A Black President? You're Kiddin' Me, Right?
5 Aug 2008 (Original pub. 15/10/2000)
Stephen Frazier, Ed/Pub,
Turncoat Emeritus

This article was first published EIGHT YEARS AGO, while presumptive president Barack Obama was just a mid level political hack in Chicago. In spite of the fact that Obama appears on the verge of winning the presidency and voiding my predictions, I stand by my prediction because:

1. The millions of new black and young white voters recruited by the Obama campaign, drawn by the thought that they may be voting for the next JESUS, traditionally lose their enthusiasm by Halloween, and

2. A large number of the WHITE voters who tell pollsters they will vote for Obama are LYING because they don't want to appear RACIST, which is what you are if you oppose him, right?

3. Voting for or against a candidate based on race is STUPID, like choosing a babysitter because "he's cute, he looks like me", while the guy is standing there wearing a mask.

Only a gold plated IDIOT would vote either way on such a shallow basis.
Of course, elections over the past fifty years indicate that SOME of the voters are that stupid, but most of them have better sense.
At least I hope so.

 The second presidential campaign of the twenty first century is set to spring into full swing in just a couple of months. President Bush is gearing up for another shot at sticking his finger in the collective eye of the Democrats and much of the rest of the liberals on Earth by winning reelection as president of these UNTIED States (that's NOT a typo).

We have NINE aspirants for the Democratic nomination this time, a reversal of last time, when the GOP fielded nearly as many candidates and the Democrats had just one; AlGore, side kick to "the first BLACK president" (according to Queisi Mfume, president of the ultra liberal and out of touch NAACP and semi-talented (whatever she does) Toni Morrison). Included in the company of Democrat hopefuls are two "dark horses" (take that any way you like), Carol Mosely-Braun and The Rev Al (Tasmanian Devil) Sharpton, neither of whom have as much chance of being elected president as I do giving birth to Korean triplets. Nothing has changed since I wrote, exactly three years ago this week that, in my opinion,

America will never elect a black president. Oh, sure, times have changed. A lot of drudge has run through the sewer since the alleged "debacle in Florida" election of 2000. We've been attacked by a bunch of cowards murdering innocent people in the name of religion, we've conducted a couple of successful wars, deposed a couple of dictators,and the "greatest economy in 50 years" has bounced around and is beginning to rebound, to the utter dismay of the Democratic party. So when Americans go to the polls next year the choice will be between a candidate who best fits the country's description as being better able to protect us from terrorists and economic turmoil.

Once again, I think it is appropriate to post this article, which postulates that America could and would never elect a black person as president. No doubt, the black candidates make some great points now and then. After all, when all they need to do is follow the "BASH BUSH" mantra as laid out by the Clinton-Carville advisory council, there has to be SOMETHING that resonates with the party faithful, even if the rest of the people disagree.

The fact remains, however, that the black candidates are only in the race for comic relief and neither the names nor the positions of any black candidate really matter. Be it Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton, Carol Mosely-Braun, Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell, no black will ever be elected president of these United States. I said it before and I say it again. Even as the circumstances and the names change, that fact will not change soon.

I restate and reaffirm my reasons, which have less to do with racism than with historical perceptions, initiated by whites and perpetuated by blacks themselves. Most white people vote for or against a candidate for SPECIFIC REASONS that they usually form in their own heads, and most of them could talk coherently for hours about why and how they made their choice, and have HUNDREDS of choices to make, and the chance that a black person would fit their criteria is ultra slim, because not many black candidates, over the centuries, have shown an ability or willingness to govern on behalf of other than BLACK PEOPLE.

I have met very few, if any, black knee-jerk Democrats who could talk more than thirty seconds when asked why he or she supports this Democrat or does not support that Republican unless of course they are reading from the Democrats' play book. The candidates are not much different. While the white candidates rail on and on about defense, the deficit, Social Security, or the economy, the black candidates are invariably focused on the "black struggle". How dedicated to THAT candidate could the average white voter be, especially "Joe Six-pack", who considers himself just as economically disadvantaged as the next guy, black or white.

When Jesse Jackson Jr. endorsed Howard Dean for president, Al Sharpton went ballistic, complaining that Dean "is opposed to Affirmative Action". Of course other white candidates oppose Affirmative action, but apparently Sharpton can't understand why a BLACK man would be supporting such a person. Just ignore the fact that Affirmative-Action is , next to the "war on poverty", is the worst thing that happened to blacks since Selma.

The GOP side is even less promising for blacks, because the average Republican, contrary to what the liberal media and the race hustling poverty pimps would have you believe, don't focus on race, but on what the candidate would do for THEM first, and the country second, not the special interests, therefore the black candidates would have a similar problem in the GOP camp. The common perception among whites seems to be that blacks will only focus on "black " issues. All one has to do is listen to them and either agree with that assessment or live in denial of obvious truth.

On the 279,999,999 to one chance that a black is nominated by the GOP (odds favoring the highest regarded black candidate in the world fall in line right behind the lowest white sharecropper), he or she would not benefit from the black vote, because blacks have been conditioned and have conditioned themselves to vote for Democrats regardless of platform, philosophy or policy. Indeed, I don't think the average black voter even knows the platform or personal philosophy of ANY candidate, black, white, green or yellow.

Alabama Governor George Wallace received more than two thirds of the black vote after physically standing in the door to block black students from attending the University of Alabama. Then when Wallace was term limited, blacks voted in droves for and helped elect Wallace's wife. If anyone wants to try and sell ME the notion that blacks actually favored Wallace over ANY white Republican is very mistaken. I may LOOK it, but even I am not so stupid.

The far right would abandon the GOP because of suspicion that the candidate would, if elected, become just another civil rights activist, to the exclusion of ALL other constituencies. The corporations would flee the party in droves, because of a lack of experience in working with black business owners, who act as if they don't even know how to work with each other.

Finally, there is the matter of the aforementioned Affirmative Action, which was initiated to reduce or remove the institutional obstacles blacks faced in all walks of American life. Not only has the program been a dismal failure, having evolved into a quota system where blacks only have to complete an application to qualify, but it has transformed a vibrant, activist black community into a culture of perpetual whining, self pity, self victimization, and governmental dependency, where not only do blacks want a "level playing field", but want to be the only players allowed ON that field.

Neither of these issues by itself would prevent a black person from becoming president, but taken together (and the majority population will indeed consider ALL these issues), these conditions preclude, in my opinion, the possibility that a black could ever be elected president of the United States. The fact that it is the Hispanic, not the black race which is now the largest minority group in the nation makes the likelihood of a black president even more remote. It has been said that America is not quite ready to elect a woman president, but I think a WHITE woman has a hundred times better chance than a black man or woman to become president.

There is one opportunity, however remote, for black Americans to develop the kind of power that liberals tell us that we should have, but spend just as much effort acting as if we aren't smart enough to do it; if black Americans would just study the ISSUES, rather than the PARTY, candidate or the color, and remain INDEPENDENT and OPEN MINDED until they make up their own minds, then the major candidates would have to fight for our vote just as they do for the votes of other groups, and of course would have to make concessions and promises to US like they do to others. That in itself would FORCE black candidates to broaden their constituent relationships, thus helping them to evolve into more acceptable risks as representatives of the whole rather than just a segment thereof.

It's a nice scenario, one filled with hope and potential, but one that I don't think will happen... but who knows? It's a strange world. Maybe some- day a donkey might actually fly.