A White Cloud AND A Silver Lining?

I sit here two days after the second most historic Presidential election in United States’ history – the first being George Washington’s, of course – and wonder what other silver linings could there be.

I watched as throngs of Americans – black, white, yellow, brown, and all colors in between – celebrate a truly historic occasion. I listened to a story on National Public Radio of a 109-year-old daughter of a slave who saw a son of a black man win the highest office in the land. And I saw a nation change right before my eyes. It was an amazing thing to witness.

I also watched as infamous race-baiter (and fellow South Carolinian) Jesse Jackson crying his eyes out in Chicago. And I was struck by the question that popped into my mind: “Was Jesse crying tears of joy? Or was he crying because he saw his meal ticket flying away in the Chicago wind?”

“Huh? What could you possibly mean, Rupe?” you are surely saying. Jesse watched as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., bled out in Memphis after being shot down by an assassin’s bullet. Jesse fought hard for that very moment when Senator John McCain conceded defeat in Arizona and Barack Obama became the President-Elect of this multi-racial nation. Jesse even ran for president on a few occasions, being soundly thumped when his rhetoric fell upon too many deaf ears even in the Democratic Party. So, what could I possibly be writing about?

Simply this: Jackson’s and Reverend Al Sharpton’s raison d’etre’ can no longer stand up to any public scrutiny. America can no longer be called a racist nation.

With a majority of whites, Hispanics, and nearly every black person in the United States voting to vault Obama to the presidency, any notion that race is still a factor in America goes right out the window.

Liberal “African America” can no longer stand on the platform that every social ill suffered by it is caused by racism. The Bradley Effect is dead. America has just proved what many in America have said for years – racism as an institution is dead.

So, for conservatives, there just may be a silver lining after all.

Could Obama Hurt Race Relations?

So, Barack Obama is the candidate of choice of the Democratic Party. All during the Democratic primary season, all I could think of was that the choices that the party had were unequivocated Evil (Hillary Clinton) and complete, total Naiveté (Obama). It’s a scary scenario, but what can you expect of a party that foisted the new Narcissus on America sixteen years ago?

Now a note on how I was raised. My father and mother were both Southerners born and bred. They came from a generation that still believed in the dignity, courage and righteousness of the Confederacy, and that believed blacks were a severe problem. Incredibly, though, my parents raised their three offspring that ALL people should be judged by nothing except their actions and character. I never heard them utter a single racist profanity during the time I was in their home, and was frankly surprised (maybe I was just naïve) at some of the actions I saw fellow Whites perform when I went to college.

It excited me to see General Colin Powell, a black man, become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because it showed me that Mom & Dad were right. And it distresses me to no end when we are continually bombarded today when such “firsts” as the recently-installed Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court being a black woman is considered newsworthy by the media. Why should it be? This is America, and the best person for the job should be placed in that job. Why should race be an issue today?

But, that is what has me worried. Barack Obama could very well become President of the United States. Yes, he is half-black (though in our Liberal nation that means he is “really” fully black), and he is considered by the Democrats to be the best person for the position. And that is part and parcel of what I find frightening. Why? you may ask.

Barack Obama is completely unprepared to perform the job. Except for less than one six-year term in the Senate, all his political background is local and populist. He has no military, foreign policy, administrative, or commercial experience of which to speak, except for “bringing home” the troops in Iraq. This does not bode well for a nation that leads the World in all those categories. Like President Jimmy Carter in 1980, he is running on nothing but rhetoric and sound bites. He has yet to elucidate a single sound policy on any issue, except to say that he will change America.

So, the problem? Every politician today touts “change.” And that is quite alright, though I’m pretty sure that “change” really means more of the same. What worries me is that a naïve populist, having not a single solid policy, being a “minority,” could be just as bad as President Carter and truly set back race relations in America twenty-to-thirty years.

A poor presidency by this man and you could have every racist kook and nutcase, egged on by a media who truly cares less about integrity than winning awards that they bestow upon themselves, gain some legitimacy and point to race as a factor. Can you see the next presidential race with a black candidate, regardless of party, being boiled down to what Obama did? That is not what America needs. It's not a good thing for our nation. What America needs is a capable, effective leader, regardless of race, who has vision, policies, moral integrity and the knowledge to do what the nation requires.

And I’m afraid Obama can’t do that today.