So here we are, a world where the armies of good finally defeated the armies of evil after many years of watching the world get plunged into darkness. And how did the side of light over come the evil clutches of darkness..? With a BLACK MAN!
Now while the new generation is dancing in celebration of the election of the first African American President we have a large percentage of the country plunged into fear. Elderly whites, those who never attended a desegregated school, who grew up hearing tales of of the threat of outright racial warfare are in complete terror. The worst nightmare they have been trained from birth to fear is now manifested in the shape of a well educated, highly qualified man with a plan who just happens to be a bit darker than the 43 Presidents to hold office before him.
Now do not get me wrong. I am not saying we should hold a big pity party for the old established bigots of the nation. I am not saying we should clasp the cold and shaking liver spotted hands in our warm grip of hope and say with a smiling face, "Oh, you're a racist? Isn't that sweet!" NO! I am saying we need to acknowledge that reasonable or unreasonable as it may seem a century and a half after the fall of slavery, a half a century after the civil rights acts, more than 10 years after Doug Williams won the Super Bowl... as preposterous as it might strike us... We have 10s of millions of people that are gripped in absolute fear.
I don't know the answer, but I will bet there is not a reader that comes to this blog that doesn't have at least one family member who feels this way. It is not Republican dogma that controls this fear, it is not concern about taxes. It is a fear of race or skin color. It is still fed by the evening news and nurtured by a lack of direct contact with a real community.
Fueled by tales of Social Service workers and Medical Administrators who only deal with the poorest of the poor. They spread skewed stories of a incomplete demographic as if it were indisputable fact. The gang bangers are in the Whitehouse!
Please be patient. As time passes and the nation sees the leader that emerges, try not to gloat. They grew up in different times with different beliefs. Change is hard. We need to show a little understanding but we also need to continue the movement and shine light on the fears. If we don't stand up and expose the good that will start happening the fear will grow and fester. But we can help. Yes we can.
Stumble It!
2 years ago
Posts
7 comments:
While the fear you describe absolutely exists, I also see a lot of the same fear I saw (and, honestly, felt) when Clinton was originally elected in '92. This is fear of economic policies that are tainted by class warfare, and I think it is a reasonable concern, though probably doesn't deserve to rise to the level of fear.
I don't fear the race. We would've loved to have Colin Powell or Condi Rice run.. but both of them are probably too smart to do so.
I mean.. who really wants this job? Not anyone who is smart enough to realize the headaches behind it.
What we are afraid of is the socialist policies. What is the incentive of anyone to succeed and excel.. if the rewards for that success is taken away from them and given to someone who doesn't even TRY.
Our hope is that O will be such a horrid president that he will get voted out in 4 years. We might can hang on that long.
I know people who are talking of moving out of the us because of the results of this election. Problem is, I don't know where they'd go that has less socialism.
Who is John Galt. (Read Atlas Shrugged)
Ren and Lisa: Wow I am grouping you together... But I think my response is applicable to both. Warren Buffet has been saying for the past several years that a class warfare has been going on under Bush and the poor people didn't even know it, let alone know they were losing. Now this is one of the richest men on earth screaming out a warning about disparity of the unfair income distributions. This is not Socialism as a whole, nor would that idea ever float in this country.
My fear is the Clinton tax plan. More specifically too big of a raise on Capital Gains taxes. Currently at 15% it might be a tad low based on current interest rates. But let's assume for a moment that interest rates increase to say... 10% in an effort to cut back on bad loans. So an investor borrows money to run a business, and pays 10% to the bank investors plus some principal.
Then that investor pays another 15% to federal tax on all capital gains and let's say maybe another 5% for state taxes. That means nearly 1/3 of all income would be paid out before basic business expenses can be addressed. That is what we look at IF we keep the current system, which we wont. If Capital Gains increases to 28% as I have heard suggested, then you add 5% state tax and toss in your 10% loan interest, you have nearly half of your income flying out the door before you even address rent, utilities, payroll, payroll taxes, payroll benefits,or even little things like paper, toner and phone lines.
A unilateral increase on Capital Gains would be putative to anybody operating a business and a death sentence to anybody wanting to start up a new business.
We need a system that places fairness and responsibility on the corporate elite that draw down 10s of millions of dollar a year to ruin our nation's companies (American Airlines, Ford, GM, Enron, etc) while still creating an cushion for struggling young businesses. I don't know the answer and that's why I never got one freakin vote last Tuesday. Not one!
I see it as ignorance.
And, Lisa, "socialist policies"? You do realize that Sarah Palin shared oil revenues with every citizen of Alaska. That IS socialism. Don't be ignorant, too.
Adam: No doubt it is ignorance. There is an entire generation who were taught from birth that the greatest threat was a racial uprising. Now add to the fact that as you grow older you are no comfortable around the younger generations. They raise an instinctive level of fear and concern. Then these old dudes watch the evening news and they see or hear about murders, rapes, killings, drugs use and every criminal seems to be a black guy.
Our society feels this fear. We have known this for decades. And you are right it is ignorance that has been internalized into a solid belief. How do we get past that? If we don't find a way, what was started with hopes of a better tomorrow will be ruined at the polls in four years. While Obama won the electoral votes the popular vote was very close. Way closer than it should have been and the deep South with Repug not out of faith in McCain but fear of the black man.
My home County is 70% Democrat. One of the few Democrat strongholds in the state. Every elected official in this County is a Democrat. The only elections we have are primary because Republicans don't even bother. And in spite of all that tradition and history... McCain got nearly four times the votes in THIS county.
Yes.. Socialist. Don't try to change the subject by bringing up Palin. McCain/Palin were not elected so we don't need to discuss them.
Look at how the stock market is responding to the election. Businesses are afraid of what O is about to do to the economy.. and rightfully so.
We're in a for a awful next few years.. and that would be the case no matter who got elected.
Lisa, I think you need to learn what socialism is.
Social Security? That's socialism.
The bailout? That's socialism.
Making sure that CEOs of failing businesses aren't getting huge golden parachutes, but that money is instead going to the employees? That's not socialism.
Obama is not going to turn a capitalist society into a socialist one. We've had 8 years of a retard in office who is in the pocket of the religious right and we didn't turn into a theocracy, did we? So why would you be ignorant enough to think that we're going to magically change into a socialist country?
Is Obama just going to snap his fingers and *poof* we're going to all have universal health care and start acting with socialist tendencies? No. That's just hyperbole, ignorance, and blatant fear-mongering speaking.
Post a Comment