Here We Go... the Race Card Comes Out.

Racists allegations against Rush Limbaugh Cause a University. of Wisconsin Law Professor to Rethink her Political Support of President Obama.

Wow.
Just wow.
That's the headline for the day, it seems.
I won't bother linking, as I suspect she's trying to stir the pot to promote herself and her blog. 
But, for the sake of intellectual openness, permit a few honest questions?

1) If you've listened to entertainer Limbaugh for years,
you're just now noticing that some of his skits are misogynistic, anti-immigrant, and potentially racist?  The man isn't exactly a deep thinker, but if you like crude political humor, how can you cherry pick this segment or that to object to?

2)  Do you honestly think Rush Limbaugh in any way taints the Romney campaign with his entertainment schlock?  If I recall correctly, Limbaugh was in the subset that opposed Romney's primary nomination.  So now he's an ardent supporter, speaking on behalf of the campaign?

3) With all the important issues facing the country,
isn't crediting your Obama vote to a Rush Limbaugh skit a bit ... silly?  Like if you seriously voted against Romney, even if you supported his policies and business background, because once upon a time he took the dog on the family vacation, and you object to the seating arrangements?


Look:  I don't care a whit who people like that vote for...
I am, however, very wary of those who will play the race card so publicly in this election.  I honestly believe Mitt Romney is a man of integrity, who -- while you might not agree with his policy positions, or traditional background -- is not a racist hater.   Sorry, just do not believe that...

This female professor, in her early 60s, was raised in Delaware, in segregated schools, and attended a liberal Midwest university.  She married a fellow East Coaster, attended law school and began her family and legal career out East, and then relocated to the state university in Madison, Wisconsin to teach law.

People who think this woman in any way represents Midwestern values, or Midwestern thinking, are simply wrong.  Calling out as racist those who very legitimately do not support this current president, based only on something seen heard on the Rush Limbaugh show is simply so intellectually dishonest it beggars belief. 

If you can't handle Rush's brand of humor (or Howard Stern's, George Carlin's, Lenny Bruce's, etc.), don't listen to that kind of material.  Turn it off and choose something more to your liking.  But please don't be so fast to play the race card on this type of political entertainment, when you so easily are willing to overlook the misogynist humor comments, or the anti-gay, and anti-immigrant stuff he spews regulary in pursuit of ratings.

(It's my understanding Rush is ill-educated himself, but very wise in the ways of serving up red meat to those who wish to consume it.  If that's your regular diet though, how do you wake up one day and suddenly object to that type of humor, that you've helped promote all along?)

Finally, I have to ask:
if a black student in her classroom was being verbally bullied by others in the class (or teased, or simply maken fun of) would she reward that student with a higher grade, not performance-based, simply to ... show support for the black student she overheard being skewered by his offensive classmates?

Emotional thinking does that to the brain.
I suspect the professor knows that back in the day, in her segregated schools and childhood world, she received privileges that black children did not.  I think she was helped by being a woman in the days when female competition in law school and in the legal profession were not yet the norm.

For these reasons I think,
she now feels guilt at her elite societal positioning in the ivory tower,  and suddenly sees racial humor as representative of the Midwest conservatives who simply will not vote to re-elect this president based solely on his sorry, almost 4-year performance. 

She attributes such humor to the Romney campaign, and then implies he and his supporters share in Limbaugh's chuckles, as she once did the "femi-nazi" jokes aimed at women less socially conservative as herself...

Finally, when called on her emotional thinking and sudden change of heart, she pulls us all into the collective of emotional thinkers (not just women like herself) and snaps back with a bit of pop brain psychology:

"Here's a tip: Everyone votes emotionally. Your idea that you are completely rational is itself emotional. Your very rationality is itself a complex mix of emotion. I've read enough brain science to know that. Pretending that's not true only makes you naive. Resisting that fact is something that comes from emotion, not reason.
...
We are human beings, and our thoughts take place within our bodies, with our brains and nerves, and the ability to make decisions comes from feeling. We are not computers."

Like we teach children about self control,
people indeed have the ability to master their emotions and to learn to think with their rational parts, not their emotions.  I do not vote emotionally.  I do not need to personally "like" someone in order to support and respect him/her as my boss, my professor, my student, or my country's leader. 

In fact,
someone honest enough right now to talk about how, on the country's ledger sheet, the debits being made from the asset column are dwindling the overall balance and will bankrupt us if no actions are made soon to curtail the debit column ... is exactly what the country needs.

Someone with a proven background of making strategic budget cuts that indeed are painful but necessary for the overall company to survive is what we need in leadership today of our country.  Someone with a history of thinking rationally, not emotionally, is needed.  Doesn't matter if you personally like him or his family or not if he can get the job done.

I go back to the example above, of how this professor would approach grading a black student regularly turning in mediocre work*, if she had ... feelings of sympathy (or guilt) toward his treatment by the class clown entertainers.  Stop the bullying sure (in this case -- simply turn your radio off to Limbaugh's show, as he's a First Amendment right to spew such crude humor directed at anyone he likes, or doesn't in this case...).

But do you vote to up the black student's grade -- pass him onto the next level -- because you're disgusted by what you've overheard and presumed to be racial joking?  Can you overcome your feelings of disgust, your emotional self to maintain a poise of intellectual honesty in distributing the grades?

Those of us who came up in mixed schools, with white ethnics and racial diversity, would not allow our feelings of sympathy to overcome our rational understandings of who has the best skills to lead the team.  We understand our country's history and the ugly episodes, but we also see first hand that not everyone seizes the opportunities currently available for intellectual advancement.

We don't reward those who would play on our emotions of the racism of past years, nor do we approve of those playing the race card -- black, or elitist white.

I do thank the professor however for so fully revealing what some of us have observed firsthand:  the inconsistency, the emotionalism, and the offensive way that dominates her thinking patterns.

Myself?  I suspect back in the day, she was the girl who wanted to gain popularity** by always going home after the game in the car of the winning quarterback. Sometimes waiting until late in the 4th quarter of the game to see exactly which winning male that would be... 

Lotsa competition on those crowded bandwagons, afterall.
---------------

Plus: The backtracking begins...

"Minds are being affected now. I'm sending an alarm, but then I'm hearing denial, not from you, Ken, but from so many others here. They don't want to believe the effect it has on undecided-type votes and people who are sensitive about below-the-surface racism, so they're just saying it's crazy/stupid/shut up."
...
"Democrats don't care. They're happy to reap the votes of social liberals who would prefer conservative economics but see the GOP as toxic."

Myself, I'm an economic conservative who would prefer to see more socially liberal policies (on some issues), but who sees the current Democratic party as pandering to racism, sexism, and elitism.

I am sacrificing personally, investing my votes in economically conservative candidates. Funny thing is, I suspect the professor is in a better place than me, financially and socially, to make such a sacrifice.

But then again,
she will not be affected personally by a change in the president and his policies. The familiar Boomer trope: "I got mine".

Btw, I won't link to their material, but here are photos of what these two women taking such a brave stand against racism look like. Notice any similarities?