The Black Vote: Taken for granted, ignored, or necessary

The black vote is important because it represents the behavior of a group of people whose voting power had been denied for many years, both by political mandate and by threat of physical violence. However, the black vote is unique because African American voting behavior is intrinsically rooted in the people's history.

Since the Reconstruction, the general behavior of blacks is to vote in block, either for one party or the other. Until Roosevelt came into the presidency and began the New Deal, blacks were committed to the Republican Party.

So what happened? Looking back at the 2008 presidential elections, where blacks voted overwhelmingly Democrat, the question still remains: Just what went wrong or has changed? 

Tonight we'll break it down with a robust panel of guests representative of Democrats, Republican, and Independents. Most notably to present the case for the Republican party, will be Lenny McAllister, the Hip Hop Republican. Central to our discussion is the question: Which party today, best represents the interest of black America? Tonight, our guests will all make their best case for the parties with whom they identify. 

Do join us, feel free to share your opinions, and you be the judge, on Freedom Thru Speech Radio at 8pm EST/7pm CST.  You can listen through the show's platform by clicking here, or you can dial in on our special dial-in number at 914-803-8441.

And John McCain Finally Nears Rock Bottom: Fellow Republicans Mock His Newest Campaign Ad

Conclusive proof that Senator John McCain has outlived his efficacy as well as his facilities of good judgment.  Watch as Joe Scarborough and fellow Republican Arizona Republican John Shadegg, along with the rest of the panel, laugh at McCain’s campaign ad, “Just finish the danged fence.”

He probably will win his re-election bid, but in doing so he will have also lost any self-respect he might have left.  Such a shame.  Who would have thought he would go from presidential candidate to this desperate, pandering foolishness?

Really, George Rekers, Really?: Just Give Us the Straight Story about the Whole Rentboy Debacle

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White Noise: The Deafening Cacophony of Silence from the Right Could Be the Death Knell of the GOP

white noise  --noun  Also called white sound.  a steady, unvarying, unobtrusive sound, as an electronically produced drone or the sound of rain, used to mask or obliterate unwanted sounds.  –www.dictionary.com

“In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”   –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Did I ever tell you that at one time, for a very brief period of time, I wanted to be a playwright?  Yes, when I was an undergraduate. I took this class entitled “Reading Drama, Reading Life,” and successive readings of the plays of James Baldwin, August Wilson, and Joseph A. Walker moved me to become a playwright.

So, in a weekend of frenzied and inspired creative energy, I wrote my first play.  And on Monday, assured that I had just composed a virtual masterpiece, I presented the play to my professor who read it intently, said he found it quite good, but he offered one criticism.  The characters talked too much. 

In my zeal to write touching, affective dialogue, I had ignored the silences.  As my professor told me on that morning, in drama as in life, sometimes what is not said is as important as what is said, if not moreso.  It is in those silences, those vast lacunae between what is said and done and what is left unsaid and undone where true meaning and intent often resides.

But I have already talked too much.  I have already given too much time in building this grandiose metaphor.  Allow me to put it all in perspective.

For months now we have heard this cantankerous clamor of un-contrite cynicism from the right.  This wall of white noise has become such that it has began to define the right.  But this is the thing.  I don’t believe everyone on the right concurs with those sentiments being expressed by what I take to be a very small but very vocal, very loud minority.  In fact I know they don’t.

On a daily basis I interact with right-leaning and staunchly Republican friends and colleagues who are as dismayed as I by the rhetoric seemingly driven by racial animus and resentment.  They come to me in private and lament the voices now speaking on behalf of the GOP. 

They then shake their heads and dismiss themselves from my presence.  Some even seek me out to apologize though I am not certain what a personal apology to me means in the whole scheme of things.  But outside the closed doors of my presence, outside the four walls of my audience which hides their secret shame, they say nothing;  they cross their fingers, and they whisper a silent, fervent prayer that everything turns out alright.

But such is the posture on the right now.  Such is the attitude of the GOP.  So desperate is the GOP establishment to return to power that they have cast their lot with the most base, fanatical, and fringe elements.  And the louder this minority becomes, the more sensational their rhetoric becomes, the more attention they draw to themselves, the more the right acquiesces. 

Even in this fringe’s more egregious assertions and actions, those who know better, those who claim the moral high ground for themselves, say nothing and even seem to be frightened to confront this beast of their own creation until the beast finally has taken over, making any rational, well-meaning discourse and decision making impossible;  they now find themselves enslaved by this beast.

But what they do not realize is that at some point, those rational, sensible people looking on from the sidelines, those maligned groups spurned and trampled by this beast—African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities--, and those who have simply grown tired of the bombastic rhetoric, will look upon the GOP’s reticence, timidity, and cowardice and in the deafening cacophony of that silence they will realize true meaning, motive, and intent, and they will simply turn away.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man Is King: Could Republicans Be Hurting Themselves by Supporting Rubio over Crist in Florida?

In the Florida senate race Republican primaries, an October poll showed Governor Charlie Crist solidly ahead of conservative and former Florida state house speaker Marco Rubio though Rubio seemed to be gaining ground.  However, the same poll revealed that in the match up between Rubio and the probable Democratic challenger in the general race, Kendrick Meeks, independents and moderates would more then likely swing their support to Meeks.

