Republicans Blame the Minorities

Every time I tell myself that nothing that comes from the Right can shock me anymore, the Republicans prove me wrong. Just when I thought that Palin-McCidiot smear fest has climaxed with not-so-subtle racist insults hurled at Obama, the Republicans came up with another strategy of deflecting the public's attention away from their culpability in getting us into this mess: blame the minorities.

The Republican attack on Fannie Maie and Freedie Mac's loaning practices are based on the premise that the main culprits behind the financial mess are the minorities, in particular the African-Americans who received mortgages they could not finance. The Republicans then tie the Democrats to the mortgage giants' lobbyists in arguing that it is the Democrats who are to blame for the mess.

First, there is no doubt that many people got in over their heads with the mortgages they could not afford. However, let us remember that they were roped into these deals by banks and mortgage companies who promised to keep their monthly payments low, betting on the continuing bubbling of their home prices. Let us also remember that the very core of the American identity, especially in the post WWII period, is tied to the ownership of home. Most Americans grow up with the notion that owning a home is equivalent to achieving "the American dream." Anything less than that makes you unsuccessful. So, to blame families--many of whom came from very under-privileged backgrounds--for wanting a piece of this dream at a time when the economy seemed to be doing great for everyone, is beyond moral reprehensibility. And to blame the Democrats' plans to make housing more available to the under-privileged and expand the middle class goes to show the extent to which the Republicans will go in keeping the "American dream" accessible only to the white, middle-class cream of America. According to this ideology, to make the American dream accessible to more Americans leads to nothing less than a Stock market crash.

It seems to me that the ripple effect of the mortgage mess is due not only to these bad mortgage loans, but to 1) the falling value of homes due to the previous over-speculation of home prices; and 2) the ability of banks to sell these mortgages to Wall Street and Wall Street's greedy repackaging of these toxic mortgages into bundles that were passed on further down the line, infecting the whole of the American and even most of the world's economy.

So it is the lack of regulation, which allowed for the tearing down of the walls between the different sectors of our economy--such as the banks and the Wall Street--and the dishonesty of banks in issuing mortgages that played a huge part in causing the implosion of the world's financial system. The tightening of credit throughout the market was a rational consequence of this implosion as every market player starts hoarding capital and becomes schizophrenic about giving loans to anyone out of fear that everyone's capital has become infected with these toxic assets.

So for the Sean Hannity-type of Republicans to blame the minorities, and implicitly the African-Americans, is nothing but another racist ploy to desperately cling to the White House by scaring the white voters into voting for McCain because "that one" (as McCain himself referred to Obama last night) is too risky (and gasp, too black). Despicable.