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When in November, 2008, the predominantly white citizens of the United
States braved the odds and momentarily brushed aside race to
put a black man, then Senator Barack Hussein Obama in the
revered Oval Office as the first black president of the
United States, a both stunned and ecstatic world cheered on
in endless celebration of what was seen as the dawn of a
newfound era of post racial politics in America and, by
extension, the world at large wherever race was an issue.
And like the United States which was the theater of events, there are so
many racial hotspots all over the globe that keyed into the
US elections to watch history unfold before their very own
eyes perhaps in the hope of drawing useful lessons from them
that could find some applications in their own peculiar
circumstances. Those who looked for inspiration from the US
were not disappointed. But those who feared the unthinkable
happening got their worst nightmares coming to fruition—a
black man in the US Oval Office!
What they got was a political Tsunami in the US. A tectonic shift in
political realignments that saw a grand coalition of
Democrats, independents and minority communities forging a
united front against reactionary forces represented by the
Republicans, turned history on its head and swept a black
man onto the world’s most powerful throne inaugurated by
George Washington and graced by such American greats as
Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Ike Eisenhower, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and William Jefferson
Clinton.
More than anything else including the sour mood of Americans about their
economic conditions under GW Bush, the promise of a post
racial America was writ large in the national consciousness.
Helped by his bi-racial background, Obama himself had, as a
candidate, actively sought to actualize that aspiration as a
fitting capstone to the anti-discrimination and
anti-segregation struggles of yesteryears championed by his
gallant forebears and for which many had laid down their
lives including the venerable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and
Malcolm X and all those millions of blacks murdered in cold
blood in slave plantations and elsewhere. And in furtherance
of that mission, he had presented and sold his candidacy to
the American voters as one of uniting all Americans behind
common goals regardless of race as envisioned by Dr. King in
his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech.
If Dr. King was John Baptist foretelling the coming of the Messiah, Obama
would be the Christ. If Dr. King was Moses leading his
people out of slavery in Egypt, Obama would be the Joshua.
He was the new kid on the block with a fresh take on race
relations not to be confused with the fire spitting brands
of the Reverends Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and, of course,
Jeremiah Wright among others, who are wont to fan the embers
of racism and drive fears of possible retribution into guilt
laden minds of whites that tend to hold them back from the
political empowerment of a black man.
A black president! You’re kidding me? No way! They could become sports
and music stars, talk-show hosts and comedians to entertain
white overlords but not presidents. That would be a hugely
risky adventure. But with a cast of the ballot on November
4, 2008, Obama shattered those stereotypes because he not
only refused to sit at the back of the bus but decided to
become the driver of the bus himself, and the good people of
America handed him the keys to the bus. He’s on the driver’s
seat today.
That’s quite a sacrilege that has not gone down well with many who wanted
to propagate the bogey of white supremacy and the active
promotion of low expectations in the black and other
minority communities. That Obama has managed to project
himself through the front door into the all white-pantheon
of leaders in the United States seems to them a desecration
of their throne.
They threw all they had into the battlefields to stop him in his track.
The Republican dirt machine was oiled and prepped to dig and
excavate dirt on Obama. First, they went for his home in
Chicago and sought to make a scandal out of its purchase
from the landlord they derogatorily called “slum lord.”
Hillary Clinton, Obama’s opponent at the primaries provided
them with the bullets on that one which however had no fire
in them.
When that failed, they picked on Obama’s relationship with the allegedly
“radical” Dr. Ayers as evidence of Obama’s socialist
bearings. When that failed to stick they grabbed on to
Jeremiah Wright’s incendiary church sermons and sought to
pin them on Obama as his own sermons. But that too wouldn’t
stick on his “Teflon” skin because he’s no Jeremiah Wright
and he couldn’t be made to adopt his sermons as his own.
Americans are no dummies. They knew who gave those sermons
and concluded they didn’t carry Obama’s signature.
Therefore, Obama couldn’t be held responsible for the acts
of another. And that one too fell flat on its face.
But their desperation knew no bounds. They travelled all over the world
looking for dirt to dig on Obama but came back empty handed.
Frustrated and exasperated they turned against the press and
accused the American “liberal” press of not digging enough
dirt on Obama to move the American people against him. Till
date I still hear their rant against the “liberal” press for
failing to nail Obama for them. Why couldn’t they do the job
themselves if they had anything on him. The “liberal” press
should have cooked up something on Obama for them? What
happened to Fox News the Republican Party mouthpiece that
was and still mauling Obama 24/7as if Obama bashing is its
business model and the reason for staying and remaining in
business? Why couldn’t Fox News do it? Too bad it couldn’t
find any dirt on him.
However, their fears of retribution have not and will not materialize
under President Obama. The African blood in him will not
allow him to engage in acts of vengeance against any racial
groups for the sins of their forefathers against the black
man. Too bad the reactionary white male thinks only in terms
of his own vengeful proclivities and he’s afraid of his own
shadows. The remarkable world acclaimed example of Nelson
Mandela in South Africa who, in spite of his ill-treatment
in the hands of white Boers, which had demonstrated
conclusively the unique and essential forgiving character of
the black man as a large hearted human being, offered such
whites only some cold comfort. It seems that would not be
enough to assuage their fears. Nor are their fears by any
means altogether misplaced. The guilty are naturally afraid
of retribution as was the case in South Africa. And the
seething anger that periodically erupts and boils over in
black males even against their own stocks could not have
been lost on white folks.
