The Racism and the Experience Things

Posted on September 27, 2008 in Campaign 2008 Hatred

Most of you probably weren’t even born when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in 1960. I was only two years old myself, but I remember my mother telling me about how nasty the attacks got from people who were certain that the Irish-Catholic Kennedy would sell us as slaves of the Pope. It was a significant number and it made the election close.

Today, the idea of not voting for a man because he was Catholic would seem peculiar to most peoples’ minds. Yet back then there were many people who found the idea repulsive ~and for no other reason~ voted against JFK. Kennedy, as you know from your history books, went on to become one of the most brilliant and insightful men ever to fill the presidency.

Here are a few other parallels:

• He wrote his own books (unlike McCain who always employs a ghostwriter) — one of which won him the Pulitzer Prize
• His opponent said that he "lacked experience" to do the job and made it a cornerstone of his campaign.
• He graduated from Harvard.
• He was good-looking
• He possessed a devilish wit.
• He beat his opponent in debate and RMN was miles smarter than John McCain

Another person who was said to "lack experience" was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Another was Abraham Lincoln. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?

James Buchanan, Lincoln’s predecessor, was top-heavy with credentials. And the nation fell into civil war because he bungled things so badly — it is ~he~ who formerly held the title of Worst President before Bush.

It’s coming time to realize that substance means more than paper “experience ” and to make not voting for a candidate because he is black peculiar.