Bush/Obama Administration?

The average American looks up, they distrust politicians in general and they don't think they've been told the truth, and I think they got good reason. They've watched a Bush/Obama spending cycle that began with a stimulus package last year which failed at $180 billion, a housing package in August which fail--or July which failed at $345 billion, a Wall Street bailout at $700 billion, a Federal Reserve guarantee of $4 trillion; a stimulus package of $787 billion, which we're now being told weeks later isn't big enough, but which had to be passed so quickly no one could read it, because we had to get it out there immediately.[1]

I saw the new, old face of the Republican Party this weekend on a Sunday talk show and I was shocked at the new tact of the Republicans. According to Newt Gingrich the last eight years has been the Bush/Obama administration. Who knew? In an effort to once again fasten President Obama to the current economic meltdown the new strategy appears to be to unite him to the failed policies of the Bush administration. The once revered George W. has now been turned into a tax and spend liberal by the very same people who heralded his accent to power. These people have no shame. They are willing to throw Bush under the bus for the sake of some political advantage that doesn’t exist. Do they think that the public is so incompetent that they don’t know the difference between Bush and Obama for the last eight years? Here’s a hint Obama is the tall, dark one.

So are we to assume that the last eight years were not Republican run as we were led to believe by their policies and their utter failure? So Republicans were not the ones who put the economy and our nation on the road to a “China Syndrome”. You have to hand it to them though that is innovative. You attach the incoming administration not only from another Party but another galaxy to the previous failed administration which happened to have been from your Party. My guess is that the goal of this strategy is to try and reduce the amount of patience the American people will have with the new President since he has been in office for the past eight years and hasn’t done anything.

Now for those following at home here is the latest. Not only did President Obama not inherit this economy he actually caused the economy to crash as a member of the Bush administration. Theoretically he has not been in office for only two months after all so his policies don’t deserve anytime to work. After all they are the same big spending, big government policies of that other liberal stalwart George W. Bush. How Mr. Gingrich can expect any national political aspirations to be taken seriously following comments like these are beyond me. But considering no one on the panel gave them a second look maybe he knows something I don’t. The problem with Mr. Gingrich and all of his new and old GOP faces is not that they are new or old; it is that their ideas are old. The GOP continues to repackage their “new” faces with the same failed ideas. I mean to try and pretend that the Republicans outside of George Bush had nothing to do with what is happening in the country today is ludicrous.

Mr. Gingrich would rather join his other political cohorts and fiddle while the empire burns and continue to be apologists for the wealthy than pitch in and help. For anyone to say it is unfair for the taxes of the wealthy to be raised after decades of tax-breaks and inequitable distribution of wealth is completely out of step with the mood of the country. For anyone to argue against giving 95% of working Americans a tax-break they are out of step with the mood of the country and the polls attest to this fact. While Mr. Gingrich and the other ignore the polls munchkins continue to try and deny his popularity the President’s numbers continue to rise. Now the new line is that the President has popularity but doesn’t have credibility with the people. Let’s be clear it is not the President that doesn’t have credibility it is the bankers, politicians, and talking heads that have no credibility. The public is tired of hearing about bankers and wall-streeters who continue to take bail-out money and hoard it or continue to live in a culture of a by-gone era. The public is tired of politicians who refuse to understand that they are hurting and “Just say no” is not an option. The public is tired of media-types who live in a bubble telling them who is at fault and who to trust.

Mr. Gingrich there was no Bush/Obama White House and until the Republicans can acknowledge their role in this economic melt-down and begin to articulate a new strategy that addresses these problems they have no credibility with the public. The public is not willing to ignore the last eight years or pretend they never happened. Until the Republicans can acknowledge their failures they are doomed to repeat them, but not at the expense of this nation. You can’t start a fire and then charge the firefighters with arson. The best thing the Republicans can do to avoid another 50 years in the wilderness is to begin to help craft real legislation that will turn this economy around at least then the Democrats won’t be able to take full credit for the salvation of our country.

[1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/13090517/Meet-the-Press-March-8-2009-Transcript-and-Video-Link

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Who Is In Charge?

Meanwhile, the effort to foist all blame for this mess on the private sector continues unabated when most of the blame for this current debacle can be laid at the feet of the Congress and a couple of former presidents. And there is a strategic reason for this[1]

It's too big a business for the left to keep all those things alive that divide the people of this country into groups that are against each other. Yes, I'm fired up about this.[2]

So Rush Limbaugh is now the leader of the Republican Party? I love this. You mean to tell me that when the majority of the country is trying to come together and solve some of the biggest crisis’ in our time you have this hot air, blow hard saying he hopes we fail just so Republicans can come back to power? And this is the guy you want to have out in front of your party? This is the reason why the Republican Party is headed for extinction they are either unwilling or unable to adapt to the future. They continue to want to cling to an America that is past. Rather than have the humility to do some self-examination they continue to press an agenda that was soundly defeated and one which many Americans are tired of.

For the past two years the American people vetted both the Democratic candidates and the Republican candidates and made their decision. The Republican’s offered the country more tax-cuts and Joe the plumber. President Barack Obama was very open about what he planned to do to stimulate the economy. The American people made their decision. For the Republicans to ignore the will of the people further illustrates their contempt for the people of America. The President has tried to reach out to Republicans to try to bring them on board and they respond by offering the same tired rhetoric and ideas that created this mess in the first place. No, Rush this economic crisis was not created by the Congress and a couple of former Presidents. To quote the dean from “Animal House”, “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

What does this say about a political party when their leader is a radio talk show host? Are the Democrats now going to elect Keith Oberman head of the Democratic Party? What many don’t understand is that Rush Limbaugh has never run for any political office that I am aware of. He is an entertainer; and not a very good one. He will twist facts, outright lie, and say the most partisan things he can to get ratings. Are the Republicans so devoid of ideas and leaders that they have to rely on Rush Limbaugh to show them the way? I think this is great because the way he is leading is a dead end. The vaunted Republican base is shrinking not expanding. The last two elections showed that. Based on the current tactics being employed by Rush and his underlings it is going to shrink even smaller. What do they think there is some large majority of whites who believe in tax-cuts for the wealthy, bailing out the corporations, nation building, and working at Wal-Mart? Are you kidding me?

