So the Democratic nomination season is finally over, but for the shouting (mostly about the Florida and Michigan delegates, the vice presidential candidate \u2013 and just how to win in November). But I\u2019m still a little unsettled about Rev. Wright and Obama\u2019s \u201csmall town bitterness\u201d remarks from a few weeks ago. If Obama is going to analyze the sociology of small mostly-white towns in terms of economic hardships, then perhaps he needs to do the same for Rev. Wright. Good for the goose, good for the gander, right?<\/p>\n
OK, so let\u2019s think about what Rev. Wright said \u2013 and its acceptance, if not whole hearted endorsement, by many African-Americans \u2013 in terms of the economic hardships faced over the past 200 years by blacks in America. On one level, this analysis makes a lot of sense, and re-enforces some of what the good Reverend is saying. On another level, it diminishes the social, theological and artistic context of the black experience (as well as minimizing the many great achievements by black Americans<\/a>). <\/p>\n So, perhaps we see just why Senator Obama\u2019s comments were hurtful, and why his failure to extend them to his own social and ethnic milieu has negatively affected his support within the Euro-American community. That is, other than the educated liberal component of that community. But remember, that component gave us George McGovern, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Al Gore and Adlai Stevenson. It\u2019s true that \u201cwhite power\u201d is declining in America, and that in a few decades whites will no longer be the majority ethnic group. For now, though, working-class whites still comprise the pivotal voting block that decides who the President will be. Senator Obama is obviously going to need to work harder to gain that group\u2019s support.<\/p>\n Ironically, the thing that got Obama in more trouble, i.e. economic analysis, might be the same thing that could help him get out of the Reverend Wright jam. At bottom, both blacks and whites care most about electing a leader who will help butter their bread and pay their mortgage. Sure, they want a person who is also a social and \u201cspiritual\u201d leader (in the sense of \u201cAmerican spirit\u201d). They also want a strong commander-in-chief (another thing Obama is going to need to work on). But cash is still king here. If Obama could in fact merge the \u201cblack-man blues\u201d with \u201cwhite town bitterness\u201d on the grounds of economics, and then sooth all of that angst with promises of economic unity and common purpose, he might somehow get out of the racial-tension trap that he fell into. If he could say that he understands the financial anxiety experienced by Americans of all colors and creeds, if he could promise that all boats will rise and everyone will do better under his watch, then the beer and NASCAR crowd might break for him yet. <\/p>\n One bad omen for Obama, however. The superdelegates are already starting to desert Hilary and jump on the ‘good ship Barack’. But one of the most recent converts is a Jonah \u2013 none other than 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern himself (the guy who gave Nixon a landslide victory). Storms ahead for Obama, no doubt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So the Democratic nomination season is finally over, but for the shouting (mostly about the Florida and Michigan delegates, the vice presidential candidate \u2013 and just how to win in November). But I\u2019m still a little unsettled about Rev. Wright and Obama\u2019s \u201csmall town bitterness\u201d remarks from a few weeks ago. If Obama is going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5027,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/5027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}