Editorial
Part IV: Why Obama Will Win in November 2012
But Blacks and even members of other minority groups like the Asians and Latinos, know that this wafer thin opposition to Obama is downright cynical and tribal. It helps that a good number in the majority – white women, college educated people and whites below the age of 30 – see Obama as their president and one good enough job to get the U.S. through the next 4 years. These sentiments are best articulated by Chris Matthews.
For the 2012 Election, Mr. Matthews warns us to “be on the alert for the tribal messages, the war drums of racial division.”
When all is said and done, the main reason Obama will win this election is that a great many of us in the media think that Obama is not as bad as the conservatives have painted him to be.
That he has failed to reduce the number of those unemployed is a fact. However, despite what Fox News, the Weekly Standard or the Drudge Report says, the Republicans in Congress have actually done as much as anyone can do to prevent things from getting better. From a purely political point of view, if the economy improves, the Republicans do not have a chance of winning the White House or the bicameral Congress.
To say that the Republicans do not have a winning platform is not to understate things. They want to shrink the size of the federal government and allow the private sector to provide services. The Republicans want tax cuts for those who create jobs.
Americans – especially immigrants like the Diaspora, believe that the private sector should be let lose. We all, collectively, believe that those who create jobs should be given the opportunity to succeed. But we also know that the federal government is at the heart of this discussion. It has to be the arbiter between the capitalists and those who prefer a more or less equitable society. Members of the media know this and see the common sense argument for an activist government especially in the middle of a global economic downturn. They have seen the effect of austerity measures elsewhere and can extrapolate for themselves what George W. Bush did in starting two wars and deficit financing an expensive medical extravagance in Medicare Part B.
We, as the media, are tolerant to conservative media that sees Obama as a spendthrift, a redistributor and a socialist. Thus, for all the conservative bloviating, most networks try – as best as they can – to present the facts, the truth and just about enough information for you to choose. It seems as though many of you – Diaspora or otherwise – agree. Obama is not too bad. And we shall bear him for another 4 years, albeit Mitt Romney’s good looks, his presidential hair and mormon underwear.
Dennis Matanda,
Editor – [email protected]
