A couple of weeks ago, Stuart Hayward wrote a good column in the Sun about the cynicism that is the PLP's racial strategy.
Judging by the tag team attempt to reframe his argument and redirect attention by Cal Smith and Dr. Hodgson, and now with Julian Hall joining in to complete the trifecta with his nasty little broadside, one can only conclude that Mr. Hayward is on a good wicket.
Mr. Hayward's response today to Cal Smith and Dr. Hodgson's articles is both accurate and effective, and will no doubt generate further attacks for a number of reasons:
1) The current PLP leadership cannot permit people to undermine their faux sincerity and 'credentials' on bridging the racial divide, as it's the foundation of their election campaign.
2) They have to protect their turf; they can't allow others to question their approach and weigh in on an issue they position themselves as the sole authorities on.
3) The truth hurts.
4) If there's one thing I've learned about the PLP sponsored letter writers it's that they must always have the last word.
Julian Hall's letter contains a couple of items of note (and a whole lot worth ignoring):
Firstly, I'll await patiently, those who attacked (and protested - although he's dead) me for the accurate and appropriate use of the term "media whore" to describe the Premier's take-all-the-credit, avoid-the-bad-news press strategy to condemn Mr. Hall for calling Mr. Hayward a "past-her-sell-by-date political hooker". "Media whore" is so much better; "political hooker" is just crass and not clever.
Secondly, the real howler is this early line:
I wonder sometimes whether excessive immersion in Bermuda's political scene, particularly on the part of those who venture into the arena of race relations, should now come with a health warning from the Chief Medical Officer [we have no Surgeon General]: "CAUTION : COULD CAUSE INSANITY".
I can only conclude that Mr. Hall lacks enough self-awareness to know that this paragraph is most applicable to himself and those he is defending, advising and enabling and the rest of Mr. Hall's comments would be considered in that vein.
I'd agree with Mr Hall's insanity statement, I'd just apply it to those who talk about nothing but race, and twist everything around to race, rather than those who talk about it as one issue...not The Issue.
The Premier and his race consultant have ventured into the arena of race relations far more than anyone else in Bermuda, in fact that's their signature issue. One would presume that they're so politically invested in this issue because they know they think that they can capitalise on it at the polls; they're racial venture capitalists.
Back in March I wrote a column for the Gazette about the cynicism of politicians who make their living on exploiting racial sensitivities while claiming to want to solve them, and Mr. Hayward has added his own perspective, which I'd sense is pretty much on the money judging by the response it has invoked.
Indeed, his critique generated such angst among those he mentioned that they're coordinating an attempt to discredit him as mentioned in his column today:
There are other possibilities - among them that as he may have been solicited to write his critique (as were others who declined), his heart wasn't in it. Of course it's not right for me to speculate, but I genuinely want my friend Cal to be a respected contributor to the public discourse. This was not his best effort.
And discredit him they will try, by dumbing down the debate to claim that when Mr. Hayward said (accurately) that the Premier's pick for race consultant is divisive, that what he said was that the PLP created racial division. Of course he didn't say that. But it's much easier to respond to something he didn't say than something he did.
Of course, the other tried and true tactic is to respond to an article about the present by talking only about events that occurred in the past; attacking someone for having the gall to assess things in the present by unrelated issues that occurred in the past.
But that's the intention: keep us outraged about the past so that we miss what's going on right in front of us.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy