Thursday, March 12, 2009

Chuck Norris and the New Confederacy

When Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer-turned-congressman from Illinois, relatively new to national politics was elected president in 1960 at a time of great national turmoil, many panicked. Even though Lincoln insisted that he would not abolish slavery, many feared the young radical would do exactly that. As a result, most of the Southern states decided that they no longer wanted to be part of the United States. They quit the country. It was this conflict that lead to the Civil War.

Over a century later, Barack Obama, a lawyer-turned-congressman from Illinois who was relatively new to national politics has been elected president at a time of great national turmoil, and many are panicking. Recently, I posted a news item noting Chuck Norris's desire to run for “president of Texas” and his claim of many conservative cell groups ready to join his cause. I also noted various individuals who seem to have issues with the very notion that President Obama is eligible to be president. One member of the military is even contending that he does not have to follow the President's orders until he sees the president's birth certificate: proof that he was born in the U.S.

As a side note, I know of no such demands for past presidents. Also, John McCain was born in Panama.

As I observe all of this, my mind is drawn back to Lincoln, and not just for all the weird Illinois connections. The main fuss over Lincoln was race: “We're quitting the country because the president might free blacks.” Is it totally illogical to suggest that race may also be at the root of all the fuss over Obama?

First, let's look quickly at some of the complaints about Obama:

  1. He's an unpatriotic socialist who wants to destroy American values and make America less American

  2. He wasn't really born in the United States, but, rather born to an African, Muslim father and raised by Islamic extremist

Of course, we know that neither of these claims are true. There's no reason to believe that Obama is particularly unpatriotic (not that I think these empty displays of blind patriotism are all that good for the country anyway). He's not a socialist. He, like probably 99.9% of other sane Americans, just doesn't believe in pure capitalism. Translation: he likes people. The president was born in Hawaii, after Hawaii had become a state. His birth certificate has already been checked. His father was atheist. He's been a Christian for two decades. He actually gave his testimony of how he got saved (look up his Call to Renewal speech).

So, why have these attacks been so persistent? Let me ask this: what are “American values”? This is a phrase often used attack liberals and minorities. “American values” are hard work, industry, and capitalism – Joe the Plumber stuff. Minorities have been stereotyped as lazy, unindustrious, and desiring handouts. Apple pie is American, sweet potato pie isn't. Baseball is American (but not really), basketball isn't (but really it is). Rock-and-roll is American (now that they've gotten rid of all the blacks), rap isn't. Small towns are American, big cities (where most Americans live) aren't. So, when the President, a black man, talks about improving education, or lowing taxes for 95% of working families raising them on only the wealthiest 2%, or when he discusses issues relating to urban areas, or when he talks about his experience as a community organizer, it's no surprise that the fringe, right-wing nuts that make up what's left of the Republican party label him as an un-American socialist.

It's not just that Republicans disagree on policy issues with Obama. It seems that he, for them, embodies the great threats to the American way. I truly believe, deep down, for many Americans, whiteness is American. Not that blacks can't be American, they just have to be white. This presents a problem, because while Obama is no Al Sharpton, he is also makes no apologies for being black. He plays basketball. He fist-bumps his wife and easily makes references to hip-hop because he actually listens to it (heck, his generation invented it). He's also a liberal Democrat. He talks about cities. He appointed the first black attorney general, who recently made a big stink about race. He used to go to a church where the pastor dared to talk about race openly. His wife is Michelle Obama (read: “angry black lady”), and their kids aren't named Sally and Betty Sue. For all those with JTP Syndrome, these things are threats.

Certainly, there are lots of factors in Obama being labeled “un-American,” but it is clear that race plays an important role in this characterization. I would take this a step farther, arguing that, in fact, many who think like Chuck Norris feel the need to tear down Obama because they are frightened by the fact that a black man is their president. Just as many were repulsed by the idea of living in a land lead by Lincoln, many view being governed by a brotha' is an apocalyptic event. They see opposing him to the point of rebellion as defending the American way. This, by the way, is one of the most disheartening things for blacks: the idea that anyone, let alone a seizable group of people, could find us so repulsing because of our skin tone.

However, such hatred still exist. Somehow, questions of where Obama was born have been raised by military personnel, and notable politicians, including Alan Keyes and Senator Richard Shelby. Was this such an important issue with George W. Bush? Bill Clinton. George H.W. Bush? Ronald Regan? Why was there not more of a challenge to John McCain's status? He wasn't born in the United States. It's sad that so many can not accept the idea that Barack Obama is the president.

