My President--and Yours

There are many reasons that I’m glad to not be a liberal Democrat. One of them is that I'm relatively free of the mindset which produces the dilemma in which many black female Democrats find themselves just now: race or gender--which trumps which when one is trying to decide who will be the President of the entire United States? Which one should be taken into consideration more when one is trying to decide who will protect the entire country from enemies foreign and domestic? And—best of all—how will my pride in being a woman be affected if I choose the black (male) candidate? And what about the reverse?

/irrelevancies

Countless times have my Democrat relatives and acquaintances referred to President Bush as “your president” when discussing him with me. On every such occasion, I always correct them: “No, he’s our president.” And unless one gives up U.S. citizenship, so it will be for a President Clinton 44, a President Obama or a President McCain.

And our president will have responsibilities to all American citizens, not just the black ones or the female ones or the veterans. Correspondingly, each individual voter's job is to pick the one who is estimated to be best able to discharge those responsibilities.

When I see Obama, I see a black man who can redefine what it means to be a minority in this country—a man whose very presence may actually encourage the black men I know to believe in their own futures and force those around them to do the same.

I’ve heard variations of the foregoing several times since Obama’s candidacy began to pick up steam.

Our responsibility is to minimize in ourselves and in our children the narcissistic notion that because someone looks like us that their accomplishments reflect on us. Oh, sure, some of that is useful as a motivator--one which can exist alongside several others, most of them being of an individual rather than affiliated nature. But we’re not talking about becoming a lawyer or a doctor; we’re not even talking about becoming Secretary of State or a Supreme Court Justice.

We’re talking about ascending to the status of Leader to all Americans. That leader's responsibilities do not include imbuing us with false pride because we share one or two demographic categories with the individual or existing as a role model for our children simply by Being There. A POTUS has larger fish to fry.

Our additional responsibility is to realize that when we get through patting ourselves on the back for electing first woman or black POTUS, when the novelty wears off, we’re stuck with our decision. It’s like a marriage.

And it won’t be Obama’s skin color or Clinton’s femaleness which will be making decisions for us, The People. The decisions will come from the individual’s thought process, for which the only reliable means of evaluation is: past actions. And I know that most of us aren’t mendacious enough to pretend that everyone with our, say, same skin color is a) competent and/or b) has our best interest at heart. (BTW, what kind of role model would the first black and/or distaff POTUS set if he/she turns out to be the worst president ever?)

Stop thinking with your feelings, folks. We all have to live here freely and securely for a lot longer than it will take for our pride of accomplishing Dr. King’s Dream to wear off.

Comments

[Rich]

As long as Black folk fall for that BS (he looks like me therefore he is my president) they will always be subject to the basest kind of manipulation. Black folk will take a screwing by another Black person but if the person screwing them over is another color its racism. No hope there. This may sound OT but the dynamic is exactly the same.

When I worked in Chicago you saw this day in and day out. Especially with shootings. The "community" is very quiet if the shooter was Black, but let it be a cop or someone of another color and the "community" is protesting, marching, etc. Parallels honor-shame societies.

[Wry Mouth]

It almost makes me wish the Progressives will win this one... almost. In an allegedly open-minded faculty lounge where I work (CA independent K-12 school), I have been *appalled* at the number -- more than one -- of my colleagues who disavow the presidency of Bush and speak of him as "not my president." Most appallingly of all is the man in charge of political science for the high school students. (He also teaches using Howard Zinn as his main text, but that is an appalling story for another day).

Whomever wins will be my president, and I cannot say I am excited by any of the candidates -- mine are long passed over by the king-makers in the media.

I would (almost) love to rub this in the faces of my allegedly Compassionate and Progressive friends, but alas I have not progressed into full-fledged insanity yet, so I must stump for McCain.

But I have much faith in checks and balances, and I hope such faith can still be rewarded.

[Nice Deb]

Ha!

I knew you weren't bald! You've got a lovely smile, madam.

I'm a woman...but I wouldn't vote for a candidate just because she was a woman. I look for the one who comes closest to my own conservative ideology.

Do you think most of the people voting for Obama know just how far to the left he is?

[David M]

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 03/11/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.
http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2008/03/web-reconnaissance-for-03112008.html