But Obama was of a different kind—a chip from another block who appeared
dovish and harmless enough to have earned their trust of not
rocking the boat too hard and taking a pound of flesh on
whites. His meek mien even in the face of extreme
provocation stuck like glue and got noticed during the
election. And what’s more, the financial meltdown provided
the headwind that would sweep and anchor his sail at the
White House. He is coming not from the angle of an
antagonist but of a protagonist for a new America with
different demographic realities that impose changes in race
relations. His bi-racial background and wide exposures to
the world uniquely qualify him to be the standard bearer of
that message.
“We are one America!” was and still his endearing slogan which resonated
with the people. America was ready for him and his message
of hope and healing. And, he too was ready for America—ready
to turn her from the path of racial bigotry into a truly
United States of America even as cynics and those profiting
from racial discords pooh-poohed his ideas as naïve
fantasia.
With the benefits of hindsight, they knew what they were saying back
then, because they had no intentions whatsoever of bridging
the racial divide in America. As far as they were concerned,
Obama was no Christ and should not throw his naïve idealism
in their face. It takes more than idealism to reprogram the
genes of racial bigots and Obama was no programmer of genes.
Genetic engineering is not his forte. It takes more than
wielding a Black Berry smart phone to reprogram genes and
the technology to reprogram human genes has yet to be
invented even if it has for plants and animals. He wished it
had. But who wants his genes reprogrammed anyway, least of
all racial bigots?
They longed to go back to the days of their slave-owning ancestors, who
built a brand new nation from scratch on the backs of black
slaves. We were all witnesses to their riotous rallies
during the campaigns with Mama Sarah Palin as their
arrowhead and she still is even today as their rallying
point. But try as they did the racial bigots could not hold
back the tide of history and in the end democracy imposed
its will on the race baiters and Obama and the United States
of America as a nation prevailed against them. However, to
Obama’s credit, he has stuck to his post racial posture as
president even as Republican race baiters continue to test
his limits of endurance and tolerance. There are no limits
to the insults they haul at him.
Post racial America? Not so fast, they seemed to have vowed, and thumbed
their nose at the world for being too dreamy. The world
couldn’t be more wrong into reaching such a hasty
conclusion. Post racial America is still light years away
even if a black man or Latino is president! It changes
nothing. These folks do not dream about anything else but to
conquer and vanquish others and impose their will on the
weak—in other words, thugs and bullies that must be
confronted frontally with the same weapons they apply on
others otherwise they will yield no quarters. They’ve been
socialized to dominate others right from the days of slavery
and on down, and equality is antithetical to that paradigm
even if the laws of the nation demand it.
There are limits to what the laws can do. For one, they can’t reprogram
genes. The only language they understand is power and
domination. And that’s what must be resisted with all means
necessary because justice and fair play to them is sheer
bunkum and no more than crutches for weaklings. Only
underdogs talk about justice, equality and fair play. But
for the progressive American judiciary the ideals of racial
equality, justice and fair play would have remained a mirage
with these reactionary forces in power.
Those words so loved by oppressed underdogs are poisonous to the ears of
oppressors. Yet the fact remains that anyone who is afraid
of and resistant to racial equality, justice and fair play
is inherently insecure and afraid of competition which is
the bedrock of free market and civil society.
Even so a post racial America with racial blind spots that gives every
American equal opportunity was and still a darn good dream.
Obama’s election was a darn good dream that came to pass and
rather quickly too. However, its hoped for, post racial
accompaniment was one good dream too many too soon. It would
seem that America was biting more than it could chew at the
same time and getting constipated in the process. So says
America’s Sarah Palin’s Tea Party movement seeking to abort
the promise of that dream in the womb of time with
particularly vengeful aplomb.
All of America’s racial progress had been made through incremental baby
steps, not revolutionary ones. Obama’s success at the polls
was a culmination of those baby steps of previous eras. And
a post-racial America may well come to be in no distant
future if Americans of good will continue to work hard at it
because there is no avoiding it. America, by its unique
demographics is predestined to come to that pass in the
fullness of time.
But make no mistake about it: Obama is greater than Barack Hussein Obama.
He’s a symbol of what’s possible in the face of seemingly
insurmountable odds. Obama is a dream fulfilled and hope
realized not just for blacks but for other minority racial
groups in the US. He has removed the glass ceiling of
achievements for all blacks and Latinos in America and
powerful role model for the black male everywhere. His
election has taken away the scourge of low expectation in
the minority communities. And that’s why he’s not just an
inspiration but an institution already. And he’s the face of
the new America who has given meaning to the term “racial
equality and justice.” He has changed the country forever
and America will never be the same again regardless of the
desperate antics of the reactionary forces at play. And that
change is irrevocable and irreversible.
