OBAMA: THE
LAMEST OF LAME DUCKS
THE RACE
ABOUT RACE
TAGS: REPUBLICANS GAIN SENATE MAJORITY, DEMOCRATS
RAN AWAY
FROM
PRESIDENT, OBAMA ILL-PREPARED FOR HIS OFFICE,
RACIAL
UNDERCURRENTS, OVERT RACISM IN CAMPAIGNS,
AMERICA
WAS “NOT READY” FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA
(Wednesday November 5, 2014
Washington, DC) There is no need for
extensive post-election analysis. No
time should be spent by commentators and pundits, pollsters and political
operatives espousing their own pet theories regarding the huge red wave that
swept Republicans into Office from coast to coast. The Republicans now control the Senate and
the House of Representatives and, the agenda is theirs to set. They now have legislative carte blanche to do as they please and
in the process can dismantle as many of the legislative actions President Obama has signed
into law in the last six years. After
all, that is what this election was all about.
To claim otherwise is to be disingenuous at best, naive’ or at
worst. The fallacy of a “post-racial”
America was always just that – a fallacy; a sort of haze that first seemed to
offer hope but rapidly revealed the true nature of our society, our politics
and especially our politicians.
For openers Dick Cheney and
his moronic sidekick George W. Bush made Barak Obama possible. Had it not been for the monumentally disastrous
eight years of Cheney and Bush, their wars of choice, the financial collapse
and all the ramifications and fallout from what could have been a complete
financial collapse akin to the Great depression of 1929, the country never
would have voted in a landslide for an unknown, untested, first term junior
Senator from Illinois with the exotic sounding name. By the time Cheney and Bush were in their
last years in the White House the country was exhausted from all that had taken
place under their negligent, inept, neo-con pleasing watch. People wanted change and, for many reasons
that have been studied and analyzed, a broad coalition of the voting public saw
Obama as an agent of change, while others would have voted for a turnip; anyone
to wash the sour taste of the Bush/Cheney debacle out of their mouths.
The country was clearly not
“ready” for a Black president. It cannot
be said any simpler. Not only was the
country not ready for an African American in the White House, they were surely
not prepared for this particular man, this particular Black man. After his first inauguration he was granted a
honeymoon of a sort as the Congress and Washington insiders slowly observed and
studied the man looking for cues as to what made him tick, what indelible core
beliefs did he hold and would be willing to fight for, what would be his
agenda? It did not take the Congress and the
other rabid wolves in Washington, DC to size him up as a cautious, contemplative cat;
an unemotional, seemingly untroubled intellect that would approach the many and
varied demands of his Office in his own unique style. But it was more than “style” that puzzled the
seasoned politicos. What they initially
perceived as style was actually the true man; he was the way he was because
that is the way he is. He is a
self-contained, hard to read, slow to anger, contemplative, thoughtful
intellectual and he brought all those inherent traits to the most difficult job in
the country. He was not what anyone
expected and his honeymoon was short lived.
The rapid rise of Obama was
propelled not only by the public’s weariness from the Cheney/Bush years; there
was a huge grassroots effort to register voters in minority communities, young
people on college campuses and others who were unaccustomed to or had never
voted before. Yes, it was indeed a broad
coalition; a potent force powerful enough to defeat the durable, well-oiled “Clinton
Machine” that was at Hillary’s disposal during the bruising primary. Once the
primary was over and Obama was the Democrat’s standard bearer, the real "retail
politicking” began in earnest and it became a self-perpetuating beast feeding
off the uncharacteristic engagement of so many regular citizens and, of course,
a tsunami of Hollywood money, trial lawyers donations, and other left-leaning organizations and
individuals and their fat wallets.
Obama was a good
campaigner. He drew ever increasingly
large crowds of vocal supporters and fed off their energy often delivering
soaring rhetoric with a Baptist preacher’s cadence. But he would soon find out that his Office
required far, far more than inspiring oratory; he had work to do in the face of
what would come to be the most recalcitrant, obstructionist, partisan, corrupt,
bigoted opposition Party in Congress than ever before had been seen in American
politics. The sleazy, turkey-necked slug
from Kentucky, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised in a speech
just days after the President’s inauguration to make President Obama, “A one
term President”. The open warfare between the
new President and the sharp elbowed Republicans on The Hill was declared.
Once Barak Obama became
President Obama the ugly “dog whistle” catch phrases and turns of phrases were
amplified. The “birthers” accusations
that he was an illegitimate President vociferously claiming without evidence that he was born in Kenya and that he
was a closet Muslim with an “anti-American” agenda consumed untold hours of
talk radio and cable “newsertainment” programs.
The Right said that he had associated with radical groups such as the
Black Panthers while in college and controversial African American activists
while working in Chicago. The Right was
merciless, vile but oh so effective. They
raised so many issues without relenting that President Obama’s popularity poll
numbers went into a slow but steady decline by his first summer in Office.
