There's more than one Elephant in the room

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

There's more than one Elephant in the room We all knew it was going to happen one day, that someone other than an old white guy was going to be nominee for President of the United States of America. I looked forward to breaking through that "glass" ceiling (not me, personally, of course) and breaking the color barrier for a couple of reasons:

1. There have to be plenty of qualified women people and black people who could lead this nation.

2. If not, why not.

But that's not what I care about right now. I said it before, in an earlier post, that we are still under the spell of racism in this country. We had a good shot at starting to dissolve the bonds that tie us to that dark time in our past history while Dr. Martin Luther King was alive but someone elses dream to was to kill racial peace by killing Dr. King. Dr. King symbolized all that was possible in America when he implied that character mattered the most, no matter your color. It was no stretch to suggest that sex was not as important as character, either.

So, what's taking so long? Why are the pro-white and pro-male advocates still apparently winning the hearts and minds of so many Americans?

I think Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, is helping dispel the myth that women just don't have what it takes to do the job, that England's Margaret Thatcher was merely a fluke at being a great prime minister. But that still leaves the color issue on the table, the biggest elephant in the room, as it were.

Since I'm a registered Republican no pollster will ever call me and ask who I'm voting for and why or why not. But I will tell you, my loyal reader.

Why I WOULD vote for Obama:

1. Barack Obama's age has never been a deal-breaker for me. You don't have to be old to be a good manager or a good leader. I worked for a woman who was many years younger than I and I felt very comfortable with her at the helm. Most people I know now are younger than me, anyway, and many of them show the potential of being good managers.

2. Barack Obama is black, and that, too, is no deal-breaker for me. I have worked with other black people who on most every level appear to be just like me. I have worked with white people who were nothing like me so Similiarity To Me cannot be a deciding factor, either.

3. Barack Obama's short experience in public office isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, either. We all know people who just seem to be "born" to do something, whether it's teaching, driving a race car or solving medical riddles, or motivating others, we just know they're good at it from day 1. There are some folks who have a knack for accomplishing things that other people don't.

And now, for the reasons I CANNOT vote for Barack Obama. (In the interest of complete disclosure, I was a Mitt Romney supporter before I was a John McCain supporter. And as long as I'm disclosing here, I believe that Rudy Guiliani would have made a great president, too.)

1. Barack Obama appears to believe that it is the federal government's responsibility to take the down-trodden and lift them up with its wide lift gate of financial resources. My problem with that philosophy is a pure Republican one, the Obama position leaves little room for the individual who's down-trodden to motivate themselves to get out of their current state. It's a little simplistic to say it that way but I'm trying not to use the word "socialism" in my argument. Of course, you're free to substitute it, if you like. The current sub-prime mortgage crisis that has brought the current individual U.S. investor as well as corporate borrowers to the brink of financial ruin and despair began with a single thought, "There has to be something the government can do to make sure everyone can own their own home." Why? When did "Do you make enough money to own a home?" get dropped from the mortgage qualification questionnaire?

2. Barack Obama spent a long, long time associated with a church wherein the minister of that church doesn't like white people (I'm white, by the way) and blames me for the condition of slavery. I will not follow anyone who subjugates themselves to a Pulpiteer with whom they disagree on such a major issue. That is a leader who lacks the character, courage and conviction to inspire me when the chips are down. One of the most-used phrases in this 2008 presidential campaign season is "throw them under the bus," which means to sacrifice one persons reputation to bolster someone else's. Why would Barack Obama refuse to walk away from an anti-white people preacher? Pastor Wright should have been thrown under someones bus a long time ago but he wasn't because so many thousands of black people agreed with him.

3. Barack Obama has spent his time on the job leading instead of following, or by serving. I wrote him to that effect some months ago, suggesting that one can learn what they need to lead by following, by being the servant for a while. Obama might have been better served by reading more and writing less. My grandmother wrote a weekly column for nearly fifty years and most of the columns were about what she learned from other people and what happens when you associate with people who don't support the U.S. (like Bill Ayers, for example).

Now the poll-takers don't have to call me, I have condensed my reasons for NOT voting for Barack Obama. They are, consequently the same reasons I worry desperately if my country should face an Obama presidency. As a country we have survived much and I have to hope and believe that we could survive that, too.

Of course, fewer liberal Democrats in Congress would go a long way toward making me worry less, too.