If you’re a Nigerian reading this article and this is sounding too much
like Nigeria to you, you’ve got plenty of company. Racial
bigotry is cousin to ethnic bigotry that’s wrecking the
Nigerian nation and their practitioners behave the same way
though separated by hundreds of thousands of miles. It’s a
genetic disease that respects no geographical boundaries and
it’s basically incurable.
Thus while the rest of the world was basking in the euphoria of that
epochal statement immanent in the Obama election a tiny
minority of racial bigots was nursing its deep racial pains
and liking its self-inflicted racial wounds in the United
States. Celebrations of Obama’s victory were a source of
pain and anguish for them.
Thoroughly routed at the polls by progressive Americans and unnerved by
Obama’s initial popularity, these fringe groups withdrew
into their shells for a while like wounded lines waiting to
stage a comeback at the appropriate time. They simply
couldn’t help themselves. Mind you, racial or ethnic bigotry
is a mental affliction that cannot be wished away with good
talks. Obama is just finding that out now after getting push
backs and rebuffs at every turn. His message and efforts of
bi-partisanship in governance is being laughed to scorn by
the Republicans.
Republican Bigots in Attack Mode
They have all along been sending probes looking for openings to strike
back, however little and however absurd the openings might
be. The national gripes over the lingering economic woes and
fringe issues like the building of a mosque in New York City
have provided them with forced openings to demonize the
president by characterizing a growing but slowly recovering
economy as evidence of Obama’s failed economic policies.
Failure has new meaning. Obama’s economic policies failed when he
willfully prevented the collapse of Wall Street. His
economic policies failed when he prevented General Motors
and Chrysler Motors from going under into bankruptcy and
throwing out hundreds of thousands of its workers who knew
nothing else but build cars into the already bloated job
markets to drain unemployment insurance funds. His policies
failed when he saved those jobs and created more than one
million new jobs in under one year since the recovery began
when their own Republican President, GW Bush, was losing
half a million jobs every month and lost approximately 5
million jobs before he left office. Talk about the pot
calling the kettle black.
Yes failure has new face. Obama’s economic policies failed for investing
in renewable energy and information technology and making
the United States competitive in the new economy like most
of the other developed nations and even developing ones like
China which are way ahead in the game under Republican
watch. Someone has got to change the definition of failure
in the next revised edition of the Oxford dictionary to
accommodate its revised new meaning.
Thus if anyone thought that the white racists in the Republican Party,
who were livid with rage, predicting doomsday scenarios, and
many of whom had, in fact, threatened to quit the United
States for Canada should Obama ever get too close to Oval
Office as president, would, all of a sudden discard their
coats of racism for a post racial America, that one must
have been handed a rude awakening by the resurgence of
anti-black sentiments now institutionalized in the
Republican Party’s Tea Party movement in America led by the
brain dead rambler, Sarah Palin whose expertise in foreign
policy is the boundary her state of Alaska shares with the
Soviet Union. “I can actually see Russia from here in
Alaska!” Sharing a boundary with a country is her
qualification in foreign policy. Such an intellectually
challenged rambler is the leader of the Tea Party. Do you
blame those who called them nuts?
The race baiters are trying hard to stir up racial sentiments in America
to get the white majority on their side and use that to
capture Congress in the midterm elections, cripple the Obama
administration and ultimately drive Obama and the Democrats
out of power. That would end their nightmares.
For having the courage of his conviction to design, pass and execute a
revolutionary healthcare Act that has provided more than
30million Americans healthcare benefits unseen in the annals
of America’s healthcare system—an achievement which has been
roundly hailed by historians as an historic milestone akin
to the Social Security Act passed in the 60s, Obama is being
accused of being a closet socialist by the racists.
To the racial bigots, Obama should have left the over 45milion Americans
without health insurance and majority of whom are
disproportionately from minority communities hanging on the
cliff of ill health leaving them to swarm emergency rooms as
their only option and forcing tax payers to pick up the
tabs. The fact that blacks and Latinos from minority
communities, who had been going without healthcare benefits
all their lives, will become major beneficiaries of the
healthcare Act as indeed poor whites has not gone down well
with the racists even without public option included in the
Act. That to them is “socialized healthcare,” that would
benefit some lazy bums who don’t want to work. Yet they’re
first to bemoan the acute unemployment scourge in America.
It makes no difference that there are mandates in the Act,
which, quite remarkably, the same people are kicking against
as forced imposition. Many Republican controlled states
have, in fact, gone to court seeking the nullification of
aspects of the Act containing mandatory health insurance
just as it is in automobile insurance for drivers.
Now, if extending a helping hand to economically battered American
citizens is the meaning of socialism for racists, so be it.
There can be no apologies for helping the poor whether they
are blacks, whites, brown, green, purple, blue, red,
whatever. Medical treatment for sick individuals doesn’t
have to be a function of wealth and if that’s socialism it’s
all well and dandy by me. Most of the developed nations like
Canada, Britain, Germany, in fact, nearly all of Europe, is
practicing socialized healthcare and their citizens are
healthier and happier for it. They don’t have 45 million
citizens going without healthcare and that’s a plus for
socialized healthcare.