By 2008 Americans were tired;
the eight previous years had taken their toll.
Beginning with the al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and
the omnipresent risk of more terrorist activity here at home while one percent
of our sons and daughters fought wars on two distant and separate – actually
disparate – fronts, the notion of endless war began to eat away at the national
psyche; a psyche with a miserably short attention span accustomed to a fast
paced, interconnected culture. Then the
banks began to fail. Their criminal
recklessness, sleazy financial practices with no government or other oversight,
and the bursting of the “housing bubble” saw many people loose homes, life
savings and jobs. As the unemployment
rate rose there emerged a segment of the populace who had fallen off the
radar. These folks were the ranks of
millions of “long-term unemployed” ineligible for government benefits as well
as the millions of under-employed workers struggling to earn a living wage
often working more than one job.
Nationwide the squeeze was on the shrinking “middle class” with no
tangible, practical relief in sight.
Though the genesis of each of these bleeding open wounds to our economy
were the result of Cheney/Bush actions or inactions, it was head spinning to
watch as the Right Wing deftly placed the blame for all of it squarely at the
feet of our new President. With a
unified, defiant, and determined Republican Party ready to launch a full
frontal assault on the new Administration and Obama in particular, for some
reason the White House and the Democratic Party allowed the Republican Party to
write the narrative that quickly became recognized as truth by ill and under
informed citizens. Their anger grew with
their frustration.
But there was much more than
that at work in society. The cold
undercurrent of racism coursed through what counted as the political discourse
of the day. People began to see, with
the prodding of conservative politicians and right wing media, President Obama as a disengaged, aloof “empty suit” and by his nature he would not counter
their arguments and assertions; he took the high road and was determined to
remain above the fray. He profoundly
misjudged the sentiments on The Hill as well as the amount of power he actually
had as President. He did not have the
long Congressional resume that other Presidents had; he had not been in the
Senate long enough to develop relationships that he could have enlisted to navigate
legislation through that slow moving chamber.
The naïve’ idealism of many
joined by those who voted for Obama in the hope that once he and his family
stepped over the threshold at 1600 – Pennsylvania Avenue, that his Presidency
would usher in a new dawn, a “post-racial” America. Unfortunately, just the opposite occurred. Once in the White House and in the seat of
power it did not take long before the thin layer of dust of overt racism that had settled over the
years, that has always been just below the surface in segments of our society,
was blown away and the insidious serpent of bigotry and racism re-awakened.
In our society tectonic shifts
happen at a glacial crawl. Cleary in
2008 we were not at all ready for a Black President. Even the most cursory examination of our
history since the end of World War II is ripe with examples of groups of people
seeking civil rights, equality in employment and housing, as well as all the
Constitutional rights Caucasian Americans are automatically granted by
birthright. Yes, the pace of change in
America is slow. It was 80 years after
our Civil War that African Americans began to be afforded equal and voting
rights and all the same protections under the law as are available to White
Americans. Many of the African Americans
of a certain age who cast their vote for Barak Obama were merely one generation
removed from slavery. All Americans born
up to the mid to late 1950’s can recall the various “White Only” and “Black
Only” sections of buses, diners, water fountains and many other places. So the promise of a President Obama was
inflated and doomed to burst; the widespread resentment and some outright
hatred cast a pall over parts of the country, blocs of citizens who did not
believe we should have a Black President simply because we never have.
Everything President Obama did
was scrutinized, dissected, and ultimately found to be flawed or misguided by
the Republicans. He never received any
credit for some of the actions he took immediately after he took Office to save
the failing “Big Three” automobile manufacturers, extend unemployment benefits,
pass a stimulus package, all without any support on the other side of the
aisle. The slender Senate majority he
had to work with was often too concerned with how their constituents would view
their votes and some Democrats did not support the President’s initiatives
fearing a backlash back in their home district.
It can be argued that the
Presidency of Barak Obama has set racial relations in America back perhaps as
far as a generation. This is the result
of the misguided concept of what we “need” in our elected officials. There are many ethnic and racial groups that
have not been represented in the highest positions in the government and we
elect candidates because “we haven’t had (insert race, gender or ethnicity)
yet.” Obama’s Presidency clearly illustrates just how much further we
need to go before we are truly ready for the best candidate based on experience
and merit; not one who is meant to pacify one group or another.
The 2016 presidential race is already
gearing up and many on the Left and in the Democratic Party see Hillary Clinton
as their standard bearer. Her candidacy
should be based on her experiences, intellect, knowledge and merit, not her
gender. We should not elect Hillary
Clinton simply because we haven’t had a woman president before. Change in American politics and society is at
a snail’s pace and any efforts to accelerate change usually backfire in
dreadful ways.
.
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