Editorial
Part IV: Why Obama Will Win in November 2012
As your humble correspondents, my colleagues and I know that you expect us to report the facts, the truth and just about enough information so you can make your own mind up about things. And God knows that we try to do this as best as we can!
However, how can one separate themselves from their background? How can we write a story about racism without drawing from some of our own personal experiences? We are, after all, integral members of the African Diaspora.
Yes – we are supposed to be journalists and columnists; but we are exactly like those journalists embedded with an advance platoon during a war. Most of what these journalists see is chaos, blood, guts, glory; and the fog of war comes directly from their narrow prism. In juxtaposition, a rag such as ours cannot help but be hostage to circumstance. Besides, we are, ostensibly, not alone in this.
American television and online news networks like Fox News and MSNBC are successful simply because they are divided along the lines that divide America as a country. They, each and respectively, appeal to conservatives and progressives while the credible CNN – forebearer of cable news – suffers from lower viewership, readership and listenership.
This introduction is basically to make a point: How can we write of Barack Obama without feeling a certain sense of collegiality with the man? His father was from the continent, for crying out loud! Not only did Obama Senior achieve the ultimate with an Ivy League education; he also, surreptitiously, squirreled his way into the American dream with a biracial child.
Many members of the Diaspora can, absolutely, relate to this. But that is not to say that they blindly support Obama. No. Besides, the 44th President has not done as much as he ought to have done given his position as the most powerful man in the world. Frankly, if we had had our way, Obama would have cured world hunger, gotten rid of dictators and started the process of healing the Black World of all that ails it.
But just like the wretched of the earth, members of the Diaspora are also realistic and patient. Many will tell a tale of a time they had to bite their tongue, and not say what was on their minds when slighted by another who did not treat them as equal. And many of those in the Diaspora see Obama not leap into battle simply because another white person has spoken down to him or questioned his legitimacy. Donald Trump and Orly Taitz know for a fact that Obama was born in America – but know that a certain segment of the population does not want Obama in the People’s House simply because of his skin color.
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 – editor@thehabarinetwork.com