So, what did the Republican establishment do?  Still furious with him for supporting Present Obama’s stimulus plan even though this state sorely needed the stimulus funds, Republicans from all quarters threw their support solidly behind Rubio who then quickly overtook and surpassed Crist in the polls.  But keep in mind that this is only the Republican primary.

Now deserted by his former party who seemed so enthralled with him in better days, Governor Crist is considering running as an Independent.  And polls show that if Crist were to run as an independent, in a three way race between him, Rubio, and Meeks, he would most likely be the victor.  

Let me take the time to make this observation for you in case you have not been keeping score.  According to polls, Rubio probably cannot win that Florida senate seat.  So, what does the Republican establishment do?  They double down on Rubio, and send a number of prominent Republicans and party leaders into the state to further endorse Rubio.  Because, I guess, that's what you do when the odds are against you;  you beat even more.

If I may quote that great American poet, Forrest Gump, “I am not a smart man,” but even in my state of depressed mental capacity, I can see that this makes no sense.  However, I can readily ascertain the motives behind their actions;  you see, Marco Rubio is the Tea Party Movement’s candidate, and because the GOP is being driven primarily by the whims of the Tea Party Movement, they must follow the Tea Party Movement’s wishes, even if those wishes don’t make much sense.  And herein lies the rub.

Let me ask you a question.  Do you think it was necessary for the GOP to embrace they Tea Party so ardently?  Oh, I can completely understand why they did it.  After President George W. Bush’s abysmal eight years as president and the subsequent drubbing they took in the 2008 elections, the GOP was without direction.  They were bereft of ideas. 

They were like a room full of blind women and men, milling aimlessly about, bumbling and stumbling into each other.  And along came the Tea Party Movement.  The Tea Party Movement was not much better than the GOP when it came to ideas.  But they did have a palpable, if not racially motivated, rage, and their antics knew no bounds, and the media seemed absolutely captivated by them.  So, the GOP grabbed up their canes and their seeing eye dogs and rushed off blindly behind them.

In a period when the nation most needed solid, well-reasoned leadership, the GOP instead chose to follow.  And it all seems like fun and games now, but let me make this bold prediction.  In about five years or so, the GOP will rue the day they allowed themselves to be seduced by the Tea Party Movement. 

Just like right now in Florida, they find themselves having to take more and more untenable positions and make more and more questionable decisions because of their allegiance to the Republic of Tea until that day when they have driven away the moderates and independents and find themselves all alone in a room full of kooks. 

But, hey, as the old saying goes, “In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”  It’s just too bad that the GOP cannot see where it is going.

The Republican Party Has Mistreated African American Voters, Senator Lindsey Graham Is Gay, and Other Terribly Obvious News

Sometimes “the news” is so utterly obvious that I find myself shaking my head and scratching my behind at the same time, because this is what I do when I am befuddled, while trying to figure out just what makes it news in the first place. Has this ever happened to you?

For example, remember last week when some poll came out that determined that the Tea Party Movement demographic was primarily Republican, white, married, male, married and over forty-five?  Did we actually need a poll to determine that?  That’s news?  Couldn’t we have just looked at a few photographs of a Tea Party protest and made an educated guess?

But I guess today was simply a slow news day because a few of the stories to come out today seemed painfully obvious to me.

In the first instance, Tuesday night in remarks delivered at Depaul University embattled Republican National Chairman Michael Steele announced that African Americans have not been given a very good reason to vote Republican.  And this is news?

Perhaps the real exercise here is determining if Steele unwittingly told the truth in saying something he should not have said that the party will take him to task for later, as is his usual habit, or if Steele has somehow grown a backbone and stood erect and decided to just tell it like it is.  Hmmm.

Speculation from those I have talked to on this end ranges from Steele having to make a humiliating and obsequious retraction by week’s end, as is his usual habit, to an angry, disgruntled Steele getting touch with his inner Tupac Shakur and giving the GOP the middle finger.  I wonder if he has Republi-Thug Life tattooed on his chest.  It would be so cool if he did.

However, just as I was contemplating the Steele un-news, I ran across a piece in which an anti-illegal immigrant advocate and conservative Michael Gheen accused Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham of being gay and exhorted him to “come out of the log cabin closet.” 

Senator Graham is gay?  You mean a somewhat effeminate fifty-five year old life-long bachelor just might be living an alternative lifestyle?  Who would have thunk it?

But I have long had the notion that Senator Graham just might be gay.  The only thing is I never thought much of it.  In fact, until recently when he seemed to fall under the evil spell of the far right as has most of his party, I had a healthy respect for Senator Graham.  It didn’t matter to me if he was gay;  that’s his business.

However, Gheen is positing this whole spookish, CIA notion that as long as Senator Graham is gay and in the closet, others will use his alleged homosexuality as leverage to coerce him to vote as they want him to vote.  Another example of completely inane statements spoken at a Tea Party rally, but is it news?

Lastly, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s Daily Show has spent an almost inordinate amount of time and effort pointing out the hypocritical, cynical, disingenuousness of Fox News.  But is that really news?  Is that something that is so utterly obvious?

Perhaps the fact that fact that Fox News commentator Bernie Goldberg finally had to acquiesce and admit the truth after being confronted with video evidence is the real news;  someone at Fox actually can tell the truth.

But anyway, Stewart’s crusade against Fox does make for good entertainment.  I’ll leave you with the latest clip of him giving Fox the old tried and true FU once again:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Bernie Goldberg Fires Back
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Could the 2008 Presidential Election Have Been John McCain’s Waterloo?

