“Only now” is something happening, but what?

Ken Hechtman, VFR’s leftist reader in Canada, writes:

You write:

“ONLY NOW is America estimable, ONLY NOW does the Constitution BEGIN to be truthful; ONLY NOW do we BEGIN to care for the sick.”

See the photo of James Webb next to Obama giving the Black Power salute. Webb represents the pro guns and border fence right wing of the Democratic Party. He’s also from Virginia, just for good measure.

“Only now” can you see such a photo-op.

I agree we overuse the “only now” construction. It’s a too-common habit of speech on the left because it’s a too-common habit of thought on the left. But how far back do you have to go before today’s image becomes wildly improbable? If someone had told me a year ago that the Democratic nominee and front-runner for the presidency would be black, and not only that, but that one of the most conservative white senators in the Democratic Party would be posing with him with his fist in the air, I wouldn’t have believed it.

LA replies:

While Mr. Hechtman probably wouldn’t put it this way, here is what he’s really saying:

While it is false that “only now,” as a result of Obama’s successs, is America becoming a decent country, it is true that “only now,” as a result of Obama’s success, is America normalizing Black Power at the highest level of our national life.

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Howard Sutherland writes:

Nice juxtaposition with the Mexico ‘68 shot.[Mr. Sutherland is referring to the famous photo of the two black athletes raising their fists in the Black Power solute at the 1968 Olympics. It was included in an e-mail that also had the photo of Webb with Obama.] As those brothers were preening on the podium, 2nd. Lt. James Webb, USMC (USNA ‘68), was either just about to deploy or had just deployed to Vietnam—at the time I’ll bet Lieutenant Webb had no time for Tommie Davis and John Carlos’ black power-jive.

As late as 2001, Jim Webb would probably have cut his arm off before he would give a black power salute with it. What politics (and Bush-hatred, which I’m no stranger to) will do for a man.

I have tried to retain some respect for Webb. He had an exemplary combat tour as a rifle platoon and company commander in my old regiment (the Fifth Marines—this week celebrating the 90th anniversary of Belleau Wood). I admired his frankness about why women can’t fight, and why our armed forces shouldn’t let them try. I admired his sticking up for the Scots-Irish—the least politically correct Americans imaginable.

It’s been harder and harder to hang on to respect for Webb. Well, now it’s impossible.

Stephen T. writes:

Has anyone seen a video of that Black Power salute of Webb’s, or at least heard from a reliable eyewitness at the scene? Based on the still frame, it’s quite possible that he was just snapped while making some sort of “rah rah” pump-it-up fist gesture, like a fan cheering a football game (or a politician on a stage pumping up a crowd after a victory.) If the shutter fired and froze that motion just as it reached its extremity, it could easily resemble the fixed, upraised fist of a black power salute.

(Next: a frozen frame of McCain waving goodbye to his wife in which he appears to be making a “Heil Hitler” salute)

William D. writes:

I’m not sure what Sen. Webb thought he was accomplishing by giving the clenched-fist salute, but I’ll bet black power was not foremost in his mind. The clenched-fist salute has a much longer history along a much broader spectrum of the left than just ’60s black radicals and their white admirers—and there’s a part of me that rather resents the expropriation. The same sort of thing was done with “We Shall Overcome,” by the way.

The clenched-fist salute was once nothing more objectionable than an expression of solidarity among union men—left-leaning union men, I grant you, but race had nothing to do with it. And outside of the United States, the identification of the salute with Black Power would elicit puzzlement at best. Mr. Sutherland is perhaps too abrupt in his dismissal of Sen. Webb. I’d need, at least, a better idea of the sort of crowd he was appearing before in Bristow—I guess I’d better go find that out.

Ken Hechtman writes:

You wrote:

While Mr. Hechtman probably wouldn’t put it this way, here is what he’s really saying:

While it is false that “only now,” as a result of Obama’s successs, is America becoming a decent country, it is true that “only now,” as a result of Obama’s success, is America normalizing Black Power at the highest level of our national life.

Why wouldn’t I? Both halves of your formulation are factual statements. I probably wouldn’t use the word “normalizing,” though … I hear that leftist cliche so often I try not to repeat it myself. [LA replies: Because I was interpreting your words to mean something that you hadn’t said. I was taking your meaning, which was implicitly critical of the left, and turning it full bore against the left. I was showing that the only true meaning of “only now” is a leftist imposed disaster.]

I love the story that by the end of his life, Edward Said had to ban all his old jargon (“narratives” and “discourses,” “normalizing” this and “marginalizing” that) from his classroom because the kids parroting it back to him was getting out of hand.

You want to see the most over the top reaction to Obama’s primary win yet? Here’s Jesse Jackson Jr.:

“I cried all night. I’m going to be crying for the next four years,” he said. “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.”

I will cut Jesse Jr. a bit of slack. He worked for Obama from the very beginning—the only civil rights “name” to do so. If he wants to be insufferable on election night, he’s earned it. I’ve said worse when my candidates won, just that no reporter ever bothered to take it down.

But here’s why I don’t like the phrase “only now” and the thinking behind it: If Jesse Jr. was able to help lay down a big milestone in uncharted territory, it’s only because every other milestone along the way got placed by someone else and because the establishment of the time eventually had the decency (to use your word) to allow it to stay there. You don’t throw all that down the memory hole with the words “only now.”

The Obama campaign couldn’t have happened without George Bush appointing two consecutive black secretaries of state during wartime. President Obama will probably not mention them in his first inaugural, but he does owe them. Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell couldn’t have happened without Bill Clinton appointing the “cabinet that looked like America.” And that couldn”t have happened without the Jesse Jackson campaign—remember that Ron Brown, Clinton’s highest-ranking black Secretary in 1993, was Jesse Jackson’s campaign manager in 1988. And so on. I could take it all the way back to Cinque and the Amistad if I had the time.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 06, 2008 12:30 PM | Send