Obama makes himself the black candidate

Despite the months long media silence as to the background of one of the two leftists running for the Democratic Party’s nomination, Senator Obama has unwittingly been the victim of a firestorm caused by his pastor’s recorded sermons. Senator Clinton, who until this week has been silent, is now all too willing to start talking about this in an attempt to divert attention from her again being exposed as a prevaricator. But back to Obama; As a “gen-x’er” I grew up with admiration for the words and public deeds of Martin Luther King, the other clergy and the regular citizens who risked their well being and, in some cases, gave their lives to the cause of equality of freedom. And with full disregard for the leftist undercurrent by some in the movement, I still find the basic cause laudable and what any person who believes in liberty and our founding principles must support. As such, I am of a belief that one needs to take people at “face-value” short of any other information. And that is the way I believe I have conducted myself through the years in my dealing with people of all backgrounds. It is this mindset, which really equates to fairness and honesty that underlie the only precepts we should expect our government to ensure. And it is that which I believe is the least we should expect our candidates for president to believe in. But this seems not to be the case with the Senator from Illinois. I believe that, aside from the need for political credibility among the disaffected Africa-Americans in his state, which would be bolstered by being a congregant in such a church as he was, Reverend Wright’s sermons were the Obama’s kind of message anyway. The Senator has been caught off guard at the second worst time (for himself) possible. He has tried to convince us that he was never in church when certain incendiary statements were made. For “white” Americans this seems incredible. Few in the white community would tell you that the statements made by Reverend Wright wouldn’t be the talk of the town for months afterward. And we are to further believe that with the number of congregants that church has, someone else wouldn’t have telephoned “The rising star of the Democratic Party” to tell him that he had better keep a healthy distance from the Reverend? All this has given many good Democrats and those who for some reason just find it exciting to vote for an African-American, great pause. These people are now wondering if this is the way all African-Americans view this country and the people in it. One thing good Americans will not countenance, it is being called racist. The average American still understands we have spent more than our share of blood and treasure feeding, freeing, healing, housing, clothing and defending millions of people here and around the world who are much different than we in many ways. And for all Democrats, save the hardcore leftists with B.D.S. (Bush Derangement Syndrome) and other conspiracy disorders, the Reverend attacked the “righteousness of our government’s intervention and control”, blasphemy to even moderate Democrats. So the effect inside the Democratic Party will be to re-relegate the “black” vote to simply another factional appendage they just have to keep marginally satisfied.

Those who were going to vote for Obama, for reasons other than he was the better leftist, would have voted for him because he was the first black candidate who didn’t constantly remind them about race, as they said, “he transcended race”. And, as white Americans seem to now be precluded from talking about the problems in the poor black communities, this suited most of Obama’s supporters just fine; their inability to speak about these issues had been conveniently supplanted by people like Bill Cosby and his willingness to take it on and be called names instead. Thus making it in the minds of many whites: “the black’s problem now.”

But again we, the people, are the victims of the media industrial complex. The national media has been silent about the questions and issues posed by Obama’s Republican opponent in his senatorial bid, Alan Keyes. Had Barack Obama’s background as well as his limited yet fully left leaning votes and policy remarks been looked at more closely and disseminated months ago, he may not have been foisted on all the well meaning Democrats by the absolute leftists who now control the party. This serves neither Democrats nor Republicans well. And while it will serve John McCain, it doesn’t reflect the proper average mindset and will thereby produce a result similar to that which we have seen in recent years in places like France and Holland where a “radical” candidate is pitted against the “moderate” in a sweeping runoff election only to lose big. This election may prove to be not much different than John Kerry’s loss in 2004 by four million votes.

I understand many in this society cannot yet take the African-American at face value. I believe suspicion about affirmative action playing a role in one’s position is always on the minds of people of all persuasions. This aside, Barack Obama has done the cause of a color-blind society a great disservice in first defending his pastor and next telling all about his grandmother’s private but “racist” undertones. And for many of us long ready to get beyond race and see only the content of one’s character, it will now probably take another decade to get past the myriad of factors which brought us Senator Obama’s message that race is on “his people’s” minds and should be on ours.