The “You-Tubing” of American Politics

As you might well imagine, dear reader, we, the crack young staff of “The Hatemonger’s Quarterly,” are not big supporters of Senator Biden (D-Delaware). In general, we find his views on foreign policy wrongheaded and we’re suspicious of his preternaturally robust self-importance.

We mean, come on: Biden seems so smitten with the sound of his own voice that Chuck Schumer comes across as downright laconic by comparison.

Accordingly, dear reader, you must take our collective word for it when we inform you that we are not the type to rush to the semi-beleaguered Senator’s aid. Yet we feel that we must.

As was noted on the Drudge Report, Senator Biden may have gotten himself in some hot water by suggesting that Barack Obama was, among other things, a “clean” African American. Senator Biden, by making that remark, apparently implied that most blacks are actually dirty. And thus Biden is a horrible racist. Q.E.D.

Well, we hate to spoil the fun, but we find this patently ridiculous. Sure, what Senator Biden said wasn’t wonderful; it was a regrettable turn of phrase. But we don’t think it exactly proves that Biden is an irredeemable racist. In fact, we think that drawing such a conclusion is tendentious at best, and deeply foolish to boot.

This is not, we must stress, a partisan issue. The Washington Post witch-hunt of former Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) was equally—nay, even more—obtuse. So Allen called an Indian fellow a “macacca.” We haven’t the foggiest idea what that means, and we have the sneaking suspicion that George Allen didn’t either.

In fact, we have the sneaking suspicion that the journalists who hyped so-called Macacca-Gate originally had no idea what it meant either. But, if they could use the story to tar and feather George Allen, so much the better.

Quite frankly, dear reader, this is all manifestly absurd. We’re sick of hearing about supposed gaffes that are blown way out of proportion. And we’re sick of the selective outrage shown by political partisans. Anyone who hounded George Allen from office ought to do the same in regard to Joseph Biden, if they’re going to be intellectually consistent. Ah, but these days, one decides to be outraged based on the D or R next to a person’s name.

What is this doing to American politics? If we keep on “You-Tubing” all of our politicians to death, we’re going to wind up with the most milquetoast candidates imaginable. And this will serve to impoverish our political discourse and our political future.

So, please: By all means, don’t vote for Joe Biden. But don’t vote against him because he called Barack Obama the first “clean” black. There are plenty of better reasons.