Obama shows his stripes
It’s appropriate that Barak Obama announced his presidential candidacy in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and Obama, 150 years apart, typify the delusional myths of which the U.S. is so fond.
What do schooldchildren learn about Lincoln? Why, he freed the slaves! What are they taught was the purpose of the American Civil War? Why, to end slavery, of course.
They are not taught that slavery was already done as a viable economic strategy. The Brits had already figured that out, and banned the trade in 1838. They are not taught that, despite or perhaps because of this fact, Lincoln was not much concerned with slavery at all, and that he, like most of his peers, considered blacks a hopelessly inferior and genetically servile species of human.
Schoolchildren are taught that Lincoln was a simple self-taught frontier lawyer. Well, kids, Abraham Lincoln was a prototype of the corporate shark, a lawyer for the railroads, in whose interests (among others) that catastrophic, ghastly, and yes, illegal war was conceived and fought. The issue was state sovereignty, and the Union victory made the country safe for eminent domain and other such, and created a top-heavy federal government wedded till death do us part to corporate interests.
Obama is actually being termed the ‘post-racial’ candidate. Post-racial. Yup folks, we have risen above all that race business; it’s a nasty thing of the past we don’t need to think about anymore. A black presidentƒwell, not really black: that’s the beauty of him. He’s not one of those scary black men: clean, not like Jesse or Al–his father is African, and thus did not transmit that pesky African-American anger to his kid, that particularly peculiarly American-engendered rage. Liberals are so so pleased to be able to support him without…well, fear. They are pleased as preening pussy-cats with a mouse’s tail hanging out of their mouths. ‘We’ are ‘ready’ for a black president, the pundits declare. He’s an ‘outsider’, a refreshing change from the status quo. He’s going to change how things are done.
Yeah right. Obama is Joe Lieberman’s protege, for heaven’s sake! Think AIPAC. Wake up, people. There is nothing refreshing or new about Obama. And even if there actually were, there’s mischief afoot. As ‘post-racial’ or ‘non-racial’ or ‘beyond racial’ as Obama might be, this great nation is absolutely not ‘past all that’, and the ones who ought to know know this very well. He’s unelectable. So is Hilary Clinton. So what’s the scam? Why has no high-profile Republican declared yet? Will our next prez be Jeb Bush? That’s my guess.
Lincoln, ‘the great uniter’ sent 600,000 men to their grisly deaths. If the issue were slaves, why did he wait three years before declaring them free? Americans’ capacity for self-delusion on the issue of race is boundless. Obama’s candidacy is just the latest permutation.
Obama Ties ’08 Bid to Lincoln’s Legacy
“The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible,” Obama said. “He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope.”
Blah blah blah. I guess it’s fitting, the newest corporate shill standing in the shadow of an old one.