White Voting Population & a Black Candidate

A comment from Mary:

We can only hope that this proves to people that the polls are not determinates of the outcome of an election and instead of listening to what the polls are saying realize every individual has their role to play in this election more so than ever. I truly hope that the black population of this country owns up to its responsibility this year and votes as never before. Obama will not win if we make this race dependent on the non-black vote. Obama needs both.

In my mind, Obama is the best candidate and this has nothing to do with race.

The position of Michigan voters is a concern. The population here seems to be easily misled and confused by any changes to the process.

Of course, once all the voting is done, the question is how the electoral votes are distributed. This is a long ways from over. Stay tuned.

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My response:

LET'S GET REAL HERE...

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble by saying the following (or maybe I do) but in the interest of sheer ACCURACY there's a much larger TRUTH that must be seriously acknowledged and dealt with here. And that is this: So long as AT LEAST 45% to 50% of the entire white voting population WILL NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES VOTE FOR A BLACK CANDIDATE (whether he or she is the "best candidate" or not) we should NOT delude ourselves into thinking that this election doesn't have "anything to do with race." That's simply FALSE based on the actual well documented historical record. There is no such thing as "color blind" politics in the United States and anyone who thinks there is, is either ignorant of the actual facts or engaging in self-delusional fantasy. Of course the color of a person's skin SHOULD NOT make a difference in how someone votes but it would the height of naivete to think for even a NANOSECOND that this is the actual case in a country where racial bloc voting (legitima te and illegitimate) is well established and still very prominent and important in the way american citizens (ESPECIALLY WHITE AMRICANS) perceive and act upon making the political choices they do.

The objective fact in the Democratic Party race is that Obama, Clinton, and John Edwards ALL BASICALLY HAVE THE SAME POLITICS. In fact, if anything Edwards is on the basis of both his platform/agenda and past political record is ACTUALLY THE MOST PROGRESSIVE OF THE THREE. But Edwards can't win precisely BECAUSE the white working and middle class in this country (especially white males) consistently keep voting AGAINST their own self interest in elections because of their RACISM AND SEXISM. They did so in 2004 and 2000 when a whopping 60% of them inexplicably voted for Bush against both Kerry and Gore! This fact has perplexed and frustrated liberals and radicals for over a century now. Just tonight there were white political pundits on 'Bill Maher's' program who support Edwards and/or Obama saying that this is a major problem that still frustrates them and that they are wary about come the elections THIS YEAR. You gotta remember folks that for the past 100 years poor white worke rs and middle class professionals have primarily voted for REPUBLICANS (the only exception to this extremely odd and tragically predictable pattern was during the period of the Great Depression, World War !! and very early post- World War !! period (1932-1952) when poor whites, workers, and a significant number of middle class whites FINALLY stood with and remained loyal to the liberal and leftist wing of the Democratic Party in reelecting Franklin Roosevelt 3 times and his successor Harry S. Truman in 1948)...

But what we ALL must remember in terms of THIS election is that since Dr. King and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated in 1968 there have been TEN presidential elections and the Republicans have won 7 of them (or an incredible 70%.)! In fact since 1952 the ONLY Democratic Party president to be reelected to office was someone named BILL CLINTON (1992-2000). EVERYONE ELSE were Republicans: Eisenhower (1952-1960), Nixon (1968-1976), Reagan (1980-1988) and Bushwhacker II (2000-2008). For the past 56 years (the span of my entire life) the Republicans have been in office A GRAND TOTAL OF 64% of the time to the Democrats' measley 36%.

What all this MEANS of course is that for the most part the (white) American electorate is RACIST, SEXIST, AND REACTIONARY in the way that it votes (no matter what many of these might tell pollsters from time to time). The actual record speaks LOUDLY for itself! THIS then is the reason that black voters can't afford to rely or count on, let alone take for granted how whitefolks WILL VOTE. In 2004 for example 65% of ALLL WHITE MALE VOTERS in this country voted for Bush (that's ACROSS THE BOARD--poor, middle class, and wealthy alike). The fucked up and obviously irrational reason for this is that most of these people perceive themselves (erroneously of course) as voting for WHITE SUPREMACY on some level of another by voting AGAINST what they (again erroneously PERCEIVE as the BLACK VOTE and THE FEMALE VOTE). It's bizarre that the great majority of whites in this country feel this way of course given that voting for liberal and left-of-center candidates would be far more in their political and economic interest than voting for rich, imperialist PRICKS like Bush WHO DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEM. It's called CLASS POLITICS. Which along with RACE AND GENDER IS WHAT ALL AMERICAN POLITICS IS ACTUALLY ABOUT. These truths are extremely well documented and irrefutable.