So, what can we learn from all of this? For all the talk of unity, hope, and change over the past several months, our nation remains very divided. On one side, there are the sane individuals. On the other is a minority of ignorant, hot-headed, hateful hooligans. Their number is small, but their voices are loud, and their potential for causing damage is great. Unless the economy miraculously turns around in the next few months, which it likely won't, we'll be dealing with these people. Will he have another Civil War? Likely not. However, we should prepare for a level of venomous hate higher than this country has seen in a while. I'm guessing this isn't the last we'll hear of Chuck Norris and the New Confederacy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What Were You Black Folks Thinking?



by Robert Oliver



Did you hear some blacks bragging "We run things now" because Barack Obama is President of the United States?



Really? We run things now? Just what do we run?



A black woman quit paying her rent after Obama became president. She said "We have a new president and things are going to change." A young black man stole a bag of chips from a store on the night of November 4, 2008, election night. He felt since we had a black president, he did not have to pay. A relative of comedian Kevin Craft said "F___ white people! Black folks ain't gotta do s___." A woman in Texas thinks that Obama is going to make black people all "rich." I wonder if that woman in Florida is waiting for a check from the White House so that her mortgage gets paid. Look for cobwebs around her as she waits.



What were these black folks thinking?



Barack Obama hired a white woman, Hillary Clinton, to beg China to keep purchasing U.S. debt. (He could not find Jesse Jackson to do what he does best? Beg for money?) A white man is in charge of the Treasury. A white woman is in charge of Homeland Security. A white man is in charge of the military. (Obama can’t trust a black man to be in charge of lots of weapons.) A white man is in charge of housing and urban development. A white man is in charge of education. A white woman is in charge of Economic Affairs. A white man is in charge of the budget. A white man is in charge of agriculture, therefore our food. A white man is in charge of National Security. A white man is even in charge of the CIA. (What? Obama can’t trust a black person with any secrets?) The only African Africans with cabinet rank are Eric Holder (Justice -- putting people in jail), Lisa Jackson (Environmental Protection Agency), Ron Kirk (U.S. Trade Representative), and Susan Rice (UN Ambassador) who echoes Obama's resistance to reparations for slavery, to the chagrin of reparations supporters. I did not vote for George W. Bush, but didn’t he at least appoint prominent blacks to prominent positions such as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor? And Obama just put a white man in charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (What? He could not trust a black person in an emergency?)



(By the way, all you people who slammed Joe the Plumber for not paying his taxes, what do you have to say about all of Obama’s cabinet nominees who did not pay their taxes? People got real quiet, didn’t they?)



Have you noticed that none of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) was considered for any cabinet positions? What about John Lewis? What about Bobby Rush? What about Jesse Jackson, Jr.? What about Danny Davis? What about Emanuel Cleaver? They supported Obama, but he did not support them. Even former U.S. Senator Carol Mosely Braun or former Congressman Harold Ford did not come up in the conversation.



What were you all thinking?



Back to reparations, I will take the reparations “leaders” to the woodshed. Obama does not support reparations for slavery, period. He did not support them when he ran for the U.S. Senate. That is the official stance of his administration. Whether you believe in reparations or not does not matter. I did not hear the reparations “leaders” object to Obama’s campaign or election. They proved themselves to be scam artists because electing a black president who does not even support their cause was more important to them than their own cause. The election of Obama killed their reparations movement. What were they thinking? It is like parents who kill their own children. Now what will they do with their "They Owe Us!" rhetoric? They can’t march on the White House or the Treasury. They are further from their goal than ever before, if it was really a legitimate goal. Their black president and his white treasury secretary will give them nothing. Who will they go after now? (Read “Will Obama Give in to Reparations?” at http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/106893-3/)



And why did only one other member of the CBC co-sponsor John Conyers's H.R. 40 Reparations Study bill? There should have been dozens signed on to it, right? The rest of the caucus did not think it had merit? Even with a Democratic majority in Congress and a black Democratic President? Isn’t that something to really think about?



Here is something else I need to get off my chest. There is an annoying phrase going around: “From the Slave House to the White House.” That is technically true – only for Michelle Obama and her children who had to follow the President. (Also true for Betty Currie, an African American, who was Bill Clinton’s secretary.) However Barack Obama has no American slave ancestry on both sides of his family. He had a maternal ancestor that was a slave owner. Also Obama’s heritage is from East Africa. Black Americans’ slave heritage is from West Africa, not East. From the Slave House to the White House? Not. Don’t give Barack Obama a slave heritage he never had. He is not our “Nelson Mandela” either. Mandela spent decades in prison. Obama spent years in Occidental College, Harvard University, and Chicago.