Obama and Americans don’t have to cringe at the word “socialized” thrown
in their faces by the Republicans. If socialized healthcare
makes the whole of Europe socialist what is there to regret
when their citizens have better access to healthcare than
the citizens of the United States? Many US citizens go to
Canada to get healthcare due to the astronomical costs of
healthcare in the US and other strictures imposed by HMOs.
Thousands have lost their lives due to the inhuman practices
of HMOs that refuse to cover treatment of pre-existing
diseases. If Obama has saved one life, just one life with
the new Healthcare Reforms, he’s done the work of God and
the reforms would be justified. And if he got just one more
person covered the reforms would be justified. But guess
what, he got 30 million more covered! And if that is not
success and progress, I don’t know what is.
Yet one has to wonder how in the world would a people who put the name
“God” on their lips 24/7 would be upset with anyone giving a
helping hand to the poor through healthcare. One could not
but a let out a cry, Oh, what hypocrites! “They worship me
with their lips but their hearts are far away from me.”
Total indifference to the plight of the poor is not one of the greatest
attributes of the Christian religion as we knew it which
they so loudly proclaim except there have been some changes
in the liturgy that I’m not aware of. Is that the meaning of
capitalism? I doubt it too. These people are giving
capitalism a bad name it doesn’t deserve. The only place it
can sit comfortably is in the court of racists. And one
would want to know: where is the compassionate conservatism
mantra preached by GW Bush, a Republican?
For passing the $878bn American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA),
which has been hailed by economic experts as not only
halting the downward slide of the US economy into the abyss,
but reversing the trend and launching it on the path of
sustainable growth with the growth rate in GDP in the last
four consecutive quarters averaging 2.8%, the racists are
calling him a socialist for bailing out Wall Street and
Detroit. To them Wall Street and Detroit should have been
left to collapse and go into bankruptcy rather than the
government stepping in to help them out when no one else
from the private sector was willing to step in. These banks
should have been left to die quietly with billions of
dollars of citizens’ retirement benefits, equities and
savings trapped in and lost forever.
And you’ve got to wonder: do these people have a heart? How much does
deposit insurance cover? It’s mere $100, 000.00. What’s that
to those high net worth individuals and institutional
investors with millions and billions of dollars trapped in
failed banks that would have gone under but for Obama?
Peanuts! They have no qualms with millions of American
workers losing their jobs in Wall Street and Detroit
combined in a free fall economy in the name of capitalism.
To the racist bigots that’s the meaning of capitalism and
free market economy—no public assistance to individual
Americans who are badly hurting and losing their jobs, their
homes, dignity and self-worth in their millions. And no
public assistance whatsoever to private sector that was
going under at all in time of acute economic distress. So
why didn’t they call their own GW Bush a socialist and big
spender for bailing out Wall Street with over $700bn before
he left office voted for by the same Republicans in the
Troubled Assets Recovery Program Act (TARP) passed by a
Republican controlled Congress. Again, one could not but let
out a cry: Oh, what hypocrites! Again, where is the
compassionate conservatism mantra preached by GW Bush? This
is shameless hypocrisy.
It’s a pity though that the same Wall Street that got this largesse from
both the Bush and Obama administrations to shore up their
finances has refused to hire laid off American workers to
help shorten the unemployment queues even as they’re
declaring huge profits and sitting on pile of cash in their
gleaming corporate headquarters.
Rightly or wrongly this unofficial “no hiring” policy has led some to
suspect deliberate economic sabotage on the part of
corporate America of the Obama administration so as to
damage its record before the midterm elections and return
the Republicans to power. Although I’m unwilling to go that
far, the fact that Wall Street has been making huge campaign
donations disproportionately to the Republican Party in this
election cycle before the midterm elections is clear
indication of where its political loyalty lies at this
moment in time. For whatever reasons not the least of which
is the passage of the Obama financial reforms, Wall Street
is now firmly in bed with the Republicans. However, race
probably has little or nothing to do with it. I’m willing to
give them the benefit of the doubt in that regard.
But what exactly does the Tea Party want? They are for tax cuts and yet
oppose Obama’s tax cuts for small businesses? And you
wonder: Are these the same people who have been accusing
Obama of “killing small businesses” the bedrock of the US
economy with taxes only a few months back? Something has got
to be wrong somewhere. Don’t tell me this is politics. It’s
sheer hatred for a black president taken to extreme levels
and verging on the fringes of lunacy. When I mentioned to a
white lady at my place of work that I listened to Rush
Limbaugh and other conservative Republican Talk Show hosts
all the time to get a feel of their train of thoughts, she
retorted: “How could you listen to those lunatics and still
maintain your sanity?” Yep, that’s a darn good question
because believe it or not these nuts will drive you nuts if
you don’t know why you’re listening to them in the first
place.
Is Obama infallible? No, he’s not and no human being is and he doesn’t
claim infallibility either. Do I approve all of his actions
and policies? No, I don’t and why should I anyway? But does
that give me license to call the President of the United
States a “liar” to his face as one Republican Congressman
did to him a few months ago? I don’t think so. That is not a
policy but a personal attack on his person. Would they do
that to a white president? Did they do that to GW Bush who
in fact lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq
as a pretext to go to war in Iraq? I don’t think so either.
