(ThyBlackMan.com) Tuesday night, as I watched the Democratic convention, I was totally mesmerized. But not for the reasons you might think.
For starters, I am obliged to tip my hat to the Democrats. They put on one of the best, if not the best, convention nights I have ever seen in my 20 years of political consulting. The stagecraft was nothing short of miraculous. As a public relations executive, I found the messaging phenomenal. For anyone involved in my industry, this was like the Super Bowl of public relations. Every speaker’s speech flowed right into Michelle Obama’s address, which was nothing short of spectacular. She gave one of the best speeches I have ever heard or seen.
The opening night of the Democrat’s convention was everything the Republican’s was not:staged wonderfully, exciting, thematic, and was great TV.
But what mesmerized me more than the production value was how oblivious the Democrats are to the state of things on planet Earth. I am tired of all the problems facing this country being put at the feet of George W. Bush and the
President Obama has had three years to apply his remedies to all the problems facing our country and the best he and the Democrats can do is continue to blame the GOP and a president who left office nearly four years ago? Have they forgotten that the Democrats had a veto-proof Senate and a majority in the House during President Obama’s first two years in office? Republicans took over the House as a direct result of the voter’s disaffection with the President’s first two years in office.
Bush left us with about $4 trillion in debt. Under Obama, that debt is now $16 trillion. When Obama became President, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent. Now it’s 8.3 percent. These are facts.
So, are Bush and the Republicans responsible for the quadrupling of the national debt or the White House’s inability to lower the unemployment rate?
President Obama has proven to be a much better candidate than president. He would give Bill Clinton a run for the money when it comes to raw politics. Obama and his campaign team know how to pull on your emotions to the point that you become irrational.
But as an African American, I’m confounded as to why we continue to have blind loyalty to a president that has overseen an economy that is mired in a 15 percent black unemployment rate.How can you vote for this president when there is no public record of him meeting with any prominent black businessmen? How can you vote for Obama after news broke in Politco this past spring that his campaign was so short on black campaign workers that his field staff had to scramble to find “qualified blacks” for their get-out the vote effort? How can you vote for President Obama when he supports an immigrant guest worker program- that amounts to amnesty in my book- to over one million illegal immigrants? This very well might create competition with low and under-skilled black workers who are unemployed or under-employed. How can you vote for Obama when he has failed to spend as much as he said he would on HIV and AIDS abroad (specifically in Africa) and cut the spending from the federal budget to fight the disease?
The electorate, especially blacks, are suffering from cognitive dissonance. In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the inability to see what you don’t believe.
I’m sure there are some who will say: President Obama cares about us, but he can’t do anything specifically for blacks because whites will think he is trying to be president of Black America. But there are other core Democrat constituencies that have benefited from the president’s attention: the gay community received a repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” and a presidential endorsement of gay marriage. (and Time Magazine went so far as to label Obama the first gay president). And another core constituency, Hispanics, have received similar presidential attention: he has given them back-door amnesty. But for African Americans? He’s given us speeches.
So, let me make sure I understand this psychosis: if President Obama ignores blacks in his first term because he doesn’t want to be viewed as a black President (though he is); that’s ok because if there is a second term, he will then pay attention to black voters because he then won’t mind being viewed as a black President?
Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson
Mr. Jackson is also founder of a political and industrial consultant firm which is based in Washington, DC; Raynard Jackson & Associates.
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Yeah, right!
We will be much better off if Romney were president!
Give me/us a break, and go sit down!
When I intially read this article I can't articulate how upset I was. I could not believe a black person wrote this article and let alone people agreed. Sometime we as a people are so negative that we refuse to see the postive. I DO support Obama because he is a black man but also because of his accomplishments as President.
First,Obama passed the Lilly Ledbetter act. Your negativity blinded you to the fact this was an act that benefited black women. The number of black women who are single mothers supporting their family is outragous to say the least. Did it occur to you that maybe this was to help our black mothers.
Second,Obama extended unemployment. Do you not recall the unemployment rate was 11% which was double for black americans. Did the extension not assit people of color, seriously you don't know anyone personally that was helped by the extension. I'm sorry if he didn't send you a memo to let you know that this was to help our community
Third, Obama allowed our children to go to college and not get in debt for medicals bills. He made it possible so our children can stay on their parents insurance until the age of 26. He also help college students with student loans. Now this may not have impacted you directly but please believe it's our children going to school and racking up these bills.
