[Peace-discuss] Obama's White Men

[Matt Reichel]

I finally found an accurate political and cultural analysis of Obama's run for the presidency. Up to this point, I hadn't been satisfied with what I had read, primarily because of the capitulation of American leftist and progressive forces to the imperial candidacy of the junior senator from Illinois. Of course, anyone who was around in 2004 ( any many presidential elections prior to that) knew well that "progressives" would start cheerlead-ing this champion of war, excessive military spending, and each and every infringement on your civil liberties brought on by the current reactionary regime.

Here is an intelligent black voice against this wretched candidate (from 2/20/08, but nothing has changed since):

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=537

Obama's White Men: Do They Hear Something Blacks Don't?
by: Glen Ford


Tuesday's Democratic primaries saw Barack Obama racking up
over 60 percent of the white male vote in Wisconsin, riding an unprecedented
historical demographic anomaly that will likely send him to the White House -
barring a third consecutive general election theft by the Republicans. It appears
Hillary Clinton's goose is cooked.


Once whites demonstrated their willingness to vote for a
"certain type" of Black man, in Iowa back in January, it was a foregone
conclusion that African Americans would line up in overwhelming numbers behind
the Illinois Senator. Before then, all that had held back the tides of Black
mass commitment to Obama's candidacy were lingering doubts that whites would
support any "type" of Black person's elevation to the nation's highest office.
When that dam broke, the African American celebration began. After 400 years in
slave hell and Jim Crow purgatory, we've finally got a chance! Or so the
crowd believes.


Obama wasn't taking any chances. His strategy from the very
beginning has been to flip the historical script by appealing directly to the
most backward demographic in electoral politics: white males. This "white male
strategy" - smelling eerily of a previous Republican "southern strategy" -  required constant assurances to white men
that Obama's run would signal the end of race as a point of political
contention in the United States. No longer would whites, especially males, be
compelled to answer for their privileged status. A 40-plus year annoyance was
nearly over, since Blacks had "already come 90 percent of the way" to equality.
Obama told them so.


Reagan-loving whites - especially the white men who have
always led the "backlash" against real and perceived African American gains -
found themselves wooed by a Black man who understood their sense of revulsion
at "the excesses of the Sixties and Seventies." Wow! That's the kind of change
we've been waiting for, exclaimed increasing numbers of white males. A new day
beckoned, free at last of psychological harassment from the likes of Reverends
Jesse and Al.


"No longer would whites, especially males, be compelled to
answer for their privileged status."


Obama is a world-class wooer. His white male wooing is made
much easier by the fact that those who consider themselves his "sisters" and
"brothers" demand nothing whatsoever from him. Just come home when you get
ready, brother. Obama is free to concentrate his attentions on the hard-to-get
demographics, especially white men with their peculiar notions of "change." No
need for Obama to promise the hood a damn thing, except that he'll cut a dashing figure
in the Oval Office and make the homefolks proud that he's there, symbolically
representing them. 


Republicans and GOP-leaning "independents" (meaning,
deep-dyed whites) are crossing over in herds to vote for Obama. They've gotten
the message: happy days are here again, when the darkies smiled and were
careful not to hurt our feelings by telling the truth. That's the kind of
"change" we've always "hoped" for, by golly!


The white liberal/left, ineffectual and geographically
scattered, are drawn irresistibly to the Black man who regales them with sweet
nothings - literally, nothing in the way of the concrete policies for peace and
social justice they claim to champion. His presence in their midst is enough.
Besides, Obama is someone who is "capable of forging a progressive majority,"
they say. 


That's a strange concept, since Obama doesn't act like a
progressive, or claim to be one. But he has no problem with folks gathering
around him. He's a real party guy.


"The ‘sanctity of contracts' will not be violated to save
homeowners from foreclosure, no matter how deep the credit crisis becomes."


The no-nonsense white men that rule society and cling to
ownership of the world were harder nuts to crack; you've got to sign a prenuptial
to get skin-tight with them. No problem. Before Obama even began to strut on
the national runway, he'd won the approval of the Wall Street and
military/industrial (and nuclear power) branches of the Money Family.
Run-of-the-mill citizens will be barred from state court relief, so as not to
jam up big corporations with their silly lawsuits. Energy companies can count
on their usual subsidies. The "sanctity of contracts" will not be violated to
save homeowners from foreclosure, no matter how deep the credit crisis becomes.
The voracious military will be fed an additional 92,000 soldiers and Marines,
regardless of what happens in Iraq, to be available for more wars. Most
importantly - and this is the really smooth part of Obama's game - the ever-increasing
military budget will make moot all of Barack's and Hillary's (near identical)
promises about health care, affordable housing, the whole public agenda that
has been dangled in front of those fans and groupies in the cheap seats.


Once he gets in office, many of the swooners will find out
that he's already married to the Power Mob. 


But that's OK. Obama knows his most enthusiastic supporters
- the ones that claim him as their own as a matter of blood - will stick by him
without complaint. Hell, their "leaders" show every sign of allowing him to
wine and dine and make promises to everybody else BUT them, at least until he
is comfortably in office - maybe for the entirety of his first term. For the
time being, though, Black folks aren't even hearing what he's saying to the
white men or anybody else - they're just enjoying the music: "It's been a long,
a long time coming, but I know, a change gonna come." 


Oh no it ain't.


BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at 
 Glen.Ford at BlackAgendaReport.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 .

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