The audacity of hate

October 27, 2008 at 10:07 pm | Posted in Barack Obama, U.S. Politics | 1 Comment

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

After we’ve gotten over the horror that comes from reading it for the first time, we would do well to remember that this is fantastic news. This isn’t the first time someone has plotted to rob us of Senator Obama’s life, nor will it be the last, and the security services are owed a tremendous debt gratitude for their commitment, skill and bravery in breaking these plots before they break America.

But a plot uncovered is still a plot that’s failed, and when you remember that there’s only a smattering of psychopaths who’d dream of committing such a crime, and even fewer who would act on it, I think it’s fair to say that the cause of violent white supremacy has been dealt a heavy blow.

We should also remember, just as with the threat posed by terrorists, that their murderous motives are often defeated by their own grandiose stupidity. According to this report, these two guys really believed they could rob a gunstore, shoot 88 African Americans, decapitate another 14, go on a national killing spree and then somehow put themselves in a position to fire a shot at Senator Obama. Would anyone care to work out the odds of them pulling just one of these crimes off without being caught? No, me neither.

In their own very different ways, these skinheads have offered conclusive proof of something Obama’s been saying ever since he arrived in American life; that the colour of your skin has absolutely no reflection on the content of your character. With a lot of hard work, Barack Obama will be elected the next President of the United States, and when he does, America will have demonstrated that it’s easier for a black man to earn the highest office in the land than it is for a handful of embittered white racists to disrupt the amazing progress the country’s made since the abolition of Jim Crow.

That, my friends, is change you can believe in.