The problem with Rush Limbaugh and many like him is that they live in a bubble of privilege and echo chambers. They are surrounded by only those who share their opinions so they begin to believe that they have more power and influence than they do. In the hood we call it they believe their own hype. For Rush Limbaugh to say that the Democrats want to continue to keep the country divided would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic. Rush, were you at the Republican Convention? It was full of pasty old white guys. And you call this the Party that wants to unite America? I assume they plan to do this through promoting tax-cuts for the wealthy, bans on abortions, and reducing the government to the treasury and the defense departments?

I’m sorry but any Party that is willing to stake its political future on the opinions and pronouncements of Rush Limbaugh deserves to become the next “No Nothing” Party. Once again we see that in a culture that has no long-term values or belief system the “cult of personality” trumps the logic of reason. The very culture that he decries is the true vehicle of his power and success. If we really did live in the world that he claims to desire he would be just another fat middle-aged white dude at the family picnic with his shirt unbuttoned to the waist instead of a fat pampered and pompous entertainer. Long live the King!

[1] http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/01/24/rush-limbaugh-responds-president-obama
[2] http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_011609/content/01125113.guest.html

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I Am Already Tired Of Obamania

Even though it hasn’t even been a month into the Obama Presidency I am already tired of Obamania. Let’s be clear I am not tired of President Obama, but I am getting extremely tired of everyone invoking his name and attaching it to any pet cause they happen to favor. It’s as though by doing so they add instant legitimacy to their cause. I am reminded of how modern Christians have for decades done the same with the name of Jesus or God; attaching Him to all types of doctrines and circumstances He may or may not favor.

As an active member of my community I have been to neighborhood meetings, local and state political gatherings and the theme has been the same. I refer to it as the “Obama effect”. Due to the historic nature and the grass roots precedence set by the Obama campaign and his election many believe that this “effect” will automatically translate into an outpouring of community involvement and activism. I even heard one gentlemen refer to time as BB (before Barack) and AB (after Barack). Ok folks let’s get a grip. We have not passed into some magical kingdom where CEO’s and bankers are no longer driven by greed, where parents are suddenly willing to be responsible for their children, and every citizen is now an active educated member of our democracy.

First of all, no one knows what the effects of the election of President Obama will have in the future body politic. No one knows if the grass roots community will continue to turn out for local and statewide elections. No one knows if this was an isolated alignment in history of the right man being in the right place at the right time. While I think it is important to try and use the President’s popularity and the grass roots mechanism to advance a progressive agenda. I, like many others hope that the recent awakening from the state of lethargy of many who had never been involved or had given up on the process will be a continuing phenomenon. The truth is none of us really knows if they will. Just because folks showed up for Barack Obama doesn’t mean they will show up for Bob Smith.

Here are my two main problems with the current strategy of some to cloak all issues in Obamania. The first is when you rely too heavily on the popularity of anyone or anything you actually diminish its popularity. What happens is that people get tired of the constant bombardment. Think of all the people and products that have over-saturated our consciousness and their eventual fate. Many people mistakenly believe that the success of the Obama campaign can be replicated in other areas that may not have direct connections or applications. We have a tendency in this country to think that success in one area or of one individual is directly transferable to all areas and individuals. A simple search of our movies, television shows, and music will bear out our desire as a culture to clone success and its elusiveness.

The second problem I have is that when you rely on the “cult of personality” your programs or policies rise and fall with the popularity of that personality. As we ride the wave of Obama popularity it is easy to believe that he will always be this popular. He won’t be! What many failed to understand is that it wasn’t just that Barack Obama was popular that made his improbable election possible. The key was that he offered ideas and addressed issues that resonated with the people. If your policy or issue is worthwhile it should be able to stand on its own merits. The methodology and tactics may be replicable, but you can have the best organization but if the issues or policies are crappy you won’t be successful. The issues and policies must drive the agenda and in some cases today this is not always the case. A policy or issue must rise or fall based on its value not its association to a popular personality. If a policy or issue is good it doesn’t need the hype and if it isn’t then the hype won’t make it so. Associating bad policy to Obama will not only tarnish President Obama but also those affected by those policies.

It would be easy and attractive for progressives on the local and state levels to believe that invoking the Obama campaign will instantly translate into support, but the real lessons of the Obama campaign is that hard work married to the right policies will garner public support. If you craft the right policies or come down on the right side of the issues I think the public will respond based on the issues and not the hype. The worst thing we can do is to use this time of opportunity to push through the wrong policies and issues and once again alienate or discourage these newly invigorated people. These dispirited individuals could present long-term consequences and again be lost for generations.

So in moving forward may I suggest that we imitate the hard work of organizing and mobilizing people based on the Obama model, but that we do not use the Obama campaign as some sort of holy talisman used to legitimize bad policy.

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Gitmo or Else?

With President Obama’s announcement that he plans to close Guantanamo within a year there has been an increasingly vocal segment of the population sounding the terrorist alarm. The biggest concern being echoed is what to do with these 250 avowed and unrepentant terrorists who surely if they were released would go back and continue their destructive ways. I found it interesting that following his announcement it was released that a one-time detainee who was released from Guantanamo is now the deputy leader of the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen as if to further undermine closing the base by the military community.