Why was it so easy for the Congressman to call his own
president a liar to his face?
The answer is simple: because of his skin color which happens to be
black. The Congressman saw that as an accident of history
that must be guarded against in future and he’s doing
everything in his power to damage Obama before the American
people by whatever means necessary, fair or foul. So common
decency is thrown out the window and replaced with extreme
crudity. If Obama’s election was an historical accident to
him, he should be ready for more of such historical
accidents as the US demographics continue to shift
dramatically in favor of the minority groups who are
becoming the majority as has already happened in New York
City as of today. Next time around there will be a Latino
President of the United States because Latinos are the
largest and fastest growing demographic groups in the United
States according to the US Census Bureau statistics.
No one is asking to support Obama’s policies blindly without question. I
have a healthy disagreement with some of his actions. The
operative word here is “healthy” disagreement as opposed to
destructive disagreement. But don’t the Republicans have a
right to point out his failures or missteps in the normal
course of politicking? Of course, they do, but we must
distinguish apples from oranges. They are not one and the
same thing. When a party abandons policy issues and decides
to veer into personal matters like Obama’s citizenship and
his skin color, then it is no longer normal politicking but
something else at play here. And we will not be true to
ourselves if we shy away from calling it what it is: Racism,
pure and simple. The fact that racism is carefully dressed
up in borrowed clothes does not change its true nature and
essence. Dressed up in borrowed clothes or not, they have
made sure that the clothes are transparent or opaque enough
for those who care to look a little closer and a little
deeper to see the real beast hiding in those clothes. Their
racist rants are barely disguised and one has to be a
complete daft not to recognize them for what they are.
They want the US budget deficits reduced yet they want to continue the
Bush’s tax cuts that are due to expire soon? Where is the
money coming from to close the budget deficits if not from
taxation? They want the US treasury to simply print the
money to close the deficit gaps? It reminds one of what Bush
Sr. characterized Reagan’s proposals during their party
primaries debate back in the day—voodoo economics! Or
voodoonomics, if you don’t mind the coinage. But they can’t
have it both ways. It’s an either or proposition.
When Obama bails out Wall Street they rail against him as being in bed
with Wall Street crooks. But when he rolled out his
comprehensive financial reforms legislation in Congress to
curb corporate excesses that led to the financial meltdown
and the consequent economic woes assailing the nation these
same people sought to block it from passing and they were
quick to denounce Obama as being anti-business and free
market. They claimed he was “killing business” with
“excessive government regulations.” If Obama helps Wall
Street get its acts together to stave off a collapse he is
denounced by the Republican hacks and if he goes tough with
Wall Street he’s denounced by them too with equal vehemence.
They want to have it both ways? Impossible! It doesn’t work
that way. If he imposes taxes as he had promised during the
campaign taxes on those earning more than $250,000 a year
he’s clobbered as a big, socialist spender. And if he grants
tax breaks to small businesses to help them grow and weather
the financial storm he is equally denounced as a “tax and
spend” president. No one including the American media can
quite put a finger on what these people really want and it
is as confused about the real intentions of these bigots as
other Americans. They have no qualms speaking from both
sides of their mouths on the same issues. If Obama moves
he’s damned and if he does not move he’s damned. Head or
tail he’s denounced by them. What do they want?
Newt Gringrich, the former Republican Speaker of the US House of
Representatives once likened Obama to a student who is
handed a credit check to use and soon overshoots its credit
limits. Obama inherited more than a trillion dollar budget
deficits from the Bush administration but the Republicans
are now quick to blame the US budget deficits on Obama when
the ill-advised and manufactured war in Iraq alone has cost
the United States more than a trillion dollars much of which
is borrowed money as Obama has indicated in his address
today to mark the end of the war in Iraq as I write this
piece. These are not my figures; they came from the mouth of
the President of the United States. All of a sudden the huge
mess left behind by Republican GW Bush is now being blamed
on Obama. Suddenly Obama is now responsible for the
financial meltdown, not Wall Street and certainly not GW
Bush. Suddenly, Obama is responsible for high health
insurance premiums not HMOs and certainly not the doctors
and hospitals. Suddenly Obama is responsible for the war in
Afghanistan not GW Bush. In fact the RNC Chairman, Michael
Steel, a black man like Obama, who was quickly drafted after
Obama’s inauguration to put a black mask on a racist body to
avoid racial charges and who would do the dirty job on Obama
by getting under his skin, had called the Afghan war “Obama
War.” A war started ten years ago and abandoned by GW for
Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11 had suddenly become Obama war
in the warped head of Michael Steele. I mean, how much more
nauseating can it get?
Who do these people take Americans for? Dim witted, mono cellular
organisms? Tea Party flotsam and jetsam might fit that
description but Americans know who started the war in
Afghanistan and detoured to Iraq midstream on false
pretences without finishing the business in Afghanistan.
