Buddy learns a new vocabulary term

While much of the rest of the political world praises Barack Obama for his courage, heart and straightforwardness in his speech on race, there are a few dissenters - mostly, as one would predict, on the right wing.

Here in Connecticut, it's radio host Jim "Buddy" Vicevich. He played a hunk of the speech during his show yesterday, and was not really able to cobble together any coherent analysis (read "criticism"). Then he likely went home and read some of the right-wing blogs he so dearly loves to quote and he learned a new phrase - moral relativism, which he has begun to sling around like a high-school freshman with a new thesaurus. And he came up with this.

Seems like Buddy misses the point of the speech completely, and not surprisingly given his aptitude. While the speech is all about confronting racism (and most of the commentators I've read, on the left and right, got that point), Buddy thinks it's about excusing racism.

As for moral relativism, it's a strange term to use by someone whose views so skew the information he presents on his show. For example, it's okay to criticize Obama's incendiary minister, but not McCain's religious supporters Hagee and Parsley. It's okay to question the patriotism of Obama, but not that of a president who continues to execute an immoral war. It's okay to wag a finger at Obama's earmarks, but not to talk about McCain's intimate relationship with lobbyists.

Why, one might accuse Vicevich or criticizing Obama simply because of his race. But I don't think Vicevich hates Obama because he's black. He hates him because he's promises a new way of thinking where rich white men don't control the world. Maybe he's scared of him because he's black, or because he's smart and black.

Back to relativism, Vicevich is famous for hanging up on anyone who disagrees with him (it's happened to me more than once). He consistently says he likes to air all side of the issue, but all his guests are right-wing lunatics, and he never, ever will have anyone on the air live with him who might challenge his feeble arguments. He has a blog which spews invective about his opponents, but he refuses to allow comments which might embrace an opposing opinion. He sputters religiously about the politicians he dislikes not having the courage of their convictions, and yet as a warhawk, he's never served his country (did I hear you say "chickenhawk").

I encourage you to call him during his show today to explain that racism takes several forms, and that his is the most insidious and vituperative. He'll need a few new vocab words to misuse tomorrow.