by Andrew Austin
(Source)

I was just forwarded an email, attached below, that tries to link racism with judgments about the academic achievement of the various candidates. The argument doesn't make any sense, and I will explain why in a moment, but I want to expand my views concerning qualifications for public office, because that's what's at issue here.

Having an ivy-league education is not a qualification for being a public office in a democracy. I don't know where people got that idea. Arguably, we need more ordinary citizen politicians not more Harvard-educated ones. It's a fact that the reason why we're in such a mess is in part because elites run our government not ordinary folks. Elites represent each other, not the people.

To be sure, having a law degree from Harvard is helpful when applying for a position in a law firm. However, in a democracy, we're looking for people who represent the people. They may have law degrees. They may be electricians. Neither makes them more or less qualified to be president.

The e-mail forwarded to me is classist and elitist. It's insulting to working people. It's false consciousness in the extreme for a person claiming to represent working people to join in the elitism of one or the other corporate-backed political party.

What people ought to be doing is looking at the policies and politics of the men and women running for public office instead of artificial and irrelevant standards elites have told us they should have - qualifications designed to cordon off public office to citizen politicians who might disturb the status quo.

To be sure, the fact that Obama is a Harvard-educated corporate-backed elite has something to do with these anti-worker, anti-woman, anti-minority policies and politics. Obama has been living now for a long time in the charmed circle of the power elite, and it has affected his outlook (assuming he was ever really for the people). He is one of them, not one of us. The ruling class looks for Obama types to head the major political parties they bankroll and staff. But when it comes right down to it, it's Obama's reactionary agenda that makes it impossible for me to support him.

There are two additional reasons for a progressive to oppose Obama's candidacy. First, he has been picked by the ruling class to lead the rebranding of American Empire. The power elite see a man of mixed race heritage, international background, and three Arabic names and they believe he can restore US prestige in a world that (rightly) sees us as white European colonialists. Obama is a PR move. Media elites openly say this about his candidacy.

Second, his racial identity and his claim that racism is not endemic to US society allows for closing down the civil rights movement and the dissimulation of white supremacy at home. It will be extremely difficult to make the claim that the United States is a racist country when the president is a black man who says the country is not particularly racist anymore.

Frankly, Obama is a disaster for rational progressive democratic politics. He's the most right-wing Democrat in my life-time. Because he is black and claims to be a liberal, he will be able to get many of the left to go along with policies detrimental to their interests - policies they would oppose tooth-and-nail if they were proposed by a white Republican or Democrat.

I'm voting for the candidate who best stands with the working people and for our liberties and rights. Neither McCain nor Obama fits my criteria.

Finally, the e-mail forwarded to me is a misuse of the whiteness frame of critique. There is nothing racist about attitudes with respect to the education of those in question. Biden is white (including him in this makes the whole exercise silly). Moreover, the attack on Palin's education is classist.

Here's the forwarded e-mail:

I especially like the "who would you hire?" perspective at the end of this piece.

How Racism Works

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife after she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5*?
* The Keating Five were five United States Senators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senator)
accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_scandal)
as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_crisis) of the late
1980s and early 1990s.

What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

PS: What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter? What would people be saying?

You are The Boss... which team would you hire?

With America facing historic debt, 2 wars, stumbling health care, a
weakened dollar, all-time high prison population, mortgage crises, bank foreclosures, etc.

Educational Background:

Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire?

Neither.