The problem I have with the release of the report is that it is sensationalism and simplistic. There is no discussion or debate of the fact that just like with Iraq we may have created terrorists by our response to the terrorist threat. In the haste to locate and prosecute terrorists it is now being confirmed that there were many innocent people who were held and tortured. Rather than acknowledge that our reaction to the threat may have in turn increased the threat we ignore it and continue our reactionary policies. Who knows how many otherwise neutral observers we have turned into terrorist through our prosecution of terrorist? The chicken hawks would have us believe that this is irrelevant, but in fact it is relevant in how we proceed in prosecuting this so-called war. If we continue creating terrorists where none existed before our efforts will be unfruitful and counter-productive.

So the question has now become what to do with these terrorist suspects now being held at Guantanamo and any future suspects we may capture during this ongoing war against terror? Are we to continue to prosecute them by military tribunal, our federal court system, or some hybrid of the two? And once found guilty where will these convicted terrorists be housed for the remainder of their incarceration? While these questions seem new and vitality important the truth is they are not new. 9/11 was not the first terrorist attack on American soil or the first terrorist plot to attack the US mainland.

There have been 3 terrorist attacks on US soil and I think it is important to review how the first 2 were treated and prosecuted to our discussion of current policy. The first was the original al Qaeda plot to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993 and the second was the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In both cases we were able to prosecute and sentence the defendants using our current justice system with some modifications. I don’t understand why in order to prosecute these defendants currently held in Guantanamo we need to create a separate justice system? The problem with using a separate military justice system is you give a form of legitimacy to the notion that these are war crimes when in fact they are not. Terrorism is a criminal act perpetrated by criminals. It is not a legitimate and recognizable form of war and it never has been. These people need to be treated like the criminals they are. We should not have to sacrifice our principles of democracy to bring these criminals to justice. Without the rule of law we open ourselves up to the real possibility that we are extracting revenge and not justice.

If these people are in fact enemy combatants then they need to be treated like prisoners of war. We must accept the possibility that not every enemy combatant is a terrorist. If they are prisoners of war then they are the responsibility of the military in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The problem with the Bush administration is that they wanted the best of both worlds. They wanted to hold the prisoners in both terrorist and prisoner of war status. Declaring their status only as it suited their aims not necessarily based on the facts at hand. This arbitrary justice created the atmosphere that allowed torture and imprisonment of innocents. As long as we keep these people in an undeclared status we open ourselves up to the calls of hypocrisy and undermine our own democratic principles.

Despite the hyperbole and demagoguery of the Republicans speaking as if our only two choices are Gitmo or allowing the terrorists to walk American streets, we have many other options. Despite their recent defeats at the polls and in public opinion polls the Republicans are still clinging to their number one and what seems to be their only tactic left; fear. If we close Gitmo we will have terrorists living in our communities. What these fear mongers fail to disclose is that we have already had terrorists “living” in our communities. They have been living in prisons and for many years these prisons have managed to protect us from all sorts of nefarious characters. However, in order to advance their agenda the Republicans would have us believe that these terrorists somehow possess super-human traits that make it impossible to house them anywhere but Guantanamo. These people are just ordinary humans. I guess if you give them super-natural powers it justifies your inability to capture or defeat them.

As far as housing these convicted terrorists I find it hard to believe that a country with over 2 million people incarcerated cannot find a way to house these criminals in a humane and secure manor. Let’s face it we lead the world in incarceration rates so what’s another 250 or so more? We must no longer continue to allow the perceived threat to override the principals we stand for. If we do that those principles will have little meaning not only to the rest of the world but to us as well. We have to begin to bring some transparency to these proceedings or they will always be viewed by the rest of the world as tainted by Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram.

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The Sleeping Giant Has Awakened

As I have watched the early hours of the new Obama administration taking charge of the levers of power one thing is apparent. From the massive turnout at the inauguration to the overwhelming receptions being received by his cabinet it is clear that the most damage done by the Bush administration was not to the general public, although we were damaged severely but to the apparatus of government. For eight years the Bush administration worked to try and dismantle the government from the inside.

It has been the goal of every Republican administration since the “New Deal” to try and undo its social framework and safety nets created by the Roosevelt administrations. From its over-reaching policies of Food Stamps for the poor, Social Security for the old, and that communist inspired doctrine of equal pay for equal work they have tried to sabotage them. Each and every Republican administration has had the goal to a varying degree and a platform to undermine the “New Deal” which the Republicans have always viewed as unconstitutional and unnecessary. From Reagan’s “New Federalism” to George W’s. attempts to privatize Social Security the pattern is clear. What most Americans don’t realize is that George W. almost succeeded in the long sought after Republican goal of dismantling the “New Deal” not through legislation, but instead by bankrupting the federal government. Why else would anyone in their right mind in the middle of two wars give out tax-cuts to the wealthy if their goal was not to bankrupt the government. There was a day when the Republicans supposedly stood for fiscal conservatism, not any longer. Think about it; if you can’t shutdown a department through legislation the next best thing to do is to bankrupt the government. If there isn’t any money for those departments then they can only perform their missions on a limited basis or not at all. There would be no money for regulatory agencies, education, or for Medicaid/Medicare. Instead of using a scalpel the Bush administration was using a chainsaw to gut the federal government. He was going to starve the programs designed to help the poor and the middle-class while at the same time feeding the greed of the wealthy through deregulation.

If we look at the record it is abundantly clear what the plan was. He would provide tax-cuts for the wealthy, fight two wars, and allow the greed of Wall Street to go unchecked. All of this of course would strain the federal government to the breaking point. Because of our “war posture” we couldn’t cut defense spending leaving our domestic programs as the only way to cut spending. The result is we starve these programs to death. George W. leaves behind the biggest foreign and economic fiascos in the history of this country. Do not be fooled. I originally thought it was due to sheer incompetence, but as all this plays out it is something more ominous. We have all assumed that Bush was just a likeable bumbling fool with good if not misguided intentions. I now disagree with that assessment because underneath that persona of ineptitude hid a conniving and sinister man with a definite agenda.

