It's been 2 weeks now since Senator Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th President of the United States of America and even more significantly the first U.S. President of African descent. I'd be telling a lie if I said this historical achievement had sunken in already for me. This isn't because of shock. To best explain the feeling I have about this historical achievement I have to quote my mother, her parents, numerous school teachers and many other adults who shaped me into the person that I am today.
"You will appreciate it more if you have to work for it"
When I was a child I would turn to the adult bestowing these words of wisdom upon me and say,
"Why!?"
If common sense didn't set in at the right age, this historical election period would have answered that question for me easily. I simply can't appreciate President-elect Obama's victory for all its worth because he obviously didn't have to work hard for it, especially in the home stretch. John McCain stopped just short of spoon feeding him the victory. Some might even say that McCain wanted to see a black man in office more than the black man himself.
McCain's entire campaign seemed to be a bad joke from some other dimension.
-Sarah Palin
-"That one"
-Joe The Plumber
-Suspending his campaign to deal with the economic crisis(weeks earlier he was proudly saying that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong")
...and the list goes on.
McCain might as well have filled a spoon with victory and told Obama, "open up for the choo choo train". If this wasn't the worst ran Presidential Campaign in U.S. history, I'm afraid to even ask what was. And, in contrast to the joke that John McCain called a campaign, Barack Obama ran the best campaign possible with the tools he had to work with. His campaign manager, David Plouffe, set a precedent in how future campaigns should be ran if you even want to contend for the presidency. The campaigns of this election season pitted the absolute best campaign against the absolute worst campaign.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that Barack Obama won the election. Not only because of the historical aspect, but because he is the most progressive person willing to take the job and that's what this country and to a greater extent, this world needs right now. I'm just not as happy about the historical aspect of his election as I should be, because it feels like it was handed to him and he didn't have to exert much effort as he did.
Final Thoughts
America electing it's first black president did not put an end to racism. It just showed that the majority of Americans used their brains during this election and chose the best candidate running for the job. When America votes in a dumb black man to the office of President of the U.S., then we can start talking about the end of racism in America. Don't blame me for setting the bar so high. Blame the people that voted George Bush into office twice.
3 comments:
Well you have to consider who the "you" is in that statement. "You" could really mean a collective group of people as in, black people. So in that respect yes "WE" have worked for it. Another thing consider that people were fed up with Bush in 2004 but that wasn't fuel enough for them to vote for Kerry. Even if your opponent makes some very wrong moves its still not a cake walk for you. Obama worked very hard and he earned this victory. I don't think its fair or accurate to try to take that away from him.
@ Arneatha
My intention is not to belittle Senator Obama's achievement. The man worked hard and as I said in the blog, this was probably the best ran presidential campaign in U.S. history. I just don't feel the energy I thought I would about his win and I believe that its because of the lacklustre campaign from John McCain. I felt more excitement when Obama beat Hillary in the Democratic primaries because she actually put up a serious fight.
when will u realize that you are the only one with you stupid ideas?? you hate your own race, (if you are black at all) you hate your own country where you were born, you just hate and hate and hate and guess what NO EFFING BODY GIVES A SHIT WHAT YOU HATE cause your stupid blog cannot and will not change the world. ur just another ignorant internet asshole ranting about shit that pisses him off and not doing a thing that matters to anyone. Trinidad isn't missing you we are still here dispite all the bs you write about us in your blog. all your negativity is only about u, u just want the world to be as unhappy as u are. ur so sour u cant even enjoy a victory like Pres Obama's u stupid ass!! get a life the rest of us are out there living and trying to change the world while u sit on your dumb ass blogging about what makes u mad. u boring dumbass internet pussy!! FUCK U!!
Post a Comment
Don't forget to "follow" and "subscribe" to this blog by clicking the links at the top of this page.