One Shade of Change

I won’t make my opinion about Barak Obama leaving the Trinity United Church a personal thing. It’s a good political move all the way and I knew Barak was a master politician when people were treating him like a profit. Even the folks at Trinity probably concede that he had to leave. While this is good for the election it may be bad in the long run.

Let’s take Obama out of the equation. Let’s talk about George Bush. George Bush told his supporters he would cut taxes and he did. We had a terrorist attack, and we went to war with Afghanistan. Then, we went to Iraq and things went wrong. We have been feeding money into this war for years and not one time has President Bush mentioned rolling back the tax cuts. Do you know why? He can’t. The reason why he can’t is because that’s one of the principles he ran on in 2000. There was no way he could back on the cuts even when the war went bad because he had to run again in 2004. He can’t do it now because McCain is trying to win on that same principle.

If Barak Obama makes the decision now to not address or acknowledge any issue that is specific to the African American community while he is running, he won’t be able to do it while he is president. If he does he will only be in office for one term and every politician’s job is to win elections. The proper way to get things done is to not make a sweeping endorsement of a candidate until you have a commitment that your concerns will be addressed before you vote. With the amount of work it’s going to take for him to win over working class white people between now and November, I am prepared to vote for and celebrate Barak’s victory and get ready for the first black president that won’t be able to address any black issues without destroying his career.

If you think I am off base about this please explain how since this campaign begun the man has run consistently as the candidate for all Americans of every race, and ethnicity, yet has had to denounce a black man and leave a black church. There hasn’t been one quote from Obama himself that any candidate can use against him along racial lines.

He should engage that debate even after leaving the church. He should explain what was seen on that tape. Tell everyone how black people tend to laugh at certain scenarios even when they are bad like the congregation was doing during Father Flegler’s sermon. He should call Pat Buchanan and the talk radio host and allow them to express the concerns of the angry white man and have an open discussion with Cornel West and some other brother or sister. Let’s get it all out in the open to get some understanding. Working class white people have legitimate concerns but so does the black community. Now, with leaving the church, Barak Obama has basically said to the country “I will denounce or remove myself from anything that makes the majority uncomfortable.” I know why he had to do it. I just don’t like it.

I guess that first black president thing isn’t going to be smooth sailing after all.