Not only was his goal to bankrupt the government, he also sowed the seeds of distrust and bad morale in the institutions of our government. Shortly after the Iraq War began he allowed the Defense Department in the person of Donald Rumsfeld to take over the State Department ending a long tradition of diplomacy as an even partner with defense. He politicized and morally bankrupted the Justice Department through the use of torture and domestic surveillance programs. Instead of appointing competent bureaucrats he appointed political hacks evidenced by the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina. These are just too many coincidences. No one is this incompetent and rises to the most powerful position in the free world.

But there is a new day in America. Those of us who have been sleepwalking and living a nightmare for the last eight years have finally stopped hitting the snooze button. All over America millions are getting up and starting the task of remaking America. We are restoring more than just our physical infrastructure we are also restoring our moral infrastructure as well. And judging by the reception Secretary Clinton received upon her arrival at State it is long overdue. I would venture to guess that the reception to Secretary Holder will be just as dramatic at the Justice Department. This nation, this government with all its citizens and employees are awakening to the call for change. I don’t think we realized the strain that so many of our federal employees were toiling under with the Bush administration. I think now that the national nightmare is over there will be a litany of revelations from current and former employees of the many illegal and immoral deeds done by the Bush administration in the name of security.

The alarm has sounded. The call to action has been made. I believe that there will be an outpouring of spirit and volunteerism the likes of which this nation has never seen. I caution the Republicans still standing you do not want to be on the wrong side of this tidal wave. Once the sleeping giant awakens there is often backlash, anger, and frustration. We are heading in a new direction and foolish is the man who thinks that he can stop it or reverse it.

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If You Were Not Moved

I don’t care what your political persuasion, race, ethnicity, or nationality if you were not moved by today’s inauguration then I am afraid you have no idea what America is about. The America that you stand for is crumbling around you under the weight of its own inadequacies. If your idea of America is based in fear, intolerance, and division the inauguration of President Barack Obama has sounded the death knell to your vision. I hope that the remaining Republican politicians that are left soaked up the spectacle of 2 million Americans from all races and walks of life coming together to witness the changing of the guard and I think in a way to ensure its completion. Let there be no doubt that the people will no longer tolerate politics as usual.

There is a new spirit in America and it was palpable at the inauguration. You could see it on the faces of the people and not just the average person but also the politicians, celebrities, and the security personnel. This level of excitement I personally have not witnessed since the days of John Kennedy. Though still a child at the time I sensed that something was different on that day and unfortunately I have not sensed it since. Not until today.

We as a nation have been given a call to arms and I am curious to see our response to it. Is this generation willing to as President Obama put it; “to pick itself up, dust itself off, and get to work” cleaning up the mess that America has become? Not only are we willing to do it, but can we do it in a way that provides opportunity for all and sacrifice by all? That I think will be the difficulty of our task to be able to put aside the defects and faults of the past and move forward together. Let’s not be fooled there are still those who have profited from our petty bickering and resentments from past wrongs and they will not for a moment just sit idly by while their years of sowing discord is dismissed without a fight. I believe that the election of Barack Obama has demonstrated for those who have eyes to see that the tide has turned. There are now more of us seeking change and reconciliation than there are those who continue to be haunted by the past. There will be no national unity trials for past grievances. President Obama has made it abundantly clear that his focus is on the future and not blinded by the past.

I think the image that stood out the most to me and I think will have the biggest impact in the days and years to come was the image of Malia and Sasha walking into the inauguration. That image was so powerful on so many levels. It spoke to the old in that it signaled newness of life and it spoke to the young that today anything is indeed possible. The image of two little black girls being catered to and fawned over by a nation is mindboggling and in my opinion way overdue. How many times have we had pictures of lost and murdered little white girls splashed across our screens and little if any acknowledgment of their young black sisters who had suffered the same fate? Maybe, just maybe this will demonstrate that we as a nation have enough love for all of our children, even those who don’t look like us.

I don’t know about you but in my sight the Statue of Liberty is standing just a little taller and her flame just a little brighter today.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! – Dr. Martin Luther King

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Americans, We Can Do Anything

One of my earliest memories -- going with my grandfather to see some of the astronauts being brought back after a splashdown, sitting on his shoulders and waving a little American flag. And my grandfather would say, boy, Americans, we can do anything when we put our minds to it." – Barack Obama

One of the most often quoted and I think one of the most profound moments in President Barack Obama’s life is this memory he has of him and his grandfather watching an Apollo rocket splashdown after a space mission. What was it about this moment that transformed a skinny black kid into believing that he could be President of the United States? The difference I believe is the difference that separates us as a nation and us a culture. You see when we are young we all want to believe that we can do anything in this world that we want to do. The problem is that at some point our reality breaks with our dreams. Something happens where some of us stop believing that we can do anything. For some reason when an immigrant black or a white person tells their child that they can do anything, they actually believe it. Unfortunately, American blacks do not speak with that same conviction.

The reason Barack Obama was able to use that moment and take it with him from the island of his youth to the halls of power was because he believed what his grandfather told him. No matter as a parent what you tell your child, if that child does not believe that you believe what you say it will mean little to their lives. It is sort of like the parent smoking weed and telling the child not to do drugs; it sort of loses something in the translation. Many blacks born and raised in America when they speak of the opportunities provided by America to rise above one’s circumstances do not speak with that same conviction and our children have suffered for it. Unlike many today while I celebrate this historic inauguration of President Barack Obama, I wonder where the next black President will will come from. Will his inauguration challenge a new generation to believe that they too can rise above their circumstances and dare to dream? I think that regardless of what a parent may have suffered at the hands of a society it is incumbent upon that parent to stoke the flames of their children’s dreams and their ambitions. If not then all we pass along to our children is hopelessness and bitterness.