At one time, I had a great amount of respect for John McCain. I didn’t agree with him on much, but I did respect him. Perhaps I bought into the whole maverick image seemingly created by the media. Perhaps McCain did as well. But anyway, I felt that he always voted with his conscience on most issues and not along strict party lines.

Out of all the candidates in the 2000 presidential election Republican Party primaries, I thought John McCain to be the better candidate. And when George W. Bush and Karl Rove and his ilk threw a wrench in the works in South Carolina by suggesting that McCain fathered an illegitimate black child with a prostitute, I could only grit my teeth with the knowledge that such an honorable man as McCain, a straight talker and veteran, should be defeated by such dishonorable, despicable tactics.

Of course, Bush went on to a questionable and contested win in the presidential contest against Al Gore, and John McCain returned to the senate. I’m sure that McCain was bitter; he had to be. But he carried on dutifully and without complaint.

In 2008, by the time McCain had secured the Republican Party nomination for president, I was actively campaigning for Barack Obama; however, I still felt somewhat happy that McCain had been able to secure the nomination. But perhaps, securing the Republican Party presidential nomination was the high point of McCain’s political career because then it all started to go downhill.

From the time McCain gave his infamously horrid speech in front of the puke green backdrop to his concession speech, his campaign, and maybe his political career, was doomed. First of all, ironically then candidate Obama had early success tying McCain to the George W. Bush presidency; in a cruel twist of fate, the man who had defeated him by unscrupulous means in 2000 resurfaced to defeat him once again.

And then he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate thinking she would give him the best chance to win. However, as soon as it became apparent to most of the nation that she’s as absolutely dumb as a bag of hammers, the moderates and independents he needed most to have any chance of winning fled in droves. Yeah, she fired up the right, but in the same instance, I don’t think she garnered any votes or support for him that he would not have gotten already.

The town hall style presidential debate held at Belmont University, which supposedly played to John McCain’s strengths, perhaps defined McCain’s presidential campaign—an old, tired, bewildered man wondering around on the stage seemingly looking for inspiration and direction.

After his defeat, I guess I expected McCain to return to the senate again and play his position just as he had done before. I expected him to be the decent, honorable public servant that voted with his conscience that I had always imagined him to be.

Instead, upon his return to the senate, he found his party pushing hastily and vigorously toward the right, and he decided to follow. And in doing so, he adopted this “just say anything to win” posture. In an effort to stay politically relevant and viable, he contradicted most of his earlier positions. He looked pathetically inept and desperate as he switched from one position to another on issue after issue.

However, now not only does he look inept, now not only does he look desperate, he looks simply defeated. In his effort to retain his senate seat, not only is he running from his earlier positions; he is running from himself.

In an effort to appeal to right wing conservative voters, he stated that he was not and has never considered himself to be a maverick.

 Huh? What? Well, after years of publically claiming the label, after years of running for office on the label, after writing an autobiography which featured the label prominently in the title, he claims that he actually never was what he said he was, nor did he say he was what he said he was. It’s all like a surreal mavericky political Jedi mind trick.

Up until the 2008 presidential contest, John McCain had served his country and represented his district honorably and with distinction. However, at the point he realized that the terms of his continued service had changed, at the point he realized that his continued service would require him to sell his soul in tiny, excruciating increments, perhaps he should have just thrown in the towel. Now he just looks like the over-the-hill athlete, the punch drunk fighter that continues to compete long after his prime.

Had he chose to retire following the 2008 presidential elections, had he chose not to seek office again and go back to Arizona as a civilian, his defeat would have just been seen as an unfortunate end to an otherwise stellar career. However, his insistence on continuing on means that even if he wins reelection, the price he will have had to pay will have eroded whatever honor and dignity he has left. The 2008 presidential campaign will not be seen as the high water mark of his career, but the beginning of the end—his own personal and political Waterloo.

A Little Fear and Trepidation Are Terrible Things to Waste: A Brief History Lesson by Professor Reddick

I fancy myself to be a student of history; the past forever fascinates me, and additionally, you would be amazed just how much insight on the present that might be gained by looking critically at the past.

So, this past summer when the Tea Party protests surrounding healthcare reform first arose, when people began to hi-jack town hall meetings with seemingly feigned and contrived outrage, when we began to hear appeals to the “real Americans” to take back our country, it all looked and sounded vaguely familiar to me.

We all pointed rigid fingers and decried the racism inherent in these actions and statements, and rightly so, but in doing so, I do believe that we completely missed the most prevailing motivations. But when on last week Virginia governor proclaimed the month of April to be Confederate History Month, it all started to come into focus for me. And a glance backward to the past would provide the historical correlations necessary to understanding what is afoot.

The first period we would need to take a good hard look at is during Reconstruction and the period shortly thereafter. Things were still pretty shaky then, but black folk were off to a promising start. They were fighting hard and diligently to rise above their station in life, and most importantly, they were actively availing themselves of the political process. And herein lies the rub.

The alarm quickly went up that black folk were taking over the country, that the country had to be taken back and preserved for “real Americans” at all costs. At this time, though, it was the Democrats leading the charge, and they used the fear and trepidation wrought by the societal changes underway to create a certain political urgency and rally people to their cause (and political party).