They know under whose watch the great financial meltdown
occurred that triggered the economic recession in the United
States and all over the world. And heck, they know Obama
inherited all this mess and a tattered economy from the
Republicans and he’s cleaning up after them. Only a complete
idiot suffering from selective amnesia would fail to
remember that. Heck, they remember that as GW Bush was
quitting the White House on Air Force One he took the US
economy with him to his ranch in Texas leaving Obama with
its carcasses. He handed Obama a dying patient on a sick bed
clinging to life by the threads and gasping for breath.
Obama deserves great credit for reviving the patient and
slowly but surely nursing her back to good health. Healing
is not by decree but by careful and painstaking nursing
attendance.
As a I told that white American lady, the US economy has nowhere else but
up to go however long it takes and the predictions of double
digit recession by the Republican scare mongers will not
materialize under Obama. 15million Americans out of work
with 9.6 unemployment rate might sound scary in a country
like US but it is not significantly brighter elsewhere
around the globe and significantly worse in Europe. But the
economy created 67,000 jobs in August which gave Wall Street
a reason to rally at the news. If that sounds like a double
digit recession to Republicans it is troubling and something
must be wrong somewhere.
Obama is accused and denounced by this same group as Moslem as if it is
somehow a crime in America to be a Moslem. His remarks
supporting the constitutional right of Moslems to build an
Islamic Center about two blocks away from Ground Zero, in
Lower Manhattan, New York City, has ignited a firestorm in
the Tea Party circles as a sacrilege as the Major of the
city itself Michael Bloomberg has publicly expressed his
support for the project and even went ahead to denounce the
opponents in very strong terms. He said they should be
ashamed of themselves for exhibiting such level of religious
intolerance.
Now consider this: The Mayor of New City, Michael Bloomberg and majority
of New Yorkers themselves have no problem with the building
of an Islamic Center near Ground Zero, but Tea Party
chieftain, Sarah Palin, coming all the way from Alaska has a
problem with the project! Pray, what has an Alaskan got to
do with the building of an Islamic Center in New York City?
Talk about the stranger crying more than the bereaved in a
funeral.
It’s not about 9/11, which is being used as a crutch by the antagonists
of this project. Dig or just scratch a little below the
surface and you’ll find the reason why. Racial and religious
bigotry are at the root of it all! Bottom line: The stranger
crying more than the bereaved is not mourning the dead but
has other reasons for beating himself against the wall and
weeping his eyes out inconsolably.
Pattern to Madness
There is a clear and distinct pattern to the Republican Tea Party
madness. By quickly shifting from and abandoning policy
debates to attacking the person of Obama, the racial bigots
have shown us where they’re coming from. Their tirades
against Obama have nothing to do with the economy or
healthcare or public assistance or deficits but everything
to do with the COLOR of his SKIN. In a survey carried out
recently, an overwhelming majority of Republicans think that
President Obama is not a US citizen even in the face of
official records of his birth in the US state of Hawaii,
which have been used for previous elections in his home
state of Illinois to the US Senate and throughout his
college years at both Ivory League Columbia and Harvard
universities. Some of them even went to court to declare
Obama a non-citizen and use that to nullify his presidency
as if it never was and their cases were thrown out like
pieces of trash. They have no regard for the Hawaii birth
records. You’ve got to wonder if these nuts somehow got it
into their heads that Obama got elected into the US Senate
and then to US presidency as a Permanent Resident clutching
a Green Card. How much more moronic can anybody be to cross
over into the domain of lunacy? Psychiatrists and mental
health practitioners should please help us here because it
would appear that many members of the Republican Tea Party
movement have breached the boundaries of insanity.
To them Obama is an alien from outer space who was never conceived, born,
lived, schooled and worked in the United States. Part of him
was born in Kenya and another part of him was born in
Indonesia to complete his body. He’s not the US Senator from
Illinois who acquired his first and second degrees from two
of America’s most prestigious institutions. No, his is not
the man who engaged Hillary Rodham Clinton in a grueling
year long Democratic Party primaries that held the entire
world spell bound and prevailed against her in the end. He’s
not the man who took Senator John McCain, a white man, to
the cleaners in three consecutive debates and eventually
vanquished him at the polls. They still don’t know him
because he’s too sartorial, suave, debonair and urbane for
them.
He’s not a stuttering GW Bush who would climb on top an aircraft carrier
with a banner behind him declaring the war in Iraq “Mission
Accomplished” when the war had only just begun. No, he’s not
that dumb. He’s not so dumb as to stand proudly right next
to then head of FEMA, Mr. Brown, and pat him on his back for
doing a “heck of a job” in New Orleans during Katrina, when
corpses of trapped American citizens were floating in the
flooded streets of New Orleans with terrified folks
hunkering down at the Dome with no help coming their way.
Obama showed his smarts during the recent Gulf Oil spills by
being on top of it and on top of BP too. He has been to the
zone a dozen times since then. As a matter of fact he just
got back from the zone to mark the second anniversary of the
disaster. He wasn’t flying over the place in helicopter and
looking down on desperate subjects gasping for breath and
smiling at them as did George Bush during Katrina. He had
his boots on the ground.
