Infection

A few weeks ago a mentally-ill man went to the latest Batman premiere and shot and killed twelve (12) people.  Before that, there was the man that almost killed Gabby Giffords and killed six (6) others.

There was wall to wall coverage on the news, both times . . . all sorts of whimsical quandaries about ‘what makes these people do these things?!’; Joe Scarborough even offered, what he thought was, a sympathetic ‘explanation’ . . .

“He might have been autistic . . .”

Didn’t work out to well for him . . . the backlash was swift, because the pain was too near, his ‘calculation’ too well documented.

But I digress . . .

Now this guy in WI did technically the same thing these guys did . . . but he wasn’t ‘off’, he wasn’t ‘crazy’ . . . he was ‘motivated’. 

He was an unapologetic racist.  His rhetoric in countless YouTube Videos matched that of the Michele Bachman in all her recent xenophobic glory . . . he travelled the country as the star attraction in various ‘Klanapaloosas’ . . .

What he did was truly UGLY . . . indefensible.

But guess what:  No 24/7 coverage like the previous two.

Why.

Well it’s a bit nuanced and we need to walk through the warped underbelly of modern society to see why . . . well ok: Let me do this as quickly as possible . . .

          “WI Shooter was a Right Winger a la Michele Bachman, a bigot and quite active in the Republican Party.  Wall-To-Wall coverage would have undoubtedly done damage to the Republican Brand nationally and in this election year Romney would see his chances sink like a stone . . . if the Press were to really act like the Constitutional Fourth Estate . . . because folks would put it together that Republicans are so hollow on morals, that they’d embrace bigoted mass murderers and those who would follow his lead for political benefit.  The Public would have been repulsed and horrified by the mere mention of their political affiliation . . . the GOP would have become socially toxic . . . which is more powerful than being politically marooned if you think about it.

Now . . . News divisions, over the last few decades, are now run by the Entertainment divisions . . . which requires ratings.

Arguably todays GOP and the like are quite ‘colorful’, thus ooze ratings should they get in front of a camera or microphone . . .

Ratings determine the price for ads run during said Show with ‘Right Wing Zoo Animal’ . . .

And . . . This Election Year since 2010, the GOP is flush with so much cash it’s obscene . . . AND . . . during big election years such as this one, media corporations rely on the political ad cash for their fourth quarters . . .

. . . which brings me back to why there’s been relative crickets in terms of media coverage of this tragedy . . . even now the Press is walking back initial pronouncements of this man's motives:

Anything that puts the GOP in bad light is now bad for the Media Corporations’ bottom lines.”

So unbridled and ultimate hate, driven by the rhetorical arsenal of a political party, that has resulted in a horrific tragedy . . . gets a tacit ‘Thank You’ for the senseless Death . . . and encourages others to do the same . . . because they’ll be deified in some fetid corner of the web somewhere and be, at least, ignored by the mainstream media . . . JUST to protect their bottom line.

It doesn’t matter that allowing such behavior to go unchallenged and uncovered is a harbinger of a society’s demise.

But for those of us somewhat awake we know something is wrong and someone needs to speak up.

The problem on the Left and in various minority communities over the past few years is that they want the wrong person and ONLY this person to ‘speak out’.

Somewhat ‘awake’ . . .

For those Blacks and Liberals looking and wondering why President Obama hasn't directly used the Bully Pulpit to call-out the now blatant coddling of racists by the GOP and the utilization of racism towards their narrow political goals . . . know this:

If Obama does that . . . the efficacy and the necessity of pointing this Truth out immediately gets lost in the 'tone' and vituperative environment this would create . . . the message gets lost.  

It would also give the master message-muddlers (GOP) too much 'juice' to work with. Some of their SuperPACs are blatantly running ads against President Obama and Holder portraying them as exhibiting racial preferences in governing and the pursuit of justice.