Fourth, He has shown our communtiy what a black family can achieve with love and understanding. This is definitely a benefit for our community that may have lost hope. SO CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE
We are so quick to say what someone is not doing for us we miss our blessing. Would you feel better if he came out and said this was for my people? He can't he's the President of the country not just black people. So the next time you want to stick out your mouth and say he is not doing enough. Please take a look at the republicians. They do not have that much hate against one man because of what he is not doing, really why do they hate him, from your article I believe you hate him for the same reaon. They have tried everything to bring him down but he's still President with a smile and his swag. He hasn't changed who is as a black man. If you can't respect that then you probably have issues with yourself.
It's a long road stop nickpicking and learn how to enjoy the ride.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, but yet the number of us who have no GET UP & GO continues to expand simply because we wholeheartedly accept Big Bro Govts bag of goodies of free housing, food, utilities, cell phones, etc. from the cradle to the grave by not even attempting to generate sustainable income let alone grow income and we wonder why our community has not excelled. Romney/Ryan is just what our community needs, A WAKE-UP Call!
I'm with Terrance on this one... I see nothing in either party or candidate that translates to political will to improve the condition of Black people -- but why should we expect others to put themselves out doing for us what we as a people are no longer committed to do for ourselves? Why should Barack Obama put his neck on the chopping block for us when we are not willing to deny ourselves our consumer perks to allocate money to help our own poor with a hand up? Why should anybody do for us what we have insufficient desire to do for ourselves? If we would just get moving, a vote for President Obama would make sense because he would be less likely to get in our way -- but unless we are going to seriously commit to doing for ourselves as Black people, at any cost, the result of this election is not going to make a world of difference. While I am by no means a supporter of the Romney/Ryan ticket, its success might provide one good thing: it would shatter our egos and maybe bring enough pain to wake us up!
Obama talked about how wonderful Keynesian economics was, because he wanted to rescue the sad banks.
Wall street had voted for Obama, but blacks are just glad to be there, in the white house.
We all know what the problem is, it is the Federal Reserve System, now Obama will not address that because they already owe the banking oligarchs before they are elected.
I totally agree with everything you are saying. It really saddens me to see how we blindly submit,simply because he is black but he has done nothing for the Black population. And when you bring that point up you are looked at as a "hater". You even her people saying God put him there well that means God put all the presidents their. We have to realize no matter who is our president the government we still do what they want to do. I believe Obama is the president to do exactly what is happening, keep us calm and happy with his speeches(sermons) so we have no fight, and why do you think everyone at the DNC sounds like they are preaching that's because they feel that's the only way you will listen. And if he wins it's only 4 more years then what? Wake up people!!!
I'd just like to point out that the "Democrats had a veto-proof Senate" for the 6 weeks between July of 2009 (when Franken was sworn in) and August of 2009, when Kennedy died. There was another month plus, from Sept 25 (when Kirk was appointed to fill Kennedy's seat) until early Nov when Scott Brown was elected.
So, in reality, the Democrats had that 'veto proof majority' for a total of 3 months. Most of which was in recess.
"Black Unity means financial independence and happiness" - Well put Terrance
@Raynard...you might as well give it up bro. The blind cannot see and the deaf cannot hear. I have been fighting this battle long and hard for about a year and a half now. The concept that a 'black president' doesn't care about blacks even when you give them data, policies and logic just doesn't work for most of us.
Here are the responses I have gotten routinely:
1. He can't because people will think he is 'too black' and he won't get relected
2. It is George Bushes fault
3. So are you saying vote Republican, are you crazy???
People refuse to believe that there is another way to do politics. That for many groups POLITICS IS WORKING, just not ours.
In truth I am tired. Our position has been garbage no matter who has been in office so I am tabling the political talk for a while.
To the writer of this article, all you said maybe true and I agree that the Democrats take advantage of our vote, but do you really think Romney and the Republican Party will do better for us? Before we stop getting the crumbs the democrats give us, we as a people need to start working together in order to solve the problems in our community. This way we don’t have to rely so much on the government to solve our problems and can think more independently while gaining more power to lobby for what we want, just like the wealthy who run this country do.
We’ve always had Black people in our community who used us for their own gain. The Black church is one example. With all the money that comes in the church we could have our own banks, insurance companies, real estate companies, and more. But these ministers are only interested in filling their own pockets, rather then helping their own congregation. There are some examples of churches doing this, but they are the exception not the rule. Until we come together as a people and start to utilize the resources we already have in our community, we will always have these discussions which solve nothing.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
So, we should vote for Romney? Or is there a third candidate we dont know about??? The point of this article is to say what...not to vote at all.