OK, so over the months I’ve said that I’m for Barack, but hedged a bit by admitting that my support wasn’t unconditional and that I was willing to jump ship at the first sign of short-coming, or very uncomfortable moment. I haven’t actually jumped yet, but it’s safe to say that I have my life vest on, and I’m standing on the rail.
My support has been hinged on two primary factors. First and foremost, Senator Obama is black. Secondly, I applaud his philosophy.
Elsewhere, I realize writers are going through all sorts of gymnastics to make race “NOT” the primary issue of the Obama campaign. I have neither mat nor high bar here. I am what I am, and it is what it is. I’d LOVE to see a black President.
I got the same lecture as every other middle class black adolescent about being able to become anything I wanted to – a lesson that inevitably ended with some allusion to the White House.
I admit it, I was a skeptic about it then, and I’m even moreso now.
I believe I could’ve made the NBA, NFL, or played major league baseball.
I believe I could’ve become an actor, and based on my skills perhaps even earned the title of movie star. I have no doubt that I could, and can become a musician of some renown.
I have no doubt that millionaire status is within my grasp.
I even believe that if I’m willing to skip a few additional nights of sleep and work more hours, I could turn the “M” into a “B,” and join the rare air of Gates, Oprah, and Buffett.
I am positive I could run for, and win a Sheriff seat somewhere.
I am certain I could sit on any city’s council, county’s school board, or State’s legislature.
I could be the mayor, hell, Marion Barry has convinced me that I could do THAT … and not have to necessarily rule out a moonlighting career as a crackhead.
I am skeptical, but fall on the side of believing that I could be a governor … there’s been one.
If I did one of the previous things first, I could even find my way to the U.S. Senate—a pretty exclusive club.
I could make it to the US House of Representatives with relative ease, and on merit and local popularity alone.
I have the training and talent to be a network news anchor today. Unfortunately, I’m over that dream.
But President?
Hmmm …
I’m afraid you’re gonna have to show me one before I believe that anything other than a white, old, Protestant-leaning, homo-sapien with a penis, who’s relatively detached from normalcy, can worm his way to that Residence.
And this isn’t a passive belief. I’ve wasted my vote on chics you’ve never heard of (Lenora Fulani) who made it to the ballot, and squandered it by writing in black men who I knew had no chance at even making it past the primary.
But those were all in elections that I thought didn’t matter. At times I was a one-issue voter, and my issue was … “please, not another white guy.”
The truth is, up until probably … last year, I might’ve even voted for Condoleeza Rice, had she chosen to run, just for the chance to be part of the tri-fecta victory (Black, female, Southerner).
But this cycle, stakes is high. Being black isn’t enough for me.
For certain, there are black men I WOULD vote for—which brings us to Senator Obama’s philosophy.
Periodically, the nation requires some person whose primary contribution is to change the debate. Throughout the cycle of U.S. history, there has occasionally been room for a man who has a different idea about “how” America could change its focus and capitalize on our strengths in a new way.
Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, even Ronald Reagan fit that particular mold. They were men who saw the world, sometimes very slightly, in a different way. Sometimes that vision was spawned from a crisis; war, or Depression, or poor international relations.
Barack Obama may very well be one of “those guys.”
Unfortunately, as much as we need bipartisan leadership, and a “uniter not a divider” right now, that’s not MY number one requirement.
As a political junkie, I’ve watched all … six (?) of the debates so far. And what worries me is the Illinois Senator’s inability to articulate how his philosophy would translate to policy that would make my life better.
For my money, we’ve already done the “he’s inexperienced but has good ideas” experiment. It’s a fucking disaster.
No, really.
We’ve lost an American city, a significant piece of our largest financial district, destroyed more than 50,000 lives in concentric circles of post-traumatic stress, many of the linchpins of our civil rights, whatever remaining confidence “we the people” have in our actual government (as opposed to the theory of our FORM of government), and our standing in the world.
Our economy is prepped for disaster, our language is being destroyed at the highest level of government, and we’ve been forced to learn the skill of being hoodwinked, and pretending to like it.
So now, I’m insisting on experience. NO MORE DUMMIES. No more sketchy resumes. No more "C" students (not that Barack is one of those...), No more daddy's boys, or "vote for this one cause you like some relative of theirs. No more inarticulate people who can't say what the fuck they mean without torturing the language I love.