If we truly believe that we are Americans and we can do anything then let us use this historic time to ensure that the dreams of all of our children can be realized by providing learning and training opportunities for all of them. We must begin to provide real concrete evidence of change and not symbolic gestures. For too long opportunity has only been reserved for a limited few. We must expand opportunity to all who are willing to pursue it. Instead of providing tax-cuts and bonus money to those who don’t need it we should begin to use that money to elevate those children who believe that they have a better chance at becoming “Scarface” than they do becoming President. It will take a lot of time, money, and effort to reverse these frightening trends. However, beginning today we have an opportunity to affirm to the world and to all in our nation that America really does stand for all of those high ideals we claim it does. I wish I could say it will be easy, but it won’t. When times are hard we have a tendency to become selfish and want to reduce opportunities instead of expanding them. It is precisely this attitude that has gotten us into the position we are in now.

I hope that instead of trying to make America what it once was, we make America what it never was, but what it could have been. I arrive at today so very hopeful not just for my children, but for all of our children. I hope that today when I tell my son he can be whatever he wants to be, I can say it with conviction and that I can believe it.

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You Can Be Whatever You Want To Be?

With today’s historic inauguration of President Barack Obama as the nation’s first black President I wanted to try and put into words what it meant to me as a black man in America. I also wanted to try and put it into an historical content for myself and other black children who grew up during the civil rights era of this country. However, as I began to contemplate the enormity of the event and the history I realized that I was overcome with so many conflicting emotions that I would not be able to present them in any coherent manner and still stay within the constraints of this medium. So I decided to take one aspect and try to focus in on it.

For many black children growing up during and immediately following the civil rights era in America our parents and grandparents began to tell us that we could grow up and be anything we wanted to be. We were told that for the first time in our history we would have opportunities to become engineers, doctors and business people. We were told that if we studied and worked hard we could better ourselves and no longer would we be relegated to being janitors, porters, and sanitation workers. We were told that the dream that was America was slowly unfolding for all of us. In retrospect I wonder how many of these parents and grandparents truly believed those words to be true?

Then we enter 2008, and the implausible and what many considered impossible happened. A majority of Americans were able to overcome our nation’s racist history and stereotypes and elect our first black President. But has the election of President Barack Obama suddenly made these words true? Has his election really taken these words from wishful thinking to reality? I think before we answer we must look at who and what Barack Obama is and what he represents. Unlike many black leaders who came before him Barack Obama did not come out of the civil rights movement or the black church. President Obama is not a child of slavery, but of immigration. President Obama was not raised in the traditional black family, but by whites. So we see that in every basic area of importance to traditional black leadership he is different. How do these differences translate to his ascendancy to power and what are the lessons to be learned for our black children today wanting to make a similar journey?

I think the most important lesson is we as black Americans have to move away from racial identity politics. We have to begin to build collaborations with others. For too long it has been no one can relate to our pain, that pain has become our identity. For too long our leaders have sold us and our children a false narrative. They have clung to an ideology and to tactics that no longer have relevancy or resonate with the people. While these tactics have managed to provide wealth and power to these men they have done little to raise the consciousness or the status of black people as a whole. While these leaders have stressed the responsibility of others they have done little to stress our own responsibility for our conditions. Instead of teaching that with opportunity there is responsibilities they have taught that responsibility owes opportunities. What this has resulted in is a loss of wealth between generations instead of a growth in wealth. Many black children today are in worse economic shape than their parents. Why is this? Why have black children in so many cases been unable to build on the successes of their parents?

What we see with President Obama is that he was raised with the true belief that if he worked hard he could be anything, not just the words. If a child does not see or hear the conviction behind the words that are spoken he will not believe them. If a child believes that even with hard work they cannot succeed then many will give up hope and not even try. And that is what is happening in the black community today, a child believes that they have a better chance to become a rapper or an athlete than to become a doctor or an engineer. In my opinion the most egregious insult to Dr. King’s legacy perpetrated by the so-called black leadership that followed him was that it lost the hope that was Dr. King. Dr. King always looked to tomorrow to be a better day than today and he offered this hope and belief to millions of others. It was this hope that allowed so many to ignore personal hardship and tragedy and to continue to push for equality and justice.

President Obama embodies that hope because when opportunity presented itself he worked hard to be able to take advantage of it. He didn’t believe that just because he was black it was owed to him. Instead of focusing on the past he looked to the future. For so many of us we can’t see tomorrow because we refuse to let go of yesterday. Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Everyone wants to be successful, but nobody wants to put in the hard work. In order for us to move forward we must begin to change our culture towards education, hard work, and responsibility.

You can be anything you want to be black child, but it is going to require hard work, discipline, and hope.

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He Will Be Tested

When Vice-President elect Joe Biden first broached the subject of President-elect Barack Obama being tested in the first few days or months in office by rogue elements in the nefarious underworld of terrorist states and “Axis of Evil” residents the McCain campaign and the RNC couldn’t wait to tout it as some sort of backside endorsement of McCain and his experience. My belief is that while there could be those who may rattle sabers to get a reaction from the new President, the reaction from the world has been one of refreshing good-will even from those elements who were considered unapproachable by the Bush administration. The truth is that President Obama will be tested in the early days of his administration, but it won’t come from those predicted by Biden.