Historian John Hope Franklin refers to this timeframe as the very nadir of black existence as black folk lost any and all gains made during Reconstruction and found themselves in an even more precarious position. And since people had no inkling of political correctness at the time, overt racists did not have to couch their racism in terms like “Socialists” or “Communists” or “Muslim.” They just came right out with it. I read an account that stated that to win political office in the South during this period, you had to “out-nigger” your opponent; whichever politician could use the word nigger the most times and the most creatively in their stump speeches usually won the race.

Next we would have to fast forward to the period following the Civil Rights Movement. As black folk took advantage of the hard-earned opportunities afforded by the Civil Rights Movement, some white folk became nervous and fearful. And as the riots spread throughout the urban communities in the late 1960’s, that nervous fearfulness transformed into abject terror. And then here comes Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon.

Nixon was able to capitalize on white Americans’ fears that black folk were moving too far too fast. And by pointing out the riots sweeping the nation and defining them as evidentiary of the lawlessness sweeping the nation as African Americans were allowed to enter the mainstream, he was able to convince them that a domestic barbarian horde of knee-grows stood at the ready to usurp the place of the good white people whose forefathers had made this country what it is.

Nixon’s return to “law and order” and a certain social normality message managed to resonate with voters, and rural and Southern Democrats still aggravated by the Democratic Party’s passing of civil rights legislation were only too eager to jump ship. Nixon’s racist rhetoric greatly appealed to them. Nixon perhaps would have gone down in the history books as being great had his own personal foibles and paranoias not tripped him up.

And Ronald Reagan’s true genius lay in his ability to code Nixon’s almost overtly racist rhetoric, which had begun to turn many people off by this time, into covertly racist, race neutral language.

Now, let’s take a look at what is happening today. If you are like me, the whole furor surrounding health care reform took me completely by surprise. I attended a small local rally out of mere curiosity, and it seemed that the crowd protesting “Obama’s Socialist Health Care Reform” should have been leading the charge to support it; more than a few looked as if they could use at least a good dental plan.

But in hindsight, I remember noting during that protest, as well as numerous others, that the conversation seemed only peripherally about and motivated by healthcare and more about and by President Obama’s perceived difference and change and the concomitant fear and trepidation that attend to both.

Following President Obama’s election and amid the threat of financial crisis and ruin, people—all people—were afraid and naturally so. They were in desperately in need of guidance and re-assurance—leadership, and I still hold firmly to my previous notions that if the right and conservatives were genuinely concerned about this country, at that time they would have stepped out front and worked to allay public fears about the ascendance of an African American president and the meaning thereof. That does not mean that they had to agree with his agenda or his policy; they just had to acknowledge both his humanity and his legitimacy, both of which seemed to be in question.

Instead, they chose to contrive this straw man in the form of a healthcare reform debate, and use any number and/or manner of outright lies, distortions, and innuendo to play upon the worst fears of the most fearful. And Governor McConnell’s proclamation just reminds Virginians and the nation of what once was and makes an implicit promise for a return to the halcyon days of yore.

But perhaps as a student of history I should have expected this. After all, such has been the historical pattern of politics in America; I guess I was just naïvely idealistic in expecting anything different. But I guess in a time of crisis and social upheaval, politically speaking, a little fear and trepidation are terrible things to waste.

Scott Brown Buried under a Avalanche Hate by Those Who Claimed to Love Him Most

It must be really hard out there for a conservative.

Just a little over a month ago, conservatives from every corner were showing mad love to Republican Senator Scott Brown after he won deceased Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy’s Massachusetts’s senate seat in a special election. For days afterward, conservatives could not construct a sentence without a subject, a verb, and Scott Brown (sorry VP Biden).

Conservatives were hanging all off Scott Brown like a cheap suit. He was even being touted, somewhat prematurely I think, as a possible presidential candidate for 2012. He could do no wrong.

But then recently a procedural vote was held on the Senate floor on the new jobs bill, and Senator Brown had the absolute temerity to break ranks with his Republican counterparts along with four other Republican senators and allow the bill to actually be brought to a vote. And now the floodgates of hate have opened. Just check out some of the responses on Senator Brown’s Facebook fans page taken from the site Wonkette:

The whole thing makes no absolute sense whatsoever. What do the Republicans think they would have gained from opposing the jobs bill? It’s obvious that their base was desirous of continuing the obstructionism, but I believe their recalcitrance would have eventually backfired on them. And it is telling that several of the GOP senators who voted against cloture, turned around and voted for the bill. Could this spell an end to Republican obstructionism?

Obstructionism can only be effective for a short length of time. It might work well at the onset, but eventually it will only be seen for what it is. And the truth is that Scott Brown really didn’t have a choice in the matter; he found himself in a damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t position. Yeah, conservatives would have applauded if he had voted against cloture, but his constituents back home would have railed against him.

Yes, Massachusetts did send a Republican to the senate, but Massachusetts remains in large a blue state. And Scott Brown knows this. So even as conservatives fling hate his way by the buckets full, he has nevertheless earned the respect of many for finally doing what the people of Massachusetts sent him to the Senate to do. Let’s hope his GOP colleagues get the message and do the same.

Wanted: Press secretary for God. No references needed. We know your heart.

I realize that God is all-powerful and all-knowing. I cannot understate the importance of these attributes for any supreme being. And I do recognize and acknowledge my whole insignificance in the grand scheme of things. However, I would just like to drop a quick suggestion in the celestial suggestion box.

