painful. I just hope that people choose to actually talk instead of playing on ignorance and fear, which the ad surely does.
Posted by Karoli on April 23, 2008 at 06:21 PM EDT #
Yes, Karoli, I think North Carolina can handle that kind of conversation now without falling to fisticuffs.
I believe it would be one of the healthiest things we could do with part of the heat cooking off of this contest.
Some bloggers are making the effort.
For example ... Over at the Fayetteville Observer, Editorial Page Editor Tim White has an interesting thread going.
In it he mentions Linda Devore, who blogs in the same space and who raised some Jeremiah Wright questions which have fostered what I think is a constructive discussion.
Posted by George Frink on April 23, 2008 at 09:49 PM EDT #
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