The new President will and already is being tested not by external terrorist, but by internal dissent from the losing Party. Since the election what few Party leaders the Republicans have left have been on a non-stop effort to diminish and tarnish the election of President Obama. The marginalization of President Obama has begun. I guess it isn’t enough to disenfranchise and marginalize millions of American voters since that strategy has failed their next line of attack is to marginalize the election itself. I can understand trying to find a silver lining in the clouds but this is ridiculous. According to these home grown rogues the American electorate did not sign on for any wholesale changes in how the government does business. The fact that they have lost millions of voters obviously has escaped their attention. Another minor detail they have failed to notice was that this election was more than a referendum of George W. Bush; it was a repudiation of the Republican brand. The country has turned the page, but the Republicans have not. They want to continue the same practices that caused them to lose Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Rather than rolling up their sleeves and joining with the rest of us in seeking out what we can do to help this nation, they have already begun to dictate to the next President what he will and won’t be able to do. In the same breathe they talk about bi-partisanship and obstructionism as if this is what the American public voted for. I don’t think so. The choice is simple: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Stagnation and hindering are not opinions in today’s America. The quickest way to ensure that the Republican Party will become a fringe Party is to continue this false narrative of what this election signified. I thought it was just a campaign tactic but now I am convinced that they truly believe that if they say something enough it is either true or will become true. I hope that the Republicans do try to obstruct the new policies and legislation of the President-elect and the Democrats. With the country in free-fall I want to see how they spin doing little or nothing to help middle-class America after offering up 700 billion to the banks and CEO’s. I can’t wait to see how that socialism argument flies with 10% unemployment and millions of foreclosures. Maybe they can talk about abortions or same-sex marriage that ought to help comfort those suffering during this depression.

The true test of the relevancy of the Republican Party will be in their response to the crisis and their willingness to support efforts to fix it. Now, more so than at any time in recent memory President-elect Obama has a bully pulpit, he has mobilized millions of Americans to believe in and expect change. I would not want to be a Republican slowing down any relief for those suffering the most from this crisis. My guess is that they really don’t get it and despite their “Country First” rhetoric they would allow the country to suffer if they thought it would allow them to return to power sooner. We shall witness first hand if the Republicans really are willing to put demagoguery aside for the greater good of their countrymen and if they don’t they will remain adrift in the wilderness of American politics. If they underestimate the political savvy of Obama or the desire for change as they did in the election they will pay dearly. They will create a generation of Democrats that will insure the Democrats majority status for years to come.

The President-elect’s first test will not be from the “Axis of Evil”, but from the “Excesses of Evil”. I guess it isn’t enough to be the authors of the biggest economic meltdown since the Depression through negligence, greed, and tax-cuts for the wealthy, now we want to compound the problem through obstructionist’s tactics. Please Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell do try to block the much needed relief for middle-America; let’s see how that works out for you in 2010. The long-term future of your Party is at stake, I hope you don’t misread the public on this one it will cost you big time. This isn’t the 90’s we are now in uncharted waters with grave dangers for all. I hope you choose wisely.

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They Just Don’t Get It

“In record numbers, Americans voted on Tuesday for a skillful presidential nominee promising change, but "change" should not be confused with a license to raise taxes, drive up wasteful government spending, weaken our security, or give more power to Washington, Big Labor bosses and the trial bar. Americans did not vote for higher taxes to fund a redistribution of wealth; drastic cuts in funding for our troops; the end of secret ballots for workers participating in union elections; more costly obstacles to American energy production; or the imposition of government-run health care on employers and working families.”[1] – John Boehner

Did this guy see the same campaign and election that I saw? In the campaign that I saw President-elect Barack Obama laid out in no uncertain terms what his agenda was and what he wanted to accomplish. There were no hidden innuendos or code words; he stated as a matter of fact what he felt the government’s role was and how he planned to implement that role. And despite Mr. Boehner’s claims to the contrary, the majority of the American public voted to accept this candidate and his agenda. We have seen for the last two election cycles the electorate’s repudiation of the Republican ideas and their tactics and yet they continue to believe that nothing has changed. Many of them feel that the reason they lost was because they weren’t right of center enough. If this continues this Party will be replaced by another one and they will become strictly a regional and rural Party.

My belief is that the Republicans in the Congress are going to become obstructionists as they were during the 90’s. They are exposing to the American people that they are devoid of original thought and so rather than propose they merely condemn. In the current political climate I don’t think the people are going to be responsive to that type of politics. I just hope the Democrats do not respond to this election as they did after the 2006 election with fear and trepidation. If the Republicans goal is to remain adrift in the wilderness then this is the way to do it. Mr. Boehner wrote of Republican ideas to solve the economic crisis but from what I and many of my fellow citizens heard trickledown economics is not going to sell. I think the majority of people are tired of being trickled on, I know I am.

Maybe I am crazy but I thought if you ran on a platform and you won by an impressive margin then you get to enact that platform. Mr. Boehner obviously feels that the margin of victory wasn’t convincing enough. What he refuses to see is not necessarily in the raw numbers of how many, but in who voted for whom. The Republicans may have won the cultural debate but they have lost the intellectual debate. Many of the so-called Reagan Democrats and moderate Republicans voted for President-elect Obama. He won in the 100,000 income group, the 200,000 income group, and with the suburban voters. I have never agreed with the Reagan Democrat lie, those voters are just socially conscious Republicans. If it were not for the die-hard Southerners who many as we know voted on issues besides competence in this election, the rout would have been unprecedented.

President-elect Obama was able to forge a new majority that resembles more of how America resembles. The country is changing and someone forgot to tell the Republicans. President-elect Obama won the Latino vote, the advanced degree vote, and the urban vote. America is becoming darker, smarter, and more urbane and the cultural warfare argument has lost its appeal among these voters. What the Republicans don’t realize is that there are more “other” Americans than there are “real” Americans and that base is shrinking all the time. It’s funny how the Republican apologists have settled on two causes for their defeat and they are the economic downturn and Governor Sarah Palin. I disagree on both counts. While an impending depression does have a tendency to hurt the incumbent party I don’t think that the downturn in and of itself caused the campaign melt-down of Senator McCain. Many point to his small lead in September that vanished with the news of the melt-down. This idea completely ignores two very important facts. The first is that the policies of the Republicans led to this debacle. It wasn’t like this was the result of some unpredictable calamities. The second is that it ignores the response of Senator McCain to the crisis. As far as Governor Palin is concerned granted she was a Hail-Mary but let’s face it McCain was going to lose anyway. This was not the election for two pasty old white dudes to win. That was not what the country was looking for.

