The Obamas & Martin Luther King Day
Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and we celebrate his life, his work and his dream that should, in my view, be our dream. It is a dream about fairness, equality and dignity--dignity not based on race or class but intrinsic in all human beings.
So the irony of the attacks on both Barack and Michelle Obama are not delicious but bitter. Yes, we say that all is fair in love and war--and by extension, politics--but this is really code for giving ourselves permission to be unfair. Every president and first family is picked on and criticized. Harry Truman went to Florida too much. Eisenhower played too much golf and escaped to Camp David. Kennedy partied too much (Oh, if we'd only known how much!). Nixon spent too much time in San Clemente, Reagan in Santa Barbara and W was always clearing brush in Texas. Presidents are begrudged their every pleasure for political reasons. The only exception was Carter who stayed in the Rose Garden and kept turning off the lights to save electricity. He was excoriated for being cheap and not presenting a good image of mighty America.
So the Obamas party and live high on the hog while there are wars, recession and terrible unemployment. Any president would come in for this boilerplate kind of criticism. Still there seems to be some special animus in much of the criticism of the Obamas. Some is consciously racist. Some is coded dog whistle aimed at racists. To see Barack as Nero fiddling and Michelle as Marie Antoinette, as spoiled and uncaring seems counter-factual to me.
Romney says, "Obama doesn't understand America." Gee, why not? Maybe because he's not a "real American." Maybe it's because he's an Indonesian/Kenyan brainwashed into anti-colonialism by the father he met twice, as Gingrich has charged. He is, many claim, out of touch with real (Read: White) Americans. He's an elitist. This charge is rich coming from Mitt Romney, one of the richest men ever to run for the presidency.
We have come a long way in approaching MLK's Dream but we have far to go. It is fair to criticize Obama or Romney or Gingrich for their policies. It is also appropriate to examine the content of the character of our politicians. However, race and religion should be off the table. That would advance us one more step towards living the Dream we celebrate this weekend.
©2012 Jonathan Dobrer
www.Dobrer.com
I agree that MLK's dream should be what we all want and strive for and we have very far to go to reach that dream.
As far as leaving race and religion off the table--it will never happen in our grand-children's lifetime. There will always be those few in every sector that tarnish the majority and ethnicity or religion will always be brought to the forefront by the media.
Until we all see that everyone bleeds the same color red, differences and have the same hurts, real or imagined, we will unconsciously determine what "class" a person is said to belong to and will expect that "class" to act in certain ways.
Good job, as usual.
very moving, instructive and inspirational.
The issue with President Obama is that he is out of touch and aloof, all you have to do is read what his insiders say, what democratic senators and congressmen say, he doesn't connect...period. He also lacks accomplishment of any significance outside of hoodwinking the country into electing him. He doesn't release academic records, worshipped in Jeremiah Wright's church for more than a decade without recognizing Wright as a racist, and cannot make a speech without a teleprompter as he needs to read what his positions are rather than being able to speak "off the cuff" as he doesn't really have an ideology that drives him. The racism that we have in this country in regards to Obama is that if you speak out against him you are considered a racist. I couldn't care less what color our President is, but for those of you that voted for Obama four years ago because you thought you'd be labeled a racist if you didn't, please vote for someone else this time around so that you won't be labeled as stupid.
As for Martin Luther King's dream....that will not be realized until "leaders" of the black community like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are kicked to the curb by the people that supposedly represent. The politics of racism that these two nitwits and their ilk use have convinced a generation of minorities that they aren't getting "their fair share" of the pie and have turned their supporters into multigenerational welfare recipients dependent on the government for their every need. People need to quit whining about what they don't have and take responsibility for their lives, America is still the land of opportunity if you just take the ball and run with it. It's all about personal responsibility people.