(And Obama is also a blood relative to Dick Cheney? Ouch!)



Can I tell you something you probably did not know about? Last year during the primaries, the Obama campaign had lots of money to buy advertising from white media. But what about black media? From American Thinker, May 20, 2008: “A writer named Betty Pleasant who writes a column for the Los Angeles Wave, a local LA black media outlet revealed (Obama’s) betrayal and the anger it has provoked in the black media community. Pleasant reports that ‘Black publishers say they have been locked out of Obama's advertising game plan -- and even shunned in their attempts to cover the Obama operation.’ Ms. Pleasant writes that black media has chafed ‘at his campaign officials' insensitivity to, and total disregard of black people.



“To make matters worse, as Pleasant reported, during a March meeting of the NNPA the publishers reminded the senator's staff of his pledge to support them. In response, Michael Strautmanis representing the Obama campaign acknowledged the problem and vowed to correct it by sending ad money and interview opportunities to the black media. By the end of April Ms. Leavell (Dorothy Leavell, publisher of the Chicago Crusader – Ed.)was hopping mad. ‘They lied to us’ Leavell told Pleasant according to the article. Ms. Leavell's papers are based in Chicago and Indiana, the scene of major primary contests. According to Leavell they received no support from the campaign despite her repeated attempts to contact Strautmanis to hold him to the campaign's promise prompting her to declare them ‘the worst liars.’" http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/obama_and_the_black_media.html. Did the Obama campaign figure “We don’t have to spend money on black folks. They will support us no matter what”?



(And the black press would not even give a sister who is not even a Republican, Cynthia McKinney, any exposure during the presidential campaign. They ignored her in favor of Obama. They did not want other blacks to hear what she had to say.)



Just want do we run?



And at Obama's press conference on February 9, he did not take one question from the black media. The reporters were even pre-selected. Therefore the black media was pre-rejected by their second first Black President. (The CBC in 2001 named Bill Clinton the first Black President. What will they do now? Take it back?) What would you call a white president who treated the black press that way?



Seems like we are being ran, not running anything.



And you black Christians who think that Obama is God’s “anointed and appointed for such as time as this,” I have something to say to you. Get on your knees and pray. Rev James David Manning of Harlem had it right. He said you all love your blackness more than you love Jesus. You completely ignore the fact that Obama has no respect for the Bible that you claim to be your Word of God.

(Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCNKwHRCQM) How can one anointed by God not cherish and respect God’s word? You also completely ignore the fact that as President he enables not only murder, but even black genocide through abortion (www.blackgenocide.org). He even advocates infanticide, letting children who survive botched abortions die and not be given life-support (www.jillstanek.com). And that is your anointed and appointed “man of God”? A black “pastor” told me that in relation to abortion, Obama supports “human rights.” Since when is the shedding of innocent blood, something that God clearly condemns, a human right?



And some of you Christians say that Obama really does not support abortion, which is contrary to actual facts. You say that he only said he supported abortion so that he could get elected. Therefore God’s “anointed one” had to lie to get elected, and you endorse such dishonesty. Tell that to the Lord the next time you pray.



If black folks are getting change, they are getting chump change. And there are many blacks who are now waking up to that fact. One of them, a black man in Los Angeles who voted for Obama, said recently “I don’t know about this Obama guy.”



Check this out: “Obama Faces Diversity Complaints: Too Many White Males”: “Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, has met with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel about the lack of diversity. ‘We are concerned about this and will continue to monitor it,’ said a caucus official.” http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/2/2/obama-faces-diversity-complaints-too-many-white-males.html?s_cid=rss:washington-whispers:obama-faces-diversity-complaints-too-many-white-males. What if there was an article that said “McCain Faces Diversity Complaints: Too Many White Males”? People would say “McCain don’t like black folks.”



Where is Kanye West when you need him?



Many would call me a “sellout.” Fine. Bring it on. I reply by calling them “bought out” and victims of a con job. Look honestly at what you got for your votes.



What do black people run now that Obama is president? Only their mouths.





Robert Oliver is a writer, radio commentator, and photographer in Southern California. He can be reached at interactionswest@gmail.com.

Kevin Lockett said...

Is this actually supposed to be a response to my post?