Rise Above Racism: Criticize Obama

It’s time to throw phony fears and threats about criticizing this President…

We mentioned it in passing in “Summer Revolution 2009”, but it deserves another: the singular proof of living in a ‘post-racial’ America will be the time when criticism of Obama and his policies is as full-throated as it would be if his ideas and policies, and the contrast between his campaign messages and his governing philosophy, were voiced by and/or the actions of a white man. It’s really that simple.

Not one of Obama’s ideas or initiatives is new to human history; all have been tried in one form or another, and all have failed and failed spectacularly, and all are failing spectacularly now. Americans don’t want their government running industries; they even believe they have a Constitution that says the government is not permitted to run industries. Americans do not want the government taking away their freedom to pursue happiness, including financial reward, without limit of the government. They believe their nation’s Declaration of Independence was based on this right being inalienable. They would never have elected someone who is so obviously out of synch with Americans on these core beliefs.

But they did elect Obama—because no one in American presidential history so concealed and disguised his philosophy and agenda in a Presidential election campaign. No white American President who had done these things would have a job approval rating in the 60’s; more likely, a white American President who had done these things would be impeached and removed from office as a liar and a fraud. This is exactly what Obama deserves, and he deserves it without any regard for his race. But he is so far escaping what he deserves, to a very large degree, because of his race.

The PC authoritarianism that governs Washington demands that everyone accept the premise that American society is on the verge of a race war if anyone in elected office speaks a negative word about Obama. Pravda has propped up ‘job approval’ polls as a surrogate for ‘don’t dare criticize America’s first black President’. There’s both a fear dimension and a pity dimension to this ‘silence the critics’ attitude; either way, it’s time to blow up this premise for the BS that it is.

America is not on the verge of a race war if Obama is criticized. This fear assumes blacks are infantile, unthinking, and manipulable fools who equate the outrage at godless socialism with an outrage against ‘people of color’. They are not and do not. It assumes that all blacks think alike about substantive issues like freedom and personal responsibility, and all accept and agree with the chip-on-the-shoulder, get-even-with-the-man attitude and worldview of Obama. They do not. The dehumanizing, dispiriting, de-Christianizing effect of godless socialism knows no skin color; it removes inspiration for living and striving from everyone. Millions of black Americans instinctively know this; they are devout Christians, and do not buy into the un-Christians rants and perversions of Jeremiah Wright. They are not into Islam, either.

What about the pity angle—the spin that says, yeah, we know he’s screwing up big time and is obviously in way over his head, but just think how sad it will be for blacks and other ‘people of color’ if ‘the first black American President’ fails? This is so condescending and racist and wrong. The highest tribute that can be paid to black Americans and to all ‘people of color’ is a clear explanation and condemnation of how godless, socialist policies destroy the color-blind American ideal of “individual freedom and responsibility under God”. See Brushfires essays on "People of Individuality" and “We Do Not Want This”. Are there blacks embarrassed by having voted as a block for this fraud? Sure. Do they wish America’s first black President would have turned out to have real character and greatness instead of glibness, smugness, inexperience and incompetence? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean they are content to let this travesty continue, nor does it mean they will suffer some sort of individual or collective psychological damage when a fraud is called a fraud and is treated like a fraud.

When America finds a public official in Washington D.C., and every other major city in this country, to step up and say these things, we will be officially past racism in this country. Because what Obama has done is morally wrong and indefensible, and it is morally wrong and indefensible without regard to any material circumstance of his person. In other words, it doesn’t matter what his skin color is, his hair color, his height, his weight, his wife’s looks, his daughters’ innocence—none of this matters. The fraud he committed in the election campaign, and the Marxism/socialism agenda he is pursuing without any real support of the American people— this matters.

Martin Luther King knew it was only the content of character that mattered; and his genuine Christian faith led him to believe America would one day live up to its color-blind ideals. Martin Luther King would be appalled at what President Obama did to get elected, and has done as President, and Dr. King wouldn’t have been afraid to say so.

Americans see what’s happening to their country under the Obama administration; they don’t like it, but they don’t see it in racial terms. They’re just looking for a few leaders to affirm their faith that America really is a post-racial society: by giving President Obama the principled, strong and unrelenting criticism he so richly deserves.

Paul Gable

Posted June 11, 2009