So the absolute bottom line, given the sad reality of American politics, is this: IT DOESN'T MATTER IF OBAMA IS OR IS NOT THE "BEST CANDIDATE" (among his two Democratic Party rivals). That personal sentiment is a subjective opinion anyway--no matter what ANY of us may "individually" believe or think ourselves.. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT IF BLACK VOTERS WANT TO SEE A BLACK CANDIDATE winning the Democratic Party nomination and having any legitimate shot AT ALL of not only being nominated but becoming the next president of the United States, the black voting population had better come out WITH BIG TURNOUTS AND VOTE 9-1 (at least) for OBAMA (like we have for every white Democratic candidate anyway in the past 75 years going back to Franklin Roosevelt). Only this time we hadALSO better increase the NUMBER OF BLACKS VOTING OVERALL by a t least another 10% if Obama is to have any real chance at all. In other words only LARGE VOTING BLOCS--whether "racial", "gender-based", "ethnic", or "cl ass-based" win major elections. The highly mistaken, pollyanna idea that "individuals" determine the course of presidential elections is not merely WRONG but a COMPLETE LIE (don't take my word for it look it up and check it out for yourselves--the statistical and analytical data is widespread and voluminous and a real eye-opener to anyone who thinks otherwise.

People ALWAYS vote in their own self interest (if they have any common sense that is) or AGAINST their own self interest if their vote is misinformed by ignorance, hatred, bias, masochism, or jealousy and envy. So if we as Black voters vote for Obama we had better know that this race (like all political races in American history including this one) is ALL ABOUT RACE--or rather OTHER FOLKS' RACISM as well as CLASS, GENDER, AND IDEOLOGY. If we don't now that much about the REALITIES of American politics then we DESERVE to lose (Obama or no Obama!). I'm voting for the brother both because I think he's the "best candidate WHO CAN WIN--since Edwards CAN'T) AND because after 226 years and the election 43 white American male presidents (98% of them WASPS) it's WAY PAST TIME for someone of color to be in the driver's seat. And BTW: Consider the sobering and shocking fact that not only have there not been any black presidents, there haven't been any Women of any nationality, Italian-Americans, or Jewish Americans (let alone Latino and Asian Americans) this means that 85% of ALL AMERICANS have NEVER had the opportunity to be President of the United States!...In the past 100 years going back to 1897 there have been 19 presidents (18 elected) and of that number 16 of them were WASPS and only 3 were Irish-Americans. of the 3 Irish-American presidents (one Catholic among them) 2 of them were ASSASSINATED (William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963), and the third one (Ronald Reagan) was the victim of an ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION attempt in March of 1981. If all that doesn't tell you what kind of country we're REALLY living in I don't know what will...

So if Black folks seriously want a serious black candidate who ultimately HAS A REAL CHANCE TO WIN both the nomination and the presidency WE HAD BETTER COME OUT IN VERY LARGE NUMBERS AND CAST OUR VOTES FOR HIM. Otherwise as sure as I'm sitting here HE WILL LOSE. That's the name of the political game IN 2008 AND ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU DIFFERENT doesn't know what he or she is talking about...FOR REAL. It's OUR TURN folks and if we ain't man and woman enough to TAKE IT then we deserve to take a collective ass kicking like we have for the last 40 years in this country. Please remember what Dr. King said on April 3, 1968, the day before he got killed in Memphis: "I don't know what's going to happen to us now. WE'VE GOT SOME DIFFICULT DAYS ahead." In his typically prophetic and highly prescient way he knew what the challenges and stakes for the future were. Malcolm X also fully understood our real political plight when he said in 1964 the year before he was also killed: "Of all our studies HISTORY is the one that most rewards all research." Words of wisdom indeed...I hope and pray we finally heed them...

Kofi

OBAMA IN 2008!