But did that prevent Republican hacks from attacking him instead of BP?
The way the Republicans were gleefully but viciously
attacking Obama during the Gulf Oil spill, you would think
he caused it in the first place, not BP. Yet it was the lax
regulatory regime under GW that allowed that disaster to
occur. That was when corporate America, including BP, was
allowed to regulate itself rather than the government doing
the regulation. That was when regulatory agencies including
financial regulators were put to sleep leading to the
financial meltdown inherited by Obama.
They still can’t stand Obama. He’s too smooth, too polished, and too much
of a digital president for them. The conservative
Republicans many of whom can’t navigate their fingers on a
computer keyboard will never be comfortable with digital
president because they have been used to analog presidents
all their lives. A brainy president like Obama is a definite
put off for them. He doesn’t speak twang but Queen’s
English. He’s just too brainy and too smart for them. They
expected to see a no good, fumbling black man who would mess
things up in the White House and who would be groping his
way around the Oval Office not knowing his right from his
left. They expected to see a black simpleton who would
prefer to sleep in the Chicago or Washington, DC ghettoes to
the well appointed bedrooms in the White House. Instead they
got this super confident and unflappable high flying black
kid who would dwarf his predecessor in intellect and smarts
and they call it arrogance and elitism. Again it was Hillary
Clinton who first used those words on Obama during the
campaigns. It’s not arrogance it’s smarts! The same people
who say Obama is arrogant and elitist complained the most
when he went abroad bowing before foreign Kings in Saudi
Arabia, Spain and Britain in humility and called that
un-American. Where do arrogance and elitism end, and
humility begins? Here again, they can’t have it both ways.
They found a black man who is the toast of the world and couldn’t believe
their race-blinkered eyes when the first black First Lady in
the United States was feted by the Spanish Royalty in
Madrid. Yet they claim they still don’t know him until he
shows them his birth certificate. The bigots are demanding
to be given the original copy of Obama’s birth certificate
much like the doubting apostle Thomas, demanded to be shown
the mark of the spear cut on the body of Jesus Christ before
he would believe in his resurrection!
Obama was asked by NBC’s Brian Williams what he thought about some people
still expressing doubts about his American citizenship
despite the records. His answer was: “I can’t go around with
my birth certificate plastered on my forehead to prove my
citizenship.” But that’s precisely what the racists want him
to do to prove his citizenship. When Obama sits in the White
House they complain of not doing enough. When he goes out
they complain of being too visible and allege an Obama
fatigue. When he goes on vacation they complain about being
too insensitive in times of economic turmoil. Obama should
hunker down in the Oval Office gnashing his teeth about the
US economy all through his presidency and forgo all
vacations and family life and that would mysteriously make
the economy bounce back to good health! They complain about
Michele Obama’s trip to Spain on the invitation of the
Spanish Royalty and they complain about Obama vacation with
his family at Martha’s Vineyard. Whatever Obama does draws
venom from their pent up racist glands even when he breathes
or goes to the bathroom.
All these go to show the world the depth and extent of hatred and racial
bile running in the veins of these Tea Party racists against
Obama, all because of his skin color. But they won’t dare
mention his skin color directly except for those who have
decided to go broke on Obama and throw it all out on race.
Like the proverbial green snake under the green grass they
hide under other issues to unleash their racial venom.
Promises Made Promises Kept
But what has Obama done that was not entirely foreseeable or entirely
unexpected in his presidency? When I checked the records I
see nothing, absolutely nothing! Whether is about healthcare
reforms, financial reforms, new energy forms, and foreign
policy changes, he promised doing just that during the
campaigns, morons!
Obama was voted into office on the basis of his campaign promises not on
Republican agenda and he’s only keeping his campaign
promises and his Democratic agenda together with the rest of
the Democrats in Congress. He’s not acting alone, he is
acting in concert with his party men and women and the
party’s leadership in Congress. He’s not executing an Obama
agenda. He’s executing a Democratic agenda overwhelmingly
approved by the American people in the 2008 elections.
Elections have consequences. He was not elected to execute
the Republican agenda roundly rejected at the polls. He
would be dumb to do that. He was not put in the Oval Office
by Republicans so why should they want him to implement
their racist agenda?
If he embarked on healthcare reforms, he promised that loudly as his
signature program during the campaign. As a matter of fact,
he fell short of what he had promised by not including
public option in the reforms due to lack of adequate votes
for it in Congress. Had she won the primaries and the
presidential election, Hillary Clinton would have even gone
farther than Obama by decreeing universal healthcare for all
Americans. Complaining about Obama healthcare and financial
reforms as well as his foreign policy both in Afghanistan
and Iraq including his energy policies is therefore
tantamount to complaining about fulfilling his electoral
promise. He has got to keep his election promises to the
American people just as he has done in ending the war on
Iraq and bringing the troops home. The same is equally true
in escalating the war in Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban
from regaining power and providing sanctuary to Bin Laden
and Al Qeda to plot and launch another deadly attack against
the United States.
