This presidential election will be history-making in that we will either elect our first “black” president or our first female vice-president. I happen to consider Barack Obama to be white, not black. Not that race matters to me personally. Race is such a superficial criterion. Culture, character and, of course, political leanings are much more important when electing a president.
If he were a white senator, Barack Obama would be considered ill-prepared to be president. Unqualified, actually. But this election is not about Obama’s qualifications; it’s being made about his race. To many people, his race is more important that his politics, qualifications experience, character or anything else. They very much want to demonstrate that America has put racism behind it and moved on to a more enlightened time. They very much want Barack Obama to be America’s First Black President and will vote for him for just that reason.
Of course, voting for Obama because he is black is racist, but it’s the “good” racism, like Affirmative Action, not bad racism, like voting for McCain because he’s white. Blacks will overwhelmingly vote for Obama and no one will raise an eyebrow, much less a stink, racist as their voting motivation may be.
So, Obama has the black vote locked up. He also has the vote of everyone who thinks that voting in a black president is more important than voting in a good one. And he has the votes of those who really, truly believe he will be a good president. But what if that’s not enough?
What will happen if people reject Obama’s socialist politics? What if people don’t vote for him because they judge him too inexperienced? What if voters deem him too radical because of his long association with Reverend Wright? What will happen if Barack Obama is not America’s First Black President?
I know what will happen because it’s happened before on a smaller scale. The people of Arizona, given a chance to vote on creating a paid state holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., voted it down. It would have cost taxpayers $20,000,000 and reduced state services by one day a year. So it was defeated at the polls.
Arizona — the entire state — was promptly declared racist by state and national news media. There could be only one explanation for not approving the MLK state holiday — Racism.
That was nothing compared to what we’ll see if Barack Obama is not elected president. I would not be the least bit surpriseed to see race riots, looting, mayhem — the whole Rodney King thing — but on a larger scale. Much larger. I hope I’m wrong. I’d really like to be wrong, but I’m afraid I’m not.
Will women riot if Sarah Palin is not America’s First Female Vice-president? Unlikely. Will women blame the Glass Ceiling? Nope, they’ll probably blame McCain’s age or some such.
But you can bet that folks will blame Racism if Obama is not elected, and there will be Hell to pay. It will make history.