Every day… EVERY day… is history, once it has passed. Good or bad, different or indifferent, laughable, or lamentable, it’s all the same. I offer that almost axiomatic point to those pointing to today’s inauguration as some kind of historical milestone. I do so because it seems to me we’ve made it into some kind of hysterical milestone, instead. The whipped up hysteria is almost sickening both of itself and for the negative reaction that will occur once reality sets in.
Many of us seem fixated on the idea that we’ve elected the first black president in history. The question of that person being Barack Obama being a good or bad thing aside, it’s the issue of color I want to focus on for just a second, because I wonder if we’ve not sublimated positions on various issues of the day to the issue of Mr. Obama’s race. The feeling among many seems to be that Obama’s race is of greater import than what he will do with the office, and with it, the trust of the American people. So we apparently may judge by the reaction we see in the gallery, today.
We have just yesterday, celebrated a holiday for Rev Doctor Martin Luther King. Both David and I quoted his “I have a dream” speech, yesterday, wherein he says, his dream is of a world where people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He’s talking about a post-racial society. Certainly, this is a dream worth having.
But, while there are those with stars in their eyes, and celebration on their lips, who tell us that the election of Mr. Obama means we have crossed that particular hurdle of post-racialism, I suggest that by virtue of the fact that so much weight is placed on Mr. Obama’s race by his backers, we have in fact not crossed that post-racial hurdle, as yet. After all, if we are in a post racial society, why on earth would Obama’s color even be brought up, much less be meaningful in any substantial way? It seems we have a way to go, yet.
[1]There are those who will answer with the suggestion that the presidency of Mr. Obama is a positive thing, since it will allow blacks to achieve. Yet, they apparently make this judgment based on Mr. Obama’s race alone, and forgetting his political leanings… leanings toward a party and a group of policies that have been demonstrably racist. If there is a single political party that has been responsible for keeping blacks on the plantation, it is the Democrat party. That point has been proven time and time again [2]. (PDF)
Mr. Obama is a Democrat. As such, he has willingly signed himself onto that racist history and more importantly, it’s continuence. How this conflict is accounted for by Mr. Obama’s supporters, seems to be more an inexplicable emotional attachment, more than a facts based assessment. Were it the latter, I suspect the reaction to it would be the traditional one used with all posing carpetbaggers…involving feathers, hot tar, and a rail.
So, a historic day? Certainly. Then again, as I’ve said, they all are, once they have passed. But, a good day? I don’t think so.
This will be unpopular, I’m sure, but I thnk it fair to say that with the election of a Democrat, of whatever skin color, given the both historical and current actions on the part of the members of the Democrat party on race, and particularly the actions Mr. Obama has already stated he’s going to take in the near future, means we have actually moved further away from Dr. King’s dream, not closer. And I regard that as a loss for our country, as should all who dare claim Dr. King’s dream, and legacy.
The only question that remains in my mind is how long it will take for the reality of it to be recognized among Mr. Obama’s ardent supporters. It’ll be a bit, I’m sure; there’s far too much in the way of frenzy among his supporters just now to feel reality. However, that euphoria will eventually give way as it always does, to the hangover of reality. It will be a while in coming, though. Too long, I fear, for our own good, but it will happen, and long before the end of Mr. Obama’s one term presidency.
It’s in the middle of that hangover that we’ll doubtless hear many resolutions never to do that again. Were that such resolutions were actually kept.