PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
- Thread starter
- #41
What's the premise of Charles Hurt's editorial? That America continues to be prejudiced and Obama did not deliver on improving race relations?
Forgive me, Bob for not welcoming you to the board.
Now, the premise that our President received a great deal of support in anticipation of a 'post racial' era of harmony....hopes that have, largely, been dashed.
Victor Davis Hanson says same much better than I.
"Weren't we supposed to enter a new age of tolerance with the election of President Barack Obama?
His half-black, half-white ancestry and broad support across racial lines suggested that at last Americans judged each other on the content of our characters not the color of our skin or our tribal affiliations.
Instead, in just 18 months of the Obama administration, racial discord is growing and relations seem to have been set back a generation.
Black voters are galvanizing behind Obama at a time of rapidly falling support. White independents, in contrast, are leaving Obama in droves.
Why the escalation of racial tension in the supposed postracial age of Obama?
First, Obama's reputation as a racial healer was largely the creation of the media. In fact, Obama had a number of racially polarizing incidents that probably would have disqualified any other presidential candidate of the past 30 years.
Recently, Obama appealed to voters along exclusionary race and gender lines not traditional political allegiances when he called upon "the young people, African-Americans, Latinos and women, who powered our victory in 2008."
Yet the country passed the old white/black divide years ago. In a world of conservative Cubans and liberal whites, race is no longer necessarily a guide to politics.
The more the president appeals to his base in racial terms, the more his appointees identify themselves as members of a particular tribe, and the more political issues are framed by racial divisions, so all the more such racial obsession creates a backlash among the racially diverse American people.
Tragically, our president and a host of his supportAmerica has largely moved beyond race. ive special interests have not."
(emphasis mine throughout)
Thank you for the warm welcome.
The answer to Mr. Hansons question, Weren't we supposed to enter a new age of tolerance with the election of President Barack Obama, is no. We arent supposed to blame a US President for societys deep-rooted prejudice and bigotry because (1) it is unfair and (2) it is not material to the criterion used to elect a president. We should judge Obama on his foreign policy and leadership on domestic initiatives, not on societys inability to reconcile racism.
You are very welcome...
Now, to review, the premise is not whether you or I considered the race, or bi-racial nature of the candidate, or how same will ameliorate race relations...
but whether a sizable portion of the electorate felt that way.
I believe post #25 shows that that is the case.
And the same folks who considered race important, I assume you would agree- didn't anticipate a worsening of said relations...
Many, or most of those folks will no longer see President Obama as the anodyne.
Thus, the title of the thread.