The times we live in
I woke up today to the most amazing realization...America just selected a black president. What a monumental event!!!! Just 9 months ago, I was talking to my son about this very thing and he asked me if I thought I'd ever see this happen. I told him possibly in his lifetime but most likely in his childrens' lifetime but certainly never in mine...racial tensions were still too strong. I cannot believe I have been made to eat my words. This was the most stunning upset in my life.
I have to say however, I don't believe that this election was about Obama. I think this political upset is an indictment of George Bush and the Republican Right. This was about Americans saying THEY ARE FED UP...tired of war politics, tired of hate politics, tired of losing their homes, jobs while the politigentsia keep spewing words of war and hate. What McCain could not overcome was his close alliance to Bush politics. America wanted a CHANGE and would not let race stand in the way of voting for a change to the current political way of doing things. This race was not about blacks having made it anywhere. It was more about the fatigue of the American people for all the bullshit rhetoric that has sunk us into the abyss.
The synopsis of How a black man came to be the president of the United States is simply this: Americans liked his message of CHANGE!!!
Firstly, he was definitely going to get the majority of black voters...at 13% of the population, that was a significant voting block. Republicans have been for too long known as the anti-immigration party...well, with a 17% Hispanic population, many of whose relatives fall into that "send the Mexican immigrant back" politics - that was a signficant group to ignore. Sadly, the tone of the Republican party never changed towards this group or immigration, in general. Count that across ALL immigrant groups in America, many of whose families would also suffer under the immigration backlash and you've got a significant population that was going to vote Democrat.
Gay bashing, long a bullwark of the "Christian" Republican also cost the Republicans as gays went for Obama and then the last important group, Women, who identified with Hilary and could not tolerate Palin, went with Obama as well. That last mistake was the Republicans not understanding what "Hilary" women revere. They never identified with a gun-toting, hate-spewing she-bitch man-WANNABE. Hell if that were the case, Hilary would have won hands down - she's an Uber-bitch. What that voting sector want and have always wanted is a representative of who vast numbers of women are today...not hard bitches who can out-man men...they want strong INTELLIGENT women - women who handle the tasks of being wives, mothers and career women with style and aplomb. Independent women, who are yet fully capable of loving and being loved by their husbands and families. I think the pro-Hilary women would have voted for Palin uniformly if she had been presented that way instead of presenting her as a bush Rambo, again, an insight into the Republican Right wing Christian view of what a woman's place and identity is. If she isnt the quiet supportive back-bencher, loving her husband silently while he struts in the limelight, then she is a bitch - and unfortunately, that is how they marketed Palin who is actually the opposite. Yes, she hunts and fishes, but she is also a mother, a wife and a career woman and handles all that with style. Add to that bag, a charismatic, intelligent, good-looking guy whose roots cross racial boundaries and you've got a viable candidate with a GREAT MESSAGE and GREAT APPEAL...and that is how the Republicans lost this election.
In fairness to McCain, he was fighting an uphill battle from the get-go. He could not afford to distance himself from the Republican identity. He would have alienated the core of his voter base. He couldnt distance himself from the war. As a military man, he understood the reasons why the war had been launched and the implications of failure. He may have disagreed with the execution and the timetable, but he believed in the issues underlying the war...so how could he denounce it. Although he also would have brought change, his values were too similar to Bush's to attract a people sick and tired of George Bush and that was the death knell of his campaign...and yet still, he got 49%...had his message been a little closer to the center, had he distanced himself from the war, marketed Palin right and appealed more to the immigrant base of this country, McCain would be president today. The Republicans are just waking up to the fact that they have been stuck in a time warp of a vision of an earlier time for too long. America is no longer a European offshoot and they ignore the non-European parts of the populace at their peril and to their detriment.
This election is not an indication that Blacks have arrived, it's a sign that minority groups - WOMEN, GAY's, LATIN and other Immigrant groups are part of the Mainstream now and represent a voice that should be heard....the interesting thing is that it was once these same groups joining in the fight for Civil Rights that changed the world for black people in America. The WASP Christian RIGHT ignores this message to its detriment.
That is my read on this era...
For me, having been an educator for years, my hope is that, this will usher in an era of black children realizing that they can be more than singing, dancing, ball-playing jocks and entertainers and wake up to the fact that as a people, we have just as many lawyers, doctors, astronauts and now - PRESIDENT of the most powerful country in the world. That they should realize that Oprah, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice aren't flukes, they actually are part of the fabric of all the things we are and that they can and should want more for themselves and be willing to work for it.