If you can't deliver the line ... don't step up to the microphone. This is your chance to prove to me that you won't choke under pressure.
If you stutter and stumble your way through a yes or no question from Wolf Blitzer ... what's a press conference going to be like with you standing next to some extremely witty and articulate world leader who's speaking perfect English as a fourth or fifth language and crafting extemporaneous sentences next to you ... the bumbling, stumbling guy we sent out to be our champion? I'm tired of being embarrassed every time "my guy" opens his mouth to publicly speak. NO MORE.
POTUS is NOT an on-the-job training position. I don’t really give a shit if the moron handing me fries can’t count change, or requires pictographs on the cash register. It blows, and makes me afraid of the public school education system I'm financing, but it's hardly a moment-by-moment crisis. 16-year old high school sophomores are a dime a dozen, so are illegal immigrants, and you can find another one to read the number five off the cash register pictures, and make sure I get two quarters and a nickel, not the other way around.
But Chief Executive Officer of the free world?
Nah … THAT person is gonna have to actually pass the stupid tests. There is NO question in my mind that Barack is smart, maybe even brilliant.
There is no question that his service is of GREAT benefit to the country.
If he wins, it will STILL accomplish the validation of my mom’s bullshit story to me about how I could be President; I’m just not sure it would be helpful to the chaos that is my country.
From here on the rail, life vest strapped and inflated, there are two things he could do that would talk me down.
1. Announce that either Colin Powell, or Mark Warner is his Vice Presidential partner. NOW.
2. Blow me away in the next debate.
What’s that I see in the distance? USS Ron Paul? Hmmmm….maybe I should just jump.
Peace,
--Stew.
Photo:
http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/Newsweek/Components/Photos/
060919_060925/060922_BarackObama_Xtrawide.jpg
He might stumble and bumble his way through debates, but when he is giving a prepared speech that he practiced he does fine. That man has a lot of pressure upon him. He has to prove to black people that he is black enough, he has to prove to white people that he isn't a radical Islamic terrorist in disguise. He has to prove that his life experience gives him enough experience to run the country and so on.
ReplyDeleteConsider this: if Hillary (they say it is between the two) wins and becomes Pres, that gives us Bill for First Man in the White House. Nobody really cared about Monica (they all do it) but it is the way he lied about it and how sincere he seemed at the time.
Is he to be trusted? Or is he part of the Bush regime that is slowly destroying what little democracy we have left?
With Obama comes Michelle, a smart and strong woman as First Lady in the White House.
I would not suggest voting should be done based on skin color or who makes a better First Lady or Man, but I am suggesting you vote for Obama because if we are ever to end bigotry in this country, we need him in office.
I saw this black skinned boy (I can not say African-American, because I know too many black or brown skinned people that would get insulted, Cuban, Jamaician) with his camera phone filming Obama. Now would isn't it about time that the children could look at pride to a person of color as our President?
He got mandatory filming of police intergations passed, as an example of what he can do.
My concern isn't with Senator Obama's articulation. I am convinced he is an inspirational and eloquent speaker.
ReplyDeleteHis stumbling in the debates is a sign of something completely different, to me -- a sign of a philosophy that's not mature enough to be put into practice.
President Bush's supporters have spent the last six years trying to make me believe that his primary problem is that he's inarticulate.
I think that's nonsense. I suspect that the President's problem is that he signed on to the neoconservative agenda without really understanding it.
I actually believe the truest sense of President Bush was in his first campaign, when he talked about being a compassionate conservative. As I've listened to his proposals--take immigration for example--there IS a very strong compassionate theme throughout.
But because his ideas weren't mature enough, wiser--no; craftier, more cunning men were able to hijack his own thoughts with big words and bigger themes, and he was probably intimidated into thinking that they were right, because they were "smarter" than he was.
Senator Obama needs to be in charge of something smaller before we put him in charge of the biggest bureacracy in the world. There ARE men whose thoughts are developed enough to be ready for the big-time right out of the box. Perhaps Senator Obama is one, but after listening to his approaches on simple questions, I'm a skeptic.
Don't get me wrong, I'm READY for a black President. Hell, I can't hardly wait for one. But at THIS stage of history, I'm most interested in a person with mature ideas and experience who is capable of applying a tested philosophy to a nation in crisis.