It is my suggestion that God gain the employ of a good spokesman or press secretary because the things being said and done in Her or His name are getting more and more outlandish. It seems that when those purporting to be God’s folk step in front of a microphone in front of a camera, the mainline connection to the throne room gets a little fuzzy, and they say anything that comes to their heads.

Of course, people with good, common sense recognize the absolute absurdity of these words and deeds, but the present reality is that common sense is not so common anymore. But let’s catalogue just a few of the words and deeds I’m speaking of.

No one could possibly forget when shortly following the earthquake that practically leveled Haiti, Pat Robertson proclaimed Haiti’s misfortune to be caused by a centuries old “pact with the devil” made by Haiti’s founders. This would be a shocking, repugnant statement no matter whose mouth it originated from, but coming from Pat Robertson it was that much more atrocious.

Pat Robertson is supposed to be tight with God. After all, among other things he is the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), host of the influential Christian broadcast The 700 Club, and a leading spokesmen for Christian conservatism.

But how is Robertson privy to this information? How does he know about the pact? Perhaps, the devil told him first hand over lunch or while golfing, but he should have known not to believe the devil. He knows how the devil lies.

And do you remember last month when South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer compared people on public assistance to stray animals? He stated that the government should stop providing assistance to these people for the simple fact that if you continue feeding them, they will breed. After hearing his remarks, it suddenly became plain to me why the state congress is reluctant to get rid of Governor Mark Sanford; this clown would then take over.

However, I was still shaking my head at these and Pat Robertson’s remarks when Virginia State delegate Bob Marshall stood up on this past Thursday and stated unequivocally and unapologetically that disabled children are God’s punishment to women who aborted their first pregnancy.

This statement alone is cringe inducing, but of course he went on to reference Old Testament Biblical teaching to qualify his remarks: "In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.

Now, I’m no fan of abortion [You can read my views of abortion here.], but suddenly I wondered if there was anything like a late-life abortion or a retroactive abortion available to rid us of idiots like this. And he made these remarks in his capacity as a representative of the state of Virginia and of God; in doing so, he poorly represented both.

I’m just so sick and tired of the excessive and obsessive moralizing. And you know it all has nothing at all to do with God; it is all political. However, politicians have realized what many hustlers and other species of chiselers have known for quite some while; you can get any number of people to believe anything, no mater how outrageous or preposterous, if you just invoke the name of God.

So, God, I have been trying to expose these charlatans with all my strength, but no one seems to be listening to me. It just might be time to bring in a professional.

Which Is the Most Outlandish Headline?: Woman Breastfeeds Family Pet or Palin Wins Presidency

Okay, I just got to weigh in on this one. On Saturday morning, I ran across this article about a lady who breastfeeds her dog, and then thought so much of the idea, she took the time to pen an article about it. Try as I might not to judge her, I still could not help but to think that this was perhaps the craziest thing I had ever heard. If it is not the craziest, certainly it makes the top ten.

But then just this evening, I happened over to W.E.E. See You, and there’s this article, complete with pictures and video footage, of former republican candidate for Vice-president, Sarah Palin, referring to crib notes written on her hand during a question and answer following her Tea Party Convention key note speech.

You know, at first I was mildly amused by this whole scenario. Then I was just a tad bit concerned. And now I am more than a little bit frightened.

This was the person who could have been just a heartbeat away from being president? This is the person who seems to still harbor presidential aspirations for the year 2012? And she derides President Obama for using a teleprompter?

Let me give you the long and the short of it. After the election, we all but dismissed her chances of ever becoming president. In fact, I really thought she would just fade into the sunset after all the post-election furor subsided. But she’s still here and more popular than ever.

However, it would seem unlikely that anyone with half a brain, anyone with any critical thinking skills and any capacity for abstract thought would see her for what she is—an interloper who managed to manipulate her fifteen minutes of fame into a full time gig. But she is still around like the energizer bunny and keeps going and going and going.

And from my empirical observation, if you tell the same lie enough times and with requisite emphasis, people will begin to believe it. If she and her right wing cronies repeat the patently false notion that she possesses the knowledge and experience and ability to lead this nation often enough, enough of our countrymen who are devoid of all critical thinking skills and capacity for abstract thought just might believe it all the way to the voting both to make it a reality.

Now a woman suckling the family pet at her teat may be weird, it may be outlandish, and it may be utter and abject foolishness, but it certainly does not shock and perplex me as does the continued relevancy of one Mrs. Sarah Palin.

Public Service Advisory: Would the Following People Just Please STFU!

You know what I hate the most, what really chafes my behind? I absolutely abhor people who just won’t shut up. And it seems that the people who make the least sense, those spouting and espousing the most non-sensical BS are the ones who are always doing all the talking.

But usually, I am a laid back, mellow kind of fellow, and the BS doesn’t get to me. I just shake my head and move on. From time to time when the BS gets too deep, however, I will take the time to address it.

And since President Obama’s presidential campaign began in earnest last summer, the BS from the right, and sometimes from the left, has piled up wide and deep. From time to time I have addressed it, especially when it became such that I just could not ignore it.

