Saturday was not so fun, for I wanted Senator Obama to win the Nevada caucuses, and he lost big, 51-45, though you wouldn't know it from looking at his website graphic:
So, now, after having read comments on Senator Obama's recent remarks about Pres. Reagan, which I'll display later, I'm starting to wonder where being an aggressive progressive fits into his rhetoric. I counted on the Senator returning to talking about progressive issues after Iowa so that he could show he would fight for the underserved and unnoticed against the powerwielders in American society. It has seemed otherwise, however.
When Senator Obama had a chance to talk about transformational politics, he mentioned former President Reagan and the quote made for some easy pickings by other campaigns:
I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times...I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.
That was enough to send the Edwards and Clinton campaign into gear slamming the Senator for saluting Ronald Reagan, yes REPUBLICAN bane of liberalism Ronald Reagan, without mentioning any of the bad policies, and there were many, that President Reagan enacted, nor how then-Governor Reagan won the Presidency in 1980 in dirty and divisive ways. I must say that I am personally conflicted. This episode combined with the loss in Nevada has worried me about his candidacy and campaign greatly.
So, this is an open letter to the junior US Senator from Illinois.
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Dear Senator Barack Obama,
Let me start by saying I appreciate the history of what you're trying to do, and I know it has already had a huge impact on black young men like myself and others and will continue to. I hope you win, and so understand that this is not out of hate, but love, my brother.
HOW THE HELL DO YOU INTEND TO WIN THIS THING?!
I sincerely worry that your greatest strength, your excellent communication skills, have been grounded down in part because of some gaffes along the trail and in part because of rival campaigns successfully baiting your campaign into exchanges that overall hurt your appeal. I KNOW you've been caught up in this media creation of "Barack the Uniter" and it's nice to talk about, but goddammit Negro, get your ass in the game!
You know politics is dirty, you said so yourself; get your helmet on and start hitting Clinton and Edwards around! It's not wrong to attack someone; it's called drawing contrasts, it's called fighting for a better future! What are you waiting for? Also, when are you going to seriously attack the far right and their loony toon behavior or value systems? Is the far right and their warmongering, corporate profiteering, overtly theocratic, anti-intellectual, fact-hating agenda impenetrable?
I thought that you were the person able to fight for progressive values by winning the election with Republicans on your side, our side, and then working with more political capital for OUR values, like civic equality, progressive taxation, fairer trade, anti-war foreign policy, and a return to reason in government -- when you praise people like Ronald Reagan, I know what you mean, but you give Republicans ample praise for batshit, crazy-ass ideas and your rival Democrats fodder to blow your ass up with. You make people who do listen for the liberal dog-whistle upset and pondering the reason they support your candidacy.
Do you want people to doubt you? If so, please continue to say running the bureaucracy eludes you, even as you intend to be the top bureaucrat in the public sector. Please say you want to build a fence over and over and tell Latino audiences, just so they KNOW not to vote Obama. Please make sure to run away from race and racist tactics, run far far away each and every time anyone ever gets close to implying you were a drug dealer or makes light of your name because it's different or they call you the "hip black friend". These are the tactics of a well-spoken, shuckin' and jivin', second place black candidate, just where Hillary Rodham Clinton and the centre-right DLC want you to be. If this be your lot in life, to be the "almost..." black candidate, then step aside for me to take the reins in a few decades so that someone with a bit of smarts, wits and balls can take over.
Sincerely,
CAB
Feel free to explain how dumb and naive I am. Maybe then I'll understand how Sen. Obama got into this situation.
2 comments:
Well, Brother CAB
First I have to applaud you for giving an unbiased, well researched critique of Sen. Obama.
I agree that his greatest strength- communication- is doing more harm than good to his campaign.
However, he can't give you what he doesn't have- and that's experience. I'm not talking about Senate experience, but a background in dealing with hardball politics. He usually just runs away or doesn't come around in the first place. Check his voting record on his website (obama.senate.gov)
He is a polished guy, but we need more than glittering gold to make this country shine again.
I'm amazed that Barack Obama won Iowa and won 45% in Nevada. So, maybe he knows something about the strategy he's employing that I don't know. Personally, I think he's winning himself a vice presidential slot.
A Black man who fights with whites is automatically going to be seen as a "dangerous" and "scary" Black man, I think. That would make it easy for Clinton and Obama to turn this entirely into a Black vs. white race in which Obama would necessarily lose, simply because there are more white voters than Black.
And I suspect that's why Obama doesn't engage in the fisticuffs that we would like to see from him.
Obama really needs some white surrogates to bloody Clinton and Edwards, but he obviously lacks that while the Clinton have it in spades.
If he's getting bloodied on a daily basis by Clinton's surrogates and isn't responding in kind - either directly of through surrogates - then it will be no surprise if Barack the Magic Boyscout is not the winner of the Democratic Primaries.
Barack needs not only to respond to the attacks of others but to invent some hideously unconscionable surrogate attacks of his own, if he hopes to stay in this competition.
If he mastered that skill, it would be good training for the vice presidential attack dog role.
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