These are promises made and promises kept. And that includes keeping a
bent economy under GW Bush on the mend. He’s keeping his
promises one promise at a time. What part of that the
Republicans and their Tea Party nuts do not understand? If
President Obama’s approval ratings are low at this point in
time it is not because he has failed to keep his election
promises but because of the sluggish US economy which is not
creating jobs fast enough to make up for the over 5 million
jobs lost under President GW Bush. And guess what, the
approval ratings of the Republican Party is no less
depressing than those of the Democratic Party and that of
the Obama administration at this point in time. Even though
the only alternative to the Democrats is the Republicans
Americans are not exactly rushing to embrace that party
anytime soon after their long nightmares under the Bush
administration. And who would blame them? And they know that
much as they criticize Obama’s policies the Republicans have
no policies of their own other than their simplistic tax
cuts mantra except one of deliberate obstructionism to the
Obama administration, which has earned it the unflattering
sobriquet, “The Party of No!”
Coded Messages
Yet we know that all their idiotic complaints are just smokescreens
designed to hide their real motives. But we see through
these smokescreens to behold their dark intentions and no
one is fooled but themselves. It would appear that the only
thing that would appease the Republican racist tin gods is
for Obama to forthwith quit the throne of their white
forebears which the generality of the American people have
been dumb enough to have given to a black man who should be
playing basket ball at the Chicago stadium or singing rap
music at the Apollo Theater in New York City, at the polls.
They want to take their country and their throne back from a
black usurper. Isn’t that something in 21st
Century America?
When Republican Party activists howl from the rooftop about “taking our
country back,” they are only using code words to say they
are taking their country back from a black man in the Oval
Office as if the country does not belong to the blacks and
other minority groups in equal measures as it belongs to the
white Americans. In their warped minds, they imagine
American nation belonging exclusively to them and others are
just nobodies. They fancy themselves as the “real Americans”
and others are just tenants and settlers.
And you’ve got to ask yourself: how about the “real Americans,” the
Indians? How could the descendants of immigrant refugees
fleeing from their oppressive and repressive kings in their
home countries in Europe claim to be the “real Americans”
for crying out loud! For the avoidance of doubt, the United
States of America belongs to every American—black, white,
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Russian, Briton, German
Indians and, you name it. And none but the Indians are the
“real Americans.” Every other American is a settler or
descendant of a settler. And that’s why we have
African-Americans, Irish Americans, Indian-Americans,
Pakistani-Americans, Spanish-Americans and, heck
Nigerian-Americans, just to mention but a few of the racial
groups that make up the American demographic profile. And
this is elementary history.
Other than the Indians none of these bigots running around talking about
“taking our country back” have original, indigenous ancestry
in the United States. All are descendants of immigrants just
like the children of present day immigrants. Isn’t it
laughable and indeed ironical that it’s not the descendants
of the indigenous Indian tribes that are talking about
“taking our country back” but the children of immigrants
from Europe who are arrogantly doing this as if they hold an
exclusive title to territories comprised in the United
States of America?
This is travesty and a sacrilege that must be resisted by all means
necessary by all men and women of good will who believe in
equal rights and justice for all in accordance with the
nation’s Pledge of Allegiance.
The last time I checked, the American dream is not meant for one racial
group only but for all racial groups that make up the
demographics of the United States of America. Mainstream
America understands, agrees and takes it as an article of
faith and that’s why Obama’s dream of occupying the Oval
Office was resounding blessed by it. Those who resist this
reality are on the wrong side of history, and would
accordingly, be judged harshly by it.
Take “our country back?” Take it back to where? Back to the 60s or back
to GW Bush’s days? Back to racial segregation and white
racist lynch mobs on the prowl? Hell no, it’s not going to
happen. The country is moving forward not backward and
matching into the future with supreme confidence believing
as it does in her manifest destiny. The racists are doomed
to failure in their revisionist movement. America will never
go back to Jim Crow years of lynching and racial segregation
again. However loud and noisy the Tea Party crowd might be,
its members should understand that they are a tiny minority
even in the Republican Party itself, talk less of the
general population. At best, they represent a racist fringe
group that’s opposed to the values of mainstream America
shared by blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, and other
minority groups alike.
Getting Used to It
The Obama presidency has come to stay and there is nothing they can do
about it even if, God forbid, the Republican Party takes
over Congress in the midterm election come November. The
Obama presidency is a fait accompli and the earlier they get
that into their dumb skulls the better for them and their
sanity because many of them have lost their sanity merely
seeing Obama in the Oval Office.
One can only conjecture as why many of them did not carry out their
threat of quitting the US and go settle someplace else in
Canada should Obama win. Well, the White House is Obama’s
Family Home today and in the next two and half years at the
very least and the bigots are still here in the good old US
organizing Tea Party rallies in Washington, DC, right next
to Obama’s home, not in Ontario Canada? Somebody has got to
be kidding me!
Tea Party racist bigots: Are you still here? The more liberal Canada has
rejected you? I’ve got bad news for you all. See you again
in 2012 and get ready for Obama’s second inaugural bash. As
Americans would put it: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
May God Bless America and all men and women of goodwill!
Franklin Otorofani, Esq. contact:
mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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Published
September 7th, 2010