This week the BS continued unabated, but at this point it has gotten so absolutely foolish, they I feel I must call for a BS timeout. I must call for some people to just STFU and give us all a break for just a minute. So, could the following people please just STFU for the time being:

Michael Steele, you make less and less sense as you go along For the record, I believe that for our political system to work for African Americans we must be represented across the political spectrum. In other words, it does no good for African Americans to commit fully to either party; that is tantamount to putting one’s eggs in one basket. We must make our voices heard from the right and the left.

However, African Americans on the right, and left for that matter, must not commit to just merely regurgitating the political bile you are fed, but instead be committed to truth. And from time to time, Michael Steele has slipped and told the truth, but political exigency has caused him to have eat his words.

Anyway, this week began with Steele demanding the ouster of Senate majority leader Harry Reid because of his remarks that because President Obama was light-skinned and he did not use “the Negro dialect,” he would make a formidable presidential candidate. According to Steele and his cronies on the right, this remark was racist in nature, right up there on par with Trent Lott’s seeming endorsement of a segregationist candidate and platform.

But if Steele was honest with himself and with the rest of us, he would be able to admit the truthfulness of Reid’s statement. What made Reid’s statement so remarkable was his use of antiquated language which proves only that culturally he is quite out of touch.

But to attack Reid but say nothing of the largely racist rhetoric which has become part and parcel of the right’s efforts to regain relevancy decries a certain lack of sincerity. Michael Steele, your own party has little or no respect for you, and as time goes on, you become simply a caricature, a big joke. Do yourself and the rest of the country a favor and just STFU.

Rush Limbaugh is not a racist; he just plays one on TV I had a debate with one of my African American conservative friends concerning whether or not Limbaugh is actually a racist. But does it even matter if he is a racist or not when the racist rhetoric he constantly espouses reaches so many and does little more than reify and concretize the boundaries of race that keep us apart and prevent real progress.?

To tell you the truth, I don’t think he even believes half the bile that issues forth from that vile orifice he calls a mouth, but when you are getting filthy rich from little more than reinforcing the racist views of a handful of ignorant bigots, why not?

But to maintain this racist, bigoted persona even in the face of remarkable human tragedy and suffering is morally despicable. And to go so far as to discourage your viewers from not contributing to the rescue and recovery effort should earn you a special place in hell.

However, I am most disappointed that no one from the right, no one from the party that claims to represent morality and Christian values even bothered to come out against you. So, Rush, until you assume your proper place amid the fire and brimstone of hell, I wish you would just give us all a break and just STFU!

What Would Jesus Do (WWJD), Pat Robertson? Speaking of Christian values, what values were on display when 700 Club founder and pastor Pat Robertson blamed Haiti’s misfortune on a “pact with the devil” the country made hundreds of years ago so that it might throw off the shackles of slavery and gain its independence from France?

When I heard this clip, what I actually interpreted Robertson’s remarks to mean is that “those Negroes had the unctuous audacity to insist on being free and then to take their freedom by force, and they are now paying the price for their refusal to be slaves.” Or maybe I’m just reading too much into it.

If, in fact, Haiti made a deal with the devil, it was throwing in its lot with the United States and allowing the United States so much influence in the political processes of the country.

Anyway, this is not the first time Pat Robertson has been in violation. Every now and then he says something off the wall that simply links him to a long line of racists who wrap themselves in the flag of Christianity.

My greatest hope is that Black Jesus will reveal himself to Pat Robertson in that moment before he enters into eternity; spending eternity with the image of Black Jesus burned into his subconscious is hell enough for Robertson, but right now I just wish he would STFU!

Honorable Mention: William Jefferson Clinton, please step forward and explain yourself Before we were interrupted by the catastrophe in Haiti, we spent the first days of this past week debating the meaning and import of Senator Reid’s remarks. However, no one seemed to pay any real attention to the remarks of our purported first black president, William Jefferson Clinton, that at one time then presidential candidate Obama would be bringing him and Ted Kennedy coffee.

This remark could be interpreted one of two ways. It could just mean that because of Senator Obama’s relatively newness to the senate, he would be beholden to them as senior members. Or it could mean that that uppity Negro has seemingly forgotten his place.

Despite the notion that Clinton has done so much to help black folk, if his record were critically examined, you would find that his contributions to African Americans have been little more that symbolic gestures.

And given he and his wife’s seemingly racially derogatory remarks during the darkest days of her campaign, I think he should be pressed to come forward and provide an explanation of his remarks. Until he does, he can just STFU!

Congratulations to President Obama, and my condolences to the right

I know this comes a day late, but yesterday I awoke to learn, as did perhaps the rest of the country, that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And like the rest of the country and maybe the world, this really took me by surprise; I didn’t see this one coming. Nevertheless, I do extend to President Obama my hardiest congratulations. And to the right, I extend my sincerest condolences.

At one time, the actions of the right following the election and inauguration of the president surprised me. But little by little, episode by episode, they one-upped themselves on absurdity.

I think my incredulity began right after they announced Sarah Palin as a candidate for vice-president. Even as it became clearer that she lacked even the most basic qualifications for the office, the right solidified in their support of her. And almost as if they were sensing an imminent defeat, as the campaign wore on, the tone became nastier and nastier.

I believe at that time they too could sense the beginning of the end. They too realized just how preposterous her candidacy was, but they obstinately refused to admit such and held on to the very end.

And then following the inauguration, I thought the worst had finally passed. I thought that this country would move forward politically. I thought republicans would gracefully conceded defeat. And for a minute it seemed that they would do so, but then the foolishness began anew with even greater virulence and even greater antipathy.

