Dan Miller over at Pajamas Media: [1]
Some probably disagree, but I think President Obama’s race was the deciding factor in his election. Had he been Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic, he probably would not have got the Democratic Party nomination, much less been elected president. President Hillary Clinton would likely be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office.
The comment is probably spot on. But I wonder; what does this give us of the future? With the disaster that America’s first black in president has brought us has Obama done a disservice to race relations in this country? Miller examines this question, thus…
I wonder whether a black conservative — LTC Allen West [2] (U.S. Army, retired) for example — would have a chance as a presidential contender. He may be too black for some and too “Oreo” for others; if so, the poisoning of the well will be largely to blame and some of that blame must fall on President Obama.
…
President Obama need not shoulder all of the blame. His acolytes in the media and in politics disparage — increasingly, it seems [3] — just about everyone who expresses disagreement with President Obama and his policies, such as they are or seem to be, as “racist.” [4]
….which seems to me egregious in the extreme .
Allow me to be clear on this point:
While I tend to agree that Obama likely would not have been elected had he not been black, I suggest that race isn’t the core issue here. Certainly, it is Obama policies which are causing our current problems. His race has nothing to do with that, anymore than would Mrs. Clinton’s sex were she following the likely path of implementing exactly the same policies on being elected as President.
[5]Yet as Miller points out, anyone who finds fault with Obama and his policies are immediately and knee-jerkishly and almost gleefully labeled as “racists”. Similarly, were Mrs. Clinton in the White House we would be hearing arguments like “Well, you just don’t like a strong woman, you sexist” as we did when she was first lady. I said at the time that the cause of equality of women in our society was not served well by such arguments. I will say, then, that the cause of racial equality is not served by charges of racism when clearly race has nothing to do with the issue of hand.
I’ve said often enough in these spaces that charges of racism and sexism are all too often used as a foil to repel unpleasant facts. So it is with this case.
Given political realities, however, one cannot help but wonder if the well hasn’t been poisoned for conservative politicians who happen to be racial minorities? I suppose that the voters simply cannot endure the kind of disaster that Obama policies have wrought on us, without there being some psychological effect as one enters the voting booth.