Letters to the Editor
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White Jewish Guy Rewrites Black History
"Serious" Presidential Candidate?
I guess if Walter Shapiro says "serious," then it's official.
Get out your red pens and history books, children. Time to rewrite the past of the party! Be a good comrade and forget about all the previous African-Americans who, with whole heart and solid mind, tried to help America become a representative democracy.
It will be news to Jesse Jackson (and the MILLIONS who voted for him) that he wasn't "serious." Shirley Chisholm must have been planning a big practical joke on us all.
Shapiro proves, yet again, that a Democrat is just as capable of a Republican in making bone-headed racist statements. Jackson and Chisholm weren't "serious" enough for Shapiro because, like most Democrats then, he thought the black help ought to stay in the kitchen or some other back room. Certainly not out in public reminding the Democratic Party of its lily-white Senators, mostly white Congress, and nothing-but-white Presidential nominees.
By performing the honorable and necessary role of gadfly, Jackson and Chisholm made party power-players like Shapiro work for their money, and they embarrassed the party by pointing out the omnipresent racism in America, even within the Democratic Party. Shapiro's criticism (which appears to be this week's meme for Democrats) demonstrates that same racism is alive and well in the Democratic Party today. If Jackson and Chisholm weren't "serious" enough for people like Shapiro, it was because they wouldn't "shut up and play along." Jackson and Chisholm were "serious" about their issues, but in a stunning and GOP-worthy display of cognitive dissonance, Shapiro anoints them as "not serious" because they wouldn't play the party game. They weren't "serious" because they were so "serious."
Obama is "serious" because he's "safe" - his story, accompanied by violins and a narrative voice, plays well with the white audience, and he's fresh enough not to have a track record of trying. He's a clever power-player himself, currently making his best shot for the VP slot - a job which is assuredly his as long as he plays along and doesn't start making uncomfortable speeches about race. As long as Uncle Obama toes the line, his party masters will happily allow him into the field.
BTW: While we're looking at history: when did Salon become a mouth organ for the DLC?
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REAL POLITICS
I understand the role of a journalist to support the ideals of democracy in reporting on those who seek to run this country, but there is no way you can convince me someone with so little experience would make a good president. By the time Barack figured out where the men's room was, his first term would be over.
Would you want a doctor who never performed surgery to try to replace your heart, or a pilot who only flew once to transport your family?
Sorry. It is a mark of the misdirected idealism and utter frustration of those who disagree with what's going on that has gotten Obama this far--that and a pretty face and a pocket full of platitudes. A President has to be more than a figurehead, regardless of how pretty a figure he has.
The arguement that it is because he has so little exposure and "committment" that makes him a good candidate makes little if any sense. I want to know who I am voting for--just like I want to know the credentials of anyone I put trust in.
The closet issue is Hillary at this point, and while I will undoubtedly vote for any Democrat, I think the battle is with the fantasists who are too self-rightious to vote for anybody they don't know, rather than somebody they do know. If you think Hillary can't get elected because she is a woman--do you honestly believe Obama is a better choice as an African American? How about getting "real" now--rather than later.
If more supposedly "liberal" voters grew up, and practiced SOLIDARITY rather than chased after "stars" the country wouldn't be in the mess it's in now. The problem is they won't compromise--like so many of Dean's supporters in the last election.
They helped put Bush in office for a second term just as much as the fundamentalists, and need to be called out on it.
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Yawn - Another Christian Runs for Office
It is not the color of the skin that matters, it is the quality of the thinking. Any politician that believes he is guided by the magical zombie son of a mystical (and brutal) sky god (who hands out rewards after death) has the potential to believe just about anything. Especially if that anything is wrapped up in the same sort of Abrahamic superstitious nonsense that has landed our country, and our world, in such a mess in the first place.
Please god, give me just one politician who practices rational and reasoned critical thinking, and I'll start knocking doors again.
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PROVE IT! Motto of the Rationalist -
Make no mistake: He's running
Make no mistake: He's losing. I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat, but give me a break. Obama must be living in fantasyland. Not only is he too young and inexperienced, he's also black and has a name that sounds Muslim. Maybe he could get elected President of the United States on his planet, but he's got no prayer on this one.
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If race is not relevant
why do you mention it at the end?
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Alan Keyes
RE: Carole Simmons
I guess the name Alan Keyes is also missing from everyone's radar, even though Obama beat him as a carpetbagger for the Illinois Senate after Ryan dropped out. Don't forget Keyes ran for President in 1996 and 2000, and won 14% of the vote in Iowa. So what if he's a Republican? He still ran.
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Are the names Al Sharpton (2004), Carol Moseley-Braun (2004) and Shirley Chisolm (1972) missing from Mr. Shapiro's history books? And Jesse Jackson may have been "dissed and dismissed" by Mr. Shapiro, but certainly not by those who voted for him in the primaries. How insulting is that statement to thousands of voters who not only voted for Mr. Jackson, but also worked on his campaign and tirelessly worked with him to register Democrats, Black and White.
Hooray for Barack Obama. I'm tickled to death that he is in the race -- or soon will be. But let's not rewrite history.
Carole R. Simmons