So it is my hope that Republicans continue to live in their alternative reality of phony outrage and crisis’s while we continue to offer the new America “a change they can believe in”. I use to think these people were bad people but that is not the case. They just don’t get it and I am not sure they ever will.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110602568.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

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President Obama’s Agenda

It is amazing to me how the Republicans and all of their right-wing friends are trying to minimize the total repudiation they and their policies received at the hands of the electorate. According to these “objective” viewers there was no political realignment. The fact that Obama carried states that hadn’t been carried by a Democrat in years and put into play states that had been lost to Democrats for a generation does not mean that there was a redrawing of the electoral map according to these illustrious men. Their goal is simple to try and keep President Obama and the Democrats from enacting any sweeping legislation, instead hoping that they stay small and do little if anything. My guess is that they hope by trying these scare tactics and keeping the Dems thinking small that in four years if they accomplish little or nothing the Republicans can highlight how a majority Party did nothing to help the voters that elected them.

The Republicans contempt for the intelligence of the American people is infinite. It was only a few years ago that a man who garnered 271 and 286 electoral college votes in two successive elections had a mandate to suspend Habeas Corpus rights, expand government with giveaways to his cronies, and privatize Social Security with their blessings. So I guess based on their logic you only have a mandate and realignment if it meets their criteria and supports their agenda. This talk is why they are becoming more and more irrelevant. I am all for enlisting the support of all Americans for the monumental tasks that we face, but you don’t just get your butt kicked and then try to drive the car; you are lucky to be in the car! What these clowns refuse to see is the same reason they have lost touch with the majority of the American voters and lost the election. When it comes to the major issues facing the American public, they’ve got nothing. This is not the country they thought it was and they can’t accept it.

If I were advising President Obama and the Dems I would advise them to go big and go fast. Strike the iron while it is hot. I would begin with a stimulus package for the poor and the middle-class. I would force the banks to use the bail-out money for what it was designed for to make loans, not to buy other banks. I would then resubmit the SChips healthcare program for children. I would propose funds for states and local governments to ride through this economic crisis and to begin to do the badly needed infrastructure repair. I would look to pass the union registration legislation. I would begin to realign our armed forces to reflect the true nature of the dangers we face. I would invite the UN back into Iraq and give them some real authority to help and stabilize that government. I would then send my diplomats to embark on a worldwide tour to reassure the world that we do respect the world and want to be a part of it again. I would state unequivocally that the United States does not condone torture against anyone. I would enact a 10 year energy plan to make us completely oil free by 2019. I would reinstate and expand the Pell Grant program to help families pay for college for those who are willing and qualified to go. After consultations, I would develop a program to provide healthcare for the millions of Americans who currently don’t have it.

I know that this is a lot to chew on, but we have to remember what George W. and his greedy assed friends have left us with. We must mitigate the vastness of this Depression that we are facing, not wait until we are in the middle of it but while we can make a difference. I also understand that this still leaves plenty of other badly needed things unaddressed, but that was only the first day. We must not allow the naysayers and the small minded to diminish the scope of the critical programs that we need. Of course there will be shouts from the Right about the deficit and big spending liberals, but we must remember we have tried it their way and it didn’t work. A temporary allowance of deficit spending in the middle of a “recession” is not abnormal. Of course they would want us to do nothing because they will be able to ride out the storm and they could use the pain of those who would truly be suffering to rise back to power.

We also have to remember that this generation cannot sustain suffering. If this were a couple of generations ago we would just roll-up our sleeves and get it done, however this generation has not known suffering and hardship and frankly I don’t think they could handle it. They will require more support and coddling than their grandparents. So, there is much to be done and doing it piecemeal is not going to do it. We must strike hard, strike large, and strike fast…

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And The Winner Is…That One

It is now officially over. The name calling, the fear mongering, the divisive tactics, the shopping sprees and most importantly Joe the plumber’s fifteen minutes of fame. If McCain had won could you imagine the exposure this guy would have received? He would have been credited with McCain’s victory and maybe would have been offered a cabinet level position. He would have written a book about nothing, he would have made a record about nothing. Let’s face it the guy himself was fond of saying that he knew nothing. America has spoken and the winner is…That One! And the loser is the politics of the past still fighting the cultural wars of that past.

The true winner though is not Barack Obama. The true winners are too numerous to name, but I will name a few. The true winners were Ann Nixon Cooper; the oldest black voter and Sister Cecilia Gaudette; who hadn’t voted since Eisenhower both of whom are 106 years old and both stated that Obama’s win would begin the process of change that both have been waiting for. The true winners are the billions of people throughout the world who along with millions of Americans who all held their collective breaths on November 4th to see if America would fulfill its own promises of freedom and equality. The true winners are our children both black and white who can now dream of a better world no longer shackled to the past by generations of missed opportunities and unfulfilled potential.

The election of Barack Obama will not magically eliminate the centuries of pain and fear that was America before November 4th, but what it has done is to provide hope that we as a nation have made progress toward the ideals that this nation was founded on. As we celebrate though I am reminded of a quote by Kate Caro; President of the Liberal Women’s Network. She stated at their inaugural dinner that “Women will only have achieved true equality when there are as many mediocre women in positions of power as there are mediocre men.” You can fill in the word women for any number of groups seeking equality in America. I found this quote interesting in the context of this election where we have the President-elect completing his undergraduate work at Columbia and then going on to earn his law degree from Harvard where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law review replacing a President who by his own account was an average student at best while attending Yale undergraduate school and earning an MBA from Harvard. By all accounts George W. Bush was not a particularly ambitious man and prior to becoming Governor of Texas was not a very successful businessman. George W. Bush is the definition of mediocre.

