If you read the reports about Barack Obama's historic nomination, the subtext is clear. America is less racist because Democrats chose Obama. The opposite was being threatened if he somehow was denied: "Democrats (and America) are still racist and a black man can't get ahead".
I reject this thinking as insulting to me as an African American, and to my great country.
It is also an affront to Martin Luther King's stated vision of America.
Obama and Clinton were never judged by the content of their character. Instead, blacks, liberals, and some young people judged him by his skin tone and what they thought he represented.
They concluded he represented progress and the future.
No one seriously thinks Obama is "change" in a real sense that will matter in our daily lives. If so, how?
This is all about race. Exactly what King said it shouldn't be about.
The question we must ponder is: If obama loses, is America racist? That was the implication in the Primaries.
Well let me answer:
America is not racist. This is true whether or not Obama won/lost the Democratic nomination.
America is not racist. This is true whether or not Obama wins in November.
It is fine and great for many people to reflect on the racist past of America and to celebrate progress, but it is not fine to attempt to emotionally blackmail our political system into choosing a person we wouldn't otherwise choose.
Many people have said Obama won not as a black candidate but one who just happened to be be black. That is a bold faced lie. Were Obama a white candidate he wouldn't have had the audacity to run for POTUS. If he did, he would have done just as well as John Edwards or Dennis Kucinch.
This election is a victory for the radical left and the African American community who basically threatened the Democratic Party with mass apathy and chaos if Obama didn't win.
Hillary's only chance was to prevent Obama from ever getting going. That was impossible because the same people above were guaranteed to give him a chance to get going. The liberal electorate was never going to pass up this chance to prove they "weren't racists" anymore.
So far from being above and beyond race, this election is all about race. Sometimes shamelessly as in the Obama campaign in South Carolina, other times in a sad way such as right now.
By the way, I'm under no allusions that Hillary wouldn't do the same thing in reference to gender if she were allowed to. But the media's Clinton fatigue, plus the fact that race trumps gender in politics never permitted it to happen. Witness her "crying moment" in New Hampshire. The media was cynical from day 1 (As they should have been). Contrast that with the "Rev. Wright--I could no more disown him than my own white grandmother speech". The media accepted the bogus template completely.
I will vote for Obama in November because
- I'm a yellow dog dem and I want my party to rule the country
- Obama will appoint better judges than McCain
--Obama will work to make the criminal justice system more effective than McCain will.
-Obama supports a strong government to give people a fair chance to succeed and so do I.
-Obama supports gun control and so do I.
The policy reasons go on and on, but that's not why Democrats chose Obama and why he is being celeberated today.
It is sad that Democrats have chosen because of his race.
Many white Democrats saw/see this as their opportunity to solidify their black vote for the rest of their life and they have taken it.
This was the wrong way to make history. It has been done numerous times the right way:
Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court
Jackie Robinson in MLB
various ceo's in business(we couldn't name them all if we tried)
Colin Powell in the military
The proper way to break a barrier like this was to run a qualified African American, win fair and square based on the issues, and then recognize the achievement afterwards.
Once again, Obama can change all of this tonight, by acknowledging the above, and saying he should be judgeed on the merits. Either way, he and Michelle (yeah right!) will still love this country as a fair place and the best place to live.
Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!
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