Thursday, August 04, 2011

Race is Always A Factor In American Politics

There are people on the liberal progressive side of the political divide who rail against 'identity politics', but one thing that a POC American is always reminded of and can never forget is that race is always a major factor in American politics.   

See the Tea Klux Klan and the Republican Party for overt examples of it
And nowhere has it been more crystal clear in terms of the differing race based viewpoints on President Obama.   I and many African American Democrats continue to assert that race IS a factor in some white Democrats dissatisfaction with the President despite their protestations to the contrary.

You really don't have a clue as to how important a POTUS, a FLOTUS and First Family who looks like you is to the African American community and other POC's.  It's why President Obama still has astronomical approval ratings in the African American community despite the fact the unemployment rate in our community is almost double the reported 9.2%

Are we totally satisfied about his performance?
  Nope.   Are we going to vote for Herman Cain?   Hell, no.  I'm supporting the Democratic POTUS along with the vast majority of African-Americans. 

Herman Cain at the max is only going to get about 2-5% of the African-American vote, which is basically the sellout cookie chomping knee-grow peeps in the GOP.
There are things we felt the POTUS could have handled better.  We believe he should have taken a much harder line on fighting for the infrastructure spending because it would have provided desperately needed jobs in our community.  We think he should have pushed for universal health care harder and should have stuck to what he said about the police office 'acting stupidly' in the Professor Gates kerfluffle, but we also realize what this POTUS is up against.   He has to A) get reelected and B) cater to a fickle white 'independent' electorate before our concerns can be dealt with.

We also see the big political picture.  There's a possibility he'll get to pick another Supreme Court justice or two during his second term.  We could definitely use a liberal progressive Asian or African-American female judge on the court since Scalia and Kennedy ain't getting any younger.  Much of his
agenda that has been stalled by conservafool filibustering of frothing at the moth opposition to it.

Despite that he has still managed to have the most productive and progressive administration since LBJ.
We have known since 1964 that a Democratic administration helps our community moreso than any Republican one with a hate on POC's mentality will.  The Republicans show their dark hate on POC's soul with every derogatory comment they make about the POTUS and POC's and every unjust law they pass that attempts to restrict our voting rights access, curtail federal government programs that help our communities, attack union collective bargaining, teachers, civil service workers, and continue race based attacks on immigration.

But what I'm doing is simply bringing a dose of reality as to what chocolate America is thinking.  This is the conversation on President Obama we're having that takes place in African-American beauty and barbershops, our talk radio shows, our blogs and the internal discussions we have amongst ourselves.
 Race is always a factor in American politics, and we persons of color forget that at our peril.



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