The folks doing this are unapologetic about it and some of these intellectual fecal splatters are sophisticated and insidious . . . and are designed to do one thing:

Stir-up to white-hot levels of White, particularly working class (the fabled independents in the Midwest that ALWAYS show up to vote and who decided which party ultimately gains, retains or loses power) sentiments of resentment at the apparent(although totally false!) 'advantages' minorities have due to affirmative action and racial quota's at companies and universities(there will be a case before the Supreme court by one such family that should they win could strike down affirmative action).

And in a time of very real pain, desperation and a sense of bitter disillusionment and loss that this depression has spawned . . . this could make for a very potent societal and, in the right 'hands', a poison with exponential political benefit . . . at least in the short term.

We tend to blame others, usually the person or group's least responsible, for our pains and trials . . . and seldom do we collectively, imbibe the true cause.

AND the GOP have done a masterful job through carte-blanche obstruction and breathtakingly stone-age social and financial governing at the state level, and their expert messaging in a 'complicit' Press and media at exacerbating the 'substance' of the pain and with the 'directing' of the 'rage' that results.

Which brings me to whose 'job' it has ALWAYS been to point out and magnify the white light of human decency on this sort of ugliness until it starts to shrivel and burn away!:

The Press

It is NOT Obama's job to do this.

Their Fourth Estate status and its unique enshrinement in our constitution as part of our Freedoms . . . Has It well equipped to do just that.

But since News is now Entertainment and is now subject to the profit motive . . . the Fourth Estate has been burnt down.

Never the less it is STILL THEIR job.

However You can and have made the media respond to you:

Sandra Fluke

You boycotted and the Press and Business responded, and it isn’t the only time . . . but yet still we haven’t learned.

It’s all up to Obama.

If you expect the President to do this, you deliver him RIGHT into the hands of the opposition, who have long wanted to depict him as a Black President (with all the negative age-old stereotypes and archetypes that come with it) . . . instead of one suited for the office who just happens to be Black.

Obama said yesterday (?):

"I'm not the President of Black America"

He's correct.

And folks like Tavis Smiley and Cornell West, for all their lauded (and in West's case well-deserved) accolades in the Black Community, they are seriously deficient in comprehending the 'contractual obligations' of the Office!

And you Liberals who want Obama to full-throatily speak 'with your explicit vocabulary and phrasing' on almost all of our 'sacred cows', are ALSO suffering from less than optimal 'contractual reading comprehension'.

He is the President of the USA . . . and that means he has to try his damnedest to do what is best for folks despite their opposition, despite the fervent bigoted ignorance at times, despite an earnest sincere desire for action to be taken no matter how naive and impractical . . . he has to hold things together . . . it means 'making sausage' politically, rhetorically, policy-wise . . . so that the gains we've made at momentary periods of collective, symbiotic clarity in the history of our country are protected and not eroded away, at nascent moments of societal fulminations, so that we can irreversibly continue to build on them a la 'The More Perfect Union' adage.

So he has to walk that 'line' both as a person color HAS to tread in a not-quite post-racial society . . . but also as a function, a necessary 'modus-operandi' of the office.

To relegate him to these narrow definitions and constrictions . . . you deliver him right into the hands of those greedy, well-heeled, short-sighted, but older-than-this-country 'interests', that previous Presidents and forward-thinking, truly-patriotic Congresses, State, City and Town governments have kept in check for centuries.

These folks have age-old grudges and they have long been intoxicated with privilege and reek of entitlement . . . they think whatever whims they have 'shall not be denied them' no matter how Ill-equipped they are to deal with the fallout for the rest of us.

Obama is not one of them.

He is one of us.  He came from US.

Wise up folks . . . see this Truth.

Don't hand Him . . . Us . . . over to Them.

So in the wake of this WI shooting by a Right Wing 'Star' for all intents and purposes . . . be outraged, be angry, be disgusted . . . but hold those that are truly responsible feet to the fire.

The GOP 

A Complicit Press Infrastructure

The President is doing His Job.

YOU do YOURS!

Before the Infection spreads . . .