October 13, 2008

If He Wins, Its Only the Beginning

Hat tip: Pam's House Blend.  The Obama supporting side of the blogosphere is expressing outrage and anger at this little gem of a graphic.  This was created and posted by the owner of  A Political Byline. As you can see when you follow the link, he took it down. If you read through the comments at the above link, you'll find the comment I left for the guy.  The entire original post however was captured at the blog Washington Scandal. So you can see it if you want.

My reaction to this? Get used to it.  Should Obama win, this kind of imagery will be commonly pushed around the culture for the next four years, particularly so if Obama does not do a good job.  I don't find it surprising or even particularly upsetting.

Its more intriguing perhaps than anything simply because the guy that created this is probably a decent enough  sort. He made it in protest to offensive anti-Palin graffiti making the rounds.  Somehow, he thought wallowing in the same muck some on the left are bathing in made sense.  I'm struck at the fact that this decent guy was cool with playing around with this imagery, which he clearly worked at to give some punch.

There is no surprise here.  Some people seem to look for an opportunity to access this stuff in their psyche, as though always chafing at the social norms that have evolved against this kind of an expression among reasonable people of goodwill. I'm not surprised. I think I'm simply made a little tired that otherwise reasonable people who see themselves as non racist, good folks,  seem to have this sort of thing lurking right underneath the surface, waiting for an opportunity to express itself.