Voting against Obama is racist

I thought that was where this column by Sophia Nelson was headed, especially after reading this paragraph:

Many black Americans are holding their collective breath, hoping that the most stubborn of American issues will not be the thing that keeps Obama out of the White House. I suspect that many white Americans are, too.

But that’s not where we ended up. Here’s the kicker:

He also has to connect with working class and rural white Americans, many of whom, believe it or not, have not ever really had an intimate friendship or dialogue with a black person, especially one whose education, career and life prospects far outpace their own.

It may work. It may not. But black people, particularly those of us of Obama’s generation and younger, who have been blessed with great educations, opportunities, jobs and incomes, need to come to grips with the fact that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot both see ourselves and our success reflected in Obama’s rise, and at the same time blame racism as the only explanation if he loses. That rationale simply won’t wash anymore.

Much can and will happen over the next eight weeks to challenge all of our perceptions about what is possible. But we have advanced the ball too far down the field to claim racism as our principal national weakness. Regardless of the outcome, we have drawn closer to fulfilling this nation’s great promise and America’s political landscape has changed forever, whether people actually vote for change or not.

She gets it, in a way that white liberals (like, say, Peter Beinart) don’t. White, middle/lower class uneasiness with Barack Obama has less to do with race than it does with class. The constant mockery of Sarah Palin simply reinforces that divide. You can’t look down your nose at voters, lecture them on who the moral person would cast a vote for, and then cry racism when they don’t do your bidding. If the Republicans do somehow manage to win the election–something I never could have imagined even two weeks ago–it will be entirely because of the left’s haughtiness and petulance. They brought this on themselves.