Djelloul Marbrook

West Virginians on Tuesday broke the devil’s deal between the media and the people to talk about racism and misogyny as little as possible. The voters in the mountain state chose to see Barack Obama as half black, not half white. They chose to remind us that racism is alive and well in the United States and might very well hand the general election to John McCain, just as the Southern (read Race) Strategy has been handing elections to Republicans all these years.

But the other dirty little secret we keep shuffling under the carpet with a nod and a wink is gender prejudice. Hillary Clinton would be as much handicapped by misogyny as Obama would be by racism. She won in West Virginia because she handed the state’s voters a chance to express their reservations about a black man in the highest office. She played the race card. The quintessential elitist painted a half-black, half-white Chicago community activist as an elitist, and the voters swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

But in November, when this squalid spectacle that the Democrats have chosen to call democracy in action is over, the voters may well remember that they no more want a strong woman than they want a smart man of color in the White House.

What then? Could there possibly be a bright side to handing over the presidency to anyone as unqualified as John McCain simply because we are sunk in our prejudices and can’t climb up out of them even when it’s in our interests to do so? However much I would deplore such an outcome, I think the answer is yes. Yes, because we must at long last stare our prejudices in the face. Yes, because we must remember that our failure to do so at the birth of our republic led inexorably to our bloodiest war. Yes, because we have gone far too long without the benefit of women at the helm of society and state. Yes, in the name of decency, honor and plain smarts.

It may turn out that at the cost of the election the Democrats have bestowed upon the country a great gift of reckoning. In one primary campaign they have given us the choice of a man of color and a woman, inviting us to be the fair and open-minded people we say we are in spite of the historic evidence. Dick Cheney may not know how to shoot straight, but the Democrats remember how to shoot themselves in the foot. And this time that knack may just serve the nation well, even if it gives us another disastrous presidency.

The West Virginians have shown us just how stark our choices are. They have even shown us that most Americans prefer the dishonest McCain-Clinton gas tax holiday to a real solution, thereby reminding us once again how easy it is to sucker the American people into voting for people whose ambitions exceed their intent to do us good.

But there is another scenario. What if between now and November millions of Americans say to themselves, Enough is enough? Meaning, Let’s look at the issues. Let’s elect a man of color or a woman simply because we think they might be more willing to change things than John McCain. That would be a start, wouldn’t it? That would say that we can move on past race and gender bias. It would say we can put our own futures before our fondest prejudices.

So maybe it isn’t the gift West Virginia has given Senator Clinton or the rebuff it has given Senator Obama that we should be looking at. Maybe it’s the gift of exposing our dirty little secrets we should be grateful for.—DM