So while we have made some progress does anyone doubt that if Barack Obama had had the same educational and personal background of George W. Bush that he would have even been considered for the nomination? I seriously doubt it. So until we have the day when a mediocre black or female is elected to the highest office in the land as so many white men have been based on some other criteria than qualifications then we have a ways to go. Remember that even Senator John McCain was no intellectual giant. The true winner in this election was intellectual curiosity. The thing that troubled me the most about the McCain/Palin ticket was not that they didn’t know anything, it was their contention that knowing in itself was bad. That somehow true virtue laid in ignorance and based on all the red on the election map we have some work to do in that area. With so much of the world exceeding us in educational standards the last thing we need to be promoting to our children is ignorance is bliss.

The true winners are all of those black Americans who fought alongside their white counterparts for the right of self determination in this new world from the old. The real winners are all of those Americans who recognized the injustice of enslaving one another and fought to conclude the practice and preserve a nation. The true winners are all of those Americans who witnessed the injustices of Jim Crow America and left their families and homes to protest the exclusion of a whole race of people from daily American life. The true winners are all of those men and women who died for the freedoms that so many of us take for granted. The true winner is the Constitution and all of those who seek a more perfect union. The true winners are all of those who were not able to live to see this day when all of their hard work and sacrifice culminated in that bright shining moment of the election of Barack Obama.

Many people have asked me as a black man what significance does this election play in how I see the country. I am always torn in my answer because while this was a day of immense pride for me as a black man, it also made me proud to be an American. It allowed me to feel vindicated for the hope that I held on to despite all of the naysayers and cries of foolishness. For the past eight years I think for many Americans it was hard to be proud of our nation, I think some of the pride is being restored as we see the world celebrate with us in this historic moment. We must not forget that this is just that; a moment. I think men like Jeremiah Wright and his white counterparts weren’t afraid that America would not be able to elect a black man President their biggest fear was that America could and then what? To those who have become embittered and enraged hope is like kryptonite. America has spoken and the winner is…That One!

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Can We Talk?

Now that the most historic election in American history has ended, can I speak honestly about the campaign? Even though I was able to recognize early on that this campaign was going to end the way it did (link) I have always been concerned about the makeup of the Obama campaign as well as some of the tactics that were employed at the state and local levels. I allowed myself to believe that because Obama had to rise above the race issue he surrounded himself with a staff that was primarily white not only at the national level but at the lower staff levels as well. I remember telling my parents that the reason I thought Obama was going to win was because the staff he employed at least the ones that I had met were whites that were non-traditional politicos. Many had not taken part in an election in many years, if ever.

Let me state that I believe the Obama campaign ran a near flawless campaign and have rewritten how national campaigns will be ran in the future. They have destroyed the old model and created a new model. They have with the help of George W. Bush and the economic crisis taken the cultural war off the table as a way to divide the electorate. They have built on the Howard Dean electronic campaign model as well as and the 50 state model. I don’t think every candidate will be able to use this campaign model we have to remember that Obama was a unique candidate who was able through his oracle skills to be able to allow many Americans who had given up on the political process to once again hope and believe.

Now with that being said here are my concerns from the campaign. The first was the lack of blacks on the staff of Senator Obama. All of the major policymakers and spokespersons were white. What I am about to say will cause many blacks to go up in arms, but I have never been the type of person to bite my tongue. The heavy lifting in this campaign for the first black President in America was done primarily by whites. Black folks while they supported Senator Obama at the polls in unprecedented numbers over 98% according to many polls, the leg work was organized and done mostly by whites. Anyone who volunteered locally for Obama’s campaign can attest to this fact. I bring this up not to offend or to drive a wedge between the two groups, but many of us are familiar with black candidates who have been surrounded by white handlers who were not as sensitive to the issues facing black America as maybe they should. I am not saying this will happen with Obama but I am saying this is a concern that troubles me. This is not an indictment of Senator Obama’s blackness and I have never felt like blacks had to pass a litmus test to be black as many old guard civil rights era people seem to do.

What Senator Obama recognized was that in order to win he had to run a different type of campaign. Unlike Jesse Jackson he did not run as the President of black America, but the President of the United States of America. By the way was I the only person who’s skinned crawled when they showed Jesse Jackson at the Grant Park victory celebration crying? What a hypocrite. Many of the whites who voted for Jesse Jackson were voting for him because he was black not because they felt him qualified. I use Jesse Jackson because he is the person many people compared Senator Obama’s campaign to, unfairly I believe. Rather than advance the issue of race as a qualifier Obama transcended the issue.

The second concern that I have is the local and state tactics that were employed by the Obama campaign during the registration, contact, and get out to vote efforts used. Many times the Obama staff ignored the local officials who had been past warriors of previous Democratic campaigns and created their own networks to bypass these officials. Many of these officials have expressed concern and dismay at what they considered to be a slight by the Obama campaign. I remember reading an article about local officials who were not overly enthusiastic about how they were being marginalized by younger and whiter Obama staff members. Now while this may be sour grapes it could have a lingering effect on the next electoral cycle when maybe the Obamania may not be as strong as it is today and the Dems will have to once again rely on those offended officials.

I hope now that the campaign is over President Obama’s team will reflect a more diverse population. It would be a shame if the first black President doesn’t include blacks in leadership positions and that the worst President in history had more blacks in his administration in positions of leadership than he does. It is said that winning heals all wounds and this resounding win will dismiss a lot of the old notions concerning not only campaigns but the country as a whole.

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