Something has been bugging me this last week, and I was saddened to see that no one in the media has addressed it. Until finally, Colin Powell brought it up this morning.
A week ago at one of his increasingly jingoistic rallies, John McCain responded to an audience member who called Barack Obama an Arab by saying:
“No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”
It seems that point he’s making is that one can’t be Arabic and a decent family man. He’s saying that someone’s race is something fundamental that makes them a bad person. He just confirmed the ridiculous and ignorant prejudice of those people in his base who believe that someone’s racial heritage is indicative of their behavior or beliefs.
Then this morning, Colin Powell redeemed his tarnished reputation — not by endorsing Obama, but by saying the following:
I’m also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is: he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.
But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be president?
Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion: he’s a Muslim, and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
At this point it doesn’t really take any cojones to break with your party and endorse Obama, at least, not if you can see which way the wind is blowing. But to step up and tell it like it is about the racist commentary coming out of your own party? Well, that’s something else, considering that the honorable “maverick” John McCain hasn’t stepped up to do it.