Instead of getting out front leading, the republicans decided to follow the most obstinate, contentious, and seemingly racist and off kilter elements of the right. And with each new obstructionist tactic, they seemed to sink lower and lower until nothing they did surprised me anymore.

But then not too long ago, a conservative writer wrote a piece suggesting that President Obama’s administration should be deposed via a military coup. The article was subsequently pulled but not before someone was able to take screen shots of it and circulate it around the net. Just the very appearance of such an article suggests how desperate the right is and how far they are willing to go.

Also, implicit in this notion is the fear of what would happen if the President does succeed in his agenda. Such a success could change the paradigm of power in this country. Such a success could mean the diminished power of the upper classes and a resurgence of the middle class which all but perished under the Bush administration.

Thus the celebration when President Obama failed in his attempt to bring the Olympics to Chicago. And thus the reaction from the right when President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The recent gathering momentum of the Healthcare Reform effort and President Obama’s securing of the Nobel Peace Prize seem to signal just such impending success. And if Healthcare Reform goes smoothly, it opens the doorway to the success of the rest of his agenda.

But it gets even uglier from here because with every success, the opposition will simply get that much more obstinate and outlandish in its resistance. And in their obstinacy and outlandishness lies the seeds of their undoing. And for that they have my sincerest condolences.

As time moves forward, their position gets that much more untenable. And should Healthcare Reform succeed, should the economy right itself, should Americans go back to work, their attempt to portray President Obama as an incompetent outsider intent on destroying the country from within becomes an even harder sell.

Love/Hate: Desire, President Obama, and the Right

Allow me to begin by setting up this analogy.

For the past three years, I have had a colleague who has openly expressed her absolute and ongoing disdain for me. At first this hurt me; I had no idea what I had done to incur or to incite this level of hatred in someone who I barely knew and who barely knew me, but soon I came to recognize her reaction as simple and pure jealousy. And soon thereafter, I began to recognize it as so much more.

Other colleagues began to question me as to what I had done to her. Evidently I, or her loathing of me, was her main topic of conversation. Colleagues reported to me that it had gotten so bad that they had to insist that she quit speaking of me altogether.

Then, several times I noticed her standing in my doorway, desperately straining to see what I was writing, what was on my computer screen. And several times as I stood in front of my class, out of the corner of my eye I could see a figure standing just within the shadows peering in. I have been told that it was her.

But most recently, a manuscript I placed in another colleague’s box mysteriously disappeared then, just as mysteriously, suddenly re-appeared a couple of days later. We both shrugged it off, but later as we sat listening to the lady in question give an address, we both recognized the argument she was making. It was my argument as contained in the purloined manuscript.

I was told that I should be angry, and perhaps I should or will be later, but instead I was amused a great deal and even a little bit flattered. What I had perceived as jealousy, what I had perceived as hatred, revealed itself in that instance as a certain admiration, a certain longing, a certain yearning. It is a need to possess me, to control me, to have me need her. It is, in a word, desire.

And in contemplating this moment, I somehow drew a parallel in my mind between this situation and the right’s treatment of President Obama. Perhaps I may be mistaken, but I don’t remember seeing such a virulent outpouring of hatred toward any sitting president in my lifetime. Perhaps I am mistaken, but I don’t ever recall there being this many thinly veiled open threats against a sitting president ever.

The right is beside itself with anger, and this anger has enabled the oft fractured and factioned right, even in the absence of a rational, coherent platform or message, to finally coalesce, come together, around something—their supposed abhorrence of all things Obama.

But you know what? I don’t believe we are witnessing the expressions of a long pent up hatred at all; what we are witnessing is a long pent up desire.

Perhaps I could better express my point in this manner: Love and hate are flip sides of the same coin; each supposes an infatuation with or a tenaciously vigorous inclination toward another, an “other.” This infatuation with, this inclination toward, expresses a certain desire, a certain emptiness that can only be filled by possessing the “other,” by controlling the “other,” by being needed by the “other.” It is only through the “other” that we define ourselves, and that we achieve subjecthood.

And this is, in essence, the basis of the right’s relationship with the president. Theoretically, this is, in essence, the root of racism.

So when you see the throngs of people, their face twisted in rage as they scrutinize and protest every action of the president, when you see and hear them enunciate vague but open threats against the president, when you find that they have twisted the truth into half-truths and outright lies, don’t think of it as hatred. Think of it, instead, as a myriad of expressions of passion.

Think of it as them attempting to fill a sordid emptiness. Think of it as a certain admiration, a certain longing, a certain yearning. Think of it as a need to possess him, to control him, to have him need them. Think of it as desire.

Conservatism Is, Conservatism Ain't: Black Folk and the Republican Party

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people. –Edmund Burke

On Tuesday, November 6, 1984, I had finally come of age and had the occasion of voting in my first presidential election. I cast my ballot for Ronald Reagan. But before you castigate me or congratulate me, whatever your political leanings may be, please allow me a moment to explain my choice.

I did not make that choice blindly, but I made every plausible effort to assure I made the right choice. Perhaps I was a bit naïve, and certainly I had not yet developed a critical eye, but I read whatever literature I could find, and I spoke with representatives of the various political parties. However, it was the Republicans who presented their ideas most clearly, most concisely.

