Obama, Wall Street, Auto-Workers, and the far-right

(As far as the anti-bigotry part of this blog, I decided at some point early on that I wanted to work around the edges of battling bigotry, offering ideas and information that most people are unaware of but which might help them here and there with anti-bigotry work. So that’s why there are a lot of posts that seem a little weird, including this one)

I might start participating in some on-line forums now, probably the comments sections of newspapers and blogs. In some cases I might tie this blog into that, as I'm going to now.

I read an interesting column by Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. He's pretty solidly liberal and even did one column expressing a lot of support for Single-Payer (canadian style) health-care. His column is here, you'll probably have to register.

Below is the comment I just posted. I wonder if I am exaggerating some things (how much the far-right associates Jews with bankers, how much damage will be done), but I have decided to offer any suggestions I can for stopping the spread of hatred. UPDATE4/3/09: The Southern Poverty Law Center has frequently talked about how Obama's presidency combined with the economy could fuel racism, their is a stereotype about bankers and Jews, there is a glaring gap in Obama's approach, and a mostly white workforce will probably be hurt. Anyway, here's my comment:

"I haven't followed American current events much lately, so almost all of my info about this comes from Robinson's column (can't imagine a much better source, roughly as good as Krugman, Meyerson, etc.); and I'm not much on economics or finance, but there are a few things about this I understand. First, the double standard is amazing, the banks should be getting it as least as much as the auto-makers, since they ARE responsible for starting it. Also, in general, this won't be good for auto-workers, although I'm open-minded about how avoidable that is considering that the economy IS a mess and Obama is not going to take some kind of socialist approach.

But recently I've become very interested in the spread of hatred, primarily the sort we associate with the right. It seems to me that a black President connected to destroying the lives of auto-workers (probably mostly/overwhlemingly white) and going easy on the bankers (I have no freaking idea how many of them are Jews, they could all be Hindus for all I care, but there's a semi-popular image of the banker) will fuel the racist right, especially considering Obama's support from Jews (once again, I don't care, my blog is chock full of stuff against anti-semitism). It just seems like, besides being unbalanced and bad for working people and the tax-payer, it will also fuel the far-right.

I say this mostly because unless I've got an exaggerated sense of the damage that can be done, it's one more reason for Obama to change his mind and get tough on the banks."