How big is the racist vote?

11 comments April 21st, 2008

Conservative columnist Roger Simon writes that “a prominent Republican” has told him that race will be the strongest issue in John McCain’s favor in a contest with Barack Obama.

Simon quotes his source as saying: “McCain runs against Barack Obama and the race vote is worth maybe 15 percent to McCain.”

Read the rest of it HERE.

Arab-Americans…American Muslims…Hey, they’re all pretty much the same, right?

10 comments April 21st, 2008

I heard a conversation on the radio the other day in which a caller not only repeated the thoroughly debunked claim that Barack Obama “is a Muslim,” but also opined — I’m paraphrasing here because I couldn’t take notes while driving — that Arabs and Muslims in this country hate America.

This fellow made reference to a poll he saw some months back showing that “American Arabs,” as he called them, think it’s all right to commit acts of violence in support of Islam.

For starters, this guy seems not to know that three-fourths of Arab-Americans are Christians, not Muslims.  He probably also doesn’t know that the vast majority of the world’s Muslims are not Arabs.

The poll to which he referred was a Pew Research Center survey last year of attitudes among American Muslims,  the results of which caused undue alarm in some quarters.

For example, a letter to the editor of the Rockford Register Star last June (no longer available online) said this: 

“Twenty-five percent or more of the Muslim people in the United States believe it is acceptable to act as a suicide bomber, taking tens, or even hundreds, of innocent lives in the process.”

Actually, the Pew poll showed that 13 percent of American Muslims, not 25 percent or higher, said there can be,  in some cases, justification for suicide bombings “to defend Islam.” On the other hand, 78 percent of respondents said such actions could “never” be justified.

One wonders how many Americans could find justification for violence against innocent civilians in defense of Christianity. I know of no such poll that poses that question directly, but I’ve seen survey results on questions that aren’t too dissimilar.

To wit, an earlier Pew poll asked Americans in general if they think “the use of torture against suspected terrorists” can be justified. Forty-six percent of respondents said such treatment would be acceptable “often” or “sometimes.” Another 17 percent would approve of it “rarely,” but only 32 percent said “never.”

Self-described “white evangelicals” were more inclined than other respondents to approve of the torture. And notice, please, that we’re talking about torture of suspected terrorists, not necessarily certifiable bad guys.

Nor should we think of Christian Americans as mostly averse to killing innocent civilians in furtherance of our national interests. To this day, a majority of our citizens support the decision of 63 years ago to drop nuclear bombs on Japanese cities that were of no strategic military importance, killing tens of thousands of civilians. Rightly or wrongly, such bombings were acts of terrorism intended to force Japan into surrender. They were successful in that regard.

Much also has been made of the recent poll finding that 47 percent of American Muslims think of themselves as Muslim first and then American. How unpatriotic of them, right? Well, 42 percent of American Christians consider themselves Christian first and then American. So, on that score, our Christians and Muslims are pretty much the same.

None of my argument here is to suggest that there aren’t American Muslims who might do this nation and its people harm in certain circumstances or that we shouldn’t take reasonable precautions against such misdeeds. My point is that the vast majority of our Muslims are mainstream Americans except, perhaps, for cultural differences.

Let’s remember, too, that there are Christian terrorists among us. Does the name Timothy McVeigh ring a bell? Have you heard about the murders of abortion providers? Are you  old enough to recall the lynchings of African-Americans and civil rights activists by God-fearing, church-going Southerners not so long ago?

Just asking.

Funny, funny, funny

2 comments April 21st, 2008

Comedian/pundit Bill Maher:

“If you think the Democrats are going to take away your Bible, you’re an idiot. If you think they’re going to take away your gun, you’re an armed idiot. And if you think they’re going to take away your gun and give it to a Mexican to kill your god, you’re Bill O’Reilly.”

He was for it 20 seconds before he was against it…or vice versa

1 comment April 21st, 2008

John McCain’s idea of straight talk can be a bit puzzing at times, AS WAS THE CASE Sunday morning.

But then, the man has a long history of switching sides — sometimes over the course of years and sometimes within seconds or minutes:

If you were out and about on Sunday, you missed a lot of negativism and kitchen sinks

Add comment April 21st, 2008