For the rest, I wish our new President all the best...I think he's just about to find out just what a gargantuan task he's signed on for...that is IF, he's not assassinated, a happenstance that remains VERY LIKELY.
I have to say however, I don't believe that this election was about Obama. I think this political upset is an indictment of George Bush and the Republican Right. This was about Americans saying THEY ARE FED UP...tired of war politics, tired of hate politics, tired of losing their homes, jobs while the politigentsia keep spewing words of war and hate. What McCain could not overcome was his close alliance to Bush politics. America wanted a CHANGE and would not let race stand in the way of voting for a change to the current political way of doing things. This race was not about blacks having made it anywhere. It was more about the fatigue of the American people for all the bullshit rhetoric that has sunk us into the abyss.
The synopsis of How a black man came to be the president of the United States is simply this: Americans liked his message of CHANGE!!!
Firstly, he was definitely going to get the majority of black voters...at 13% of the population, that was a significant voting block. Republicans have been for too long known as the anti-immigration party...well, with a 17% Hispanic population, many of whose relatives fall into that "send the Mexican immigrant back" politics - that was a signficant group to ignore. Sadly, the tone of the Republican party never changed towards this group or immigration, in general. Count that across ALL immigrant groups in America, many of whose families would also suffer under the immigration backlash and you've got a significant population that was going to vote Democrat.
Gay bashing, long a bullwark of the "Christian" Republican also cost the Republicans as gays went for Obama and then the last important group, Women, who identified with Hilary and could not tolerate Palin, went with Obama as well. That last mistake was the Republicans not understanding what "Hilary" women revere. They never identified with a gun-toting, hate-spewing she-bitch man-WANNABE. Hell if that were the case, Hilary would have won hands down - she's an Uber-bitch. What that voting sector want and have always wanted is a representative of who vast numbers of women are today...not hard bitches who can out-man men...they want strong INTELLIGENT women - women who handle the tasks of being wives, mothers and career women with style and aplomb. Independent women, who are yet fully capable of loving and being loved by their husbands and families. I think the pro-Hilary women would have voted for Palin uniformly if she had been presented that way instead of presenting her as a bush Rambo, again, an insight into the Republican Right wing Christian view of what a woman's place and identity is. If she isnt the quiet supportive back-bencher, loving her husband silently while he struts in the limelight, then she is a bitch - and unfortunately, that is how they marketed Palin who is actually the opposite. Yes, she hunts and fishes, but she is also a mother, a wife and a career woman and handles all that with style. Add to that bag, a charismatic, intelligent, good-looking guy whose roots cross racial boundaries and you've got a viable candidate with a GREAT MESSAGE and GREAT APPEAL...and that is how the Republicans lost this election.
In fairness to McCain, he was fighting an uphill battle from the get-go. He could not afford to distance himself from the Republican identity. He would have alienated the core of his voter base. He couldnt distance himself from the war. As a military man, he understood the reasons why the war had been launched and the implications of failure. He may have disagreed with the execution and the timetable, but he believed in the issues underlying the war...so how could he denounce it. Although he also would have brought change, his values were too similar to Bush's to attract a people sick and tired of George Bush and that was the death knell of his campaign...and yet still, he got 49%...had his message been a little closer to the center, had he distanced himself from the war, marketed Palin right and appealed more to the immigrant base of this country, McCain would be president today. The Republicans are just waking up to the fact that they have been stuck in a time warp of a vision of an earlier time for too long. America is no longer a European offshoot and they ignore the non-European parts of the populace at their peril and to their detriment.
This election is not an indication that Blacks have arrived, it's a sign that minority groups - WOMEN, GAY's, LATIN and other Immigrant groups are part of the Mainstream now and represent a voice that should be heard....the interesting thing is that it was once these same groups joining in the fight for Civil Rights that changed the world for black people in America. The WASP Christian RIGHT ignores this message to its detriment.
That is my read on this era...
For me, having been an educator for years, my hope is that, this will usher in an era of black children realizing that they can be more than singing, dancing, ball-playing jocks and entertainers and wake up to the fact that as a people, we have just as many lawyers, doctors, astronauts and now - PRESIDENT of the most powerful country in the world. That they should realize that Oprah, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice aren't flukes, they actually are part of the fabric of all the things we are and that they can and should want more for themselves and be willing to work for it.
For the rest, I wish our new President all the best...I think he's just about to find out just what a gargantuan task he's signed on for...that is IF, he's not assassinated, a happenstance that remains VERY LIKELY.
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