I don’t ever remember hearing the word conservatism used, but the Republican message of God and family, of working hard to get ahead, of self-determination, of personal responsibility, sounded very familiar to me. These were the same values extolled by my family since my earliest consciousness. So when I entered the voting booth on that day, I pulled the lever for Reagan.

However, over the next few years I did my due diligence to familiarize myself with the party and with the party’s beliefs. And at some point during this period, I even began to refer to myself as a conservative, and consumed a wide range of reading material by conservative thinkers. Edmund Burke, William F. Buckley, and Whittaker Chambers are a few names that come to mind.

I did not agree with everything I read. I did not even understand everything I read. But one thing became abundantly clear: the conservatism I was reading about and the conservatism as it was being practiced were not the same thing. While the intellectuals and thinkers defined conservatism in one manner, bigots interpreted conservatism in another and hijacked it in pursuit of power.

Around the mid 1960’s, those calling themselves conservatives saw an opportunity. With disgruntled southern Democrats upset with Kennedy’s and Johnson’s civil rights stance, they quickly shaped a message which would appeal to the nativists, the racists, the anti-Semites, the anti-communists, and the religious zealots all worried about the subversion of white, Anglo-Saxon Christian culture, and united them against a common foe—liberalism.

The Republican Party effectively became a haven for reactionaries and bigots. They, in Edmund Burkes words, “became bidders at the auction of popularity.”

And this is where conservatism and the Republican Party find themselves now. The two are inextricably entangled in their own past, dependent on racist, discriminatory rhetoric and divisive cultural and social issues to remain in the good graces of its most ardent believers; but as the scales fall from the eyes of the nation, this group is ever-dwindling .

Furthermore, while once conservative ideas and beliefs were articulated by respected intellectuals and thinkers, they are now represented by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Joe the Plumber and others of that same ilk.

And when I speak to black Republicans, they always cite those values I articulated earlier—God, family, hard work, self-determination, and personal responsibility—as reasons why they remain in the party as if one must be a conservative and one must be a Republican to also believe in these values. But they seem to blindly not to recognize that the Republican Party and conservatives gave up on that agenda a long time ago.

Every woman or man has the right to believe what they want to believe. Every woman or man has the right to choose to belong to whatever organization they wish to belong to. But in choosing what to believe and who to align themselves with, they also should think critically enough to know when they are being insulted, being denigrated, being debased.

The Right Should Be Disqualified So We Can Move Forward: Game Theory and Bi-partisanship

My knowledge of game theory is cursory at best; however, I believe game theory provides an effective and informative lens through which we might view the current state of politics and the president’s attempts at bi-partisanship. Please forgive my lapses of understanding.

In its most basic, simplistic sense, game theory defines a game as a contest between participants or groups of participants governed by a clearly defined set of rules and acceptable strategies, the end result of which can be defined by a measurable outcome.

The end result may range from a positive sum, in which each participant or group of participants may gain and lose at the same time, or a zero sum, in which one participant or group of participants can win only at the expense of the other.

Of course, children play games all the time. Sports contests are games. And as technology grows and expands, so does the number of available computer and video games. Sometimes human relationships seem to be games. And of course, politics is a game.

These are the rules of politics as I understand them: governmental leaders representing various political ideologies are elected by constituencies most likely informed by similar ideologies and coalesce into coalitions. These coalitions then come to the table with other coalitions holding antithetical views to engage in public conversation and debate around various issues with the majority shaping and controlling the scope of that discourse.

The end result should be positive sum meaning that in the give and take of the game of politics, each side will gain and each side will lose; however, ultimately everybody wins because solid, well-crafted public policy should emerge from honest, rationale debate.

Since about the mid- to late-1960’s, the right has become very adroit at playing the game of politics. Oh, they have played hard and fast with the rules; their actions and assertions have always existed within that ethical gray area and on the very outermost margins of truth, but their strategy has been brilliant nonetheless.

Nixon’s Southern Strategy was brilliantly simplistic, and caught the left by complete surprise. And while President Regan’s ascension was assisted in part by Carter’s ineptitude, the right did a superb job in framing this ineptitude in ways the public could understand.

The first President Bush’s use of Willie Horton bordered on utter deceit, but in the end, it provided the margin of victory that he needed and proved brilliant. And Karl Rove’s mobilization of the right through hot button cultural issues and outright fear tactics was a bit tacky, but it was enough to win the second President Bush successive terms.

But while the right figured out the game and perfected its strategy, that strategy was not based on sound reason and substance, but relied too heavily on legerdemain and subterfuge, and under the weight of crisis, this lack of sound reason and substance and the input of outside interests inimical to the common good became plain, and their house of cards crashed down around them.

For years the right had grown fat and arrogant from winning, but suddenly the parameters of the game changed, and they found themselves on the outside looking in, but instead of regrouping within those parameters, they chose to disregard the rules altogether. And once one side chooses to disregard the rules altogether, the game ceases to be a game as such and descends into bloodsport, an absolute chaotic free for all.

So, to continue the pursuit of bi-partisanship is foolhardy. In order for bi-partisanship to work, both sides must be playing within the parameters of the game. But the right has opted out of the game. The right has gone renegade. And the outcome is no longer a positive sum proposal, but has become zero sum, an all or nothing, win at all cost proposition. Thus, the game has been compromised.

All that remains now is for the president to go ahead and declare the other team as disqualified, and move forward with what he and his team deem as in the best interest of the people.