Something funny is happening to me on the way to the voting booth, I have decided I’m going to vote for Barack Obama. Despite Chuck D’s proclamation to not believe the hype, I have become somewhat caught up in it. I seldom concern myself too terribly with presidential elections, as I’m of the philosophy that local politics are the most important and deserve much more of my attention. I normally search out a third party politician that I find agreeable and vote for them. Over the years I have voted for candidates such as Lenora Fulina and Ralph Nader. Although I shared much in the way of their politics, my vote for them has been as much a vote against the status quo as it was an endorsement of the candidate. I work with the concept that until third parties receive some serious recognizable support we will forever remain mired in what has become a two party system.Despite my protestations articulated above about being unimpressed with machine candidates, I find Barack Obama’s run for the presidency quite captivating. I view it as the accession of institutional power of the post Civil Rights generation. I see Barack as the first candidate for president who understands the complexity in the diversity of our nation. It is one thing to pretend not to be a racist-See the Clinton’s- but in Barack’s case, his is not simply one of liberal paternalism, but truly a journey of the post civil rights generation. Obama’s journey is so non-linear that it is not even completely identifiable to many Afro-Americans.
Obama represents the vanguard of the generations who are the inheritors of all that the civil rights, black power, equal rights movement, and other post modern struggles for social justice opened up. Ours are the first generations to live without the demarcation lines of segregation. We are the generations of the technical age. We are the Hip-Hop generation. The dialogue that is necessary for our future has change dramatically from just thirty years ago. But we also inherited the institutional stains of white supremacy and manifest destiny.
The forms of racism, sexism, and economic justice that our generations must tackle are quite different from just thirty years ago. To continue using 20th century tactics in the 21st century will only delay the inevitable change that is afoot. Yes, Obama is a machine politician, but he is also of this generation. Not only is he a part of it but I think he posses a profound understanding of this new materialism. Meaning he understands, or at least minimally, recognizes the shifting language of our current circumstance as a vastly diverse nation.
Although progress on social justice issue have been infinitesimal, it would be intellectual dishonest for me not to acknowledge that in the last forty years things have begun to take a new shape. Now, I don’t mean to imply that I think that an Obama presidency will suddenly cure all are our ills, hardly. But I can also say that as recently as three years ago I would have argued the possibility of a Black president in my lifetime would never occur.
So in the sense that Obama understands our nation as it is currently comprised he is indeed transformative. Even old guard liberals often seem incapable of truly understanding the vastness of American experiences. Obama not only understands it but embodies it.
Again, I’m not naïve enough to think that an Obama presidency would be a panacea for change on the level I fear far too many people have put their faith in. No one person is capable nor should be burdened with such a Herculean task, but I am also checking my cynicism enough to realize that his election is an announcement of the coming of new day.
I do believe that an Obama presidency is the first real signal that the days of white supremacy and manifest destiny are beginning to fade, that the doors of our institutions are about to be kicked open to the complexities of the post civil rights generations.
Just as John Brown’s, seizure of the armory at Harper’s Ferry, signaled the coming of the abolition of slavery, or Mrs.’ Park’s, refusal to go to the back of the bus, signaled the inevitable conclusion of segregation. I believe that an Obama election may very well be the first clarion call for the end of the strangle hold that white supremacy and manifest destiny has held on our institutions.
This is not to say I’m abandoning my leftist politics, not at all. But like my mentor Huey Newton, I understand the concept of dialectical materialism and understand that nothing can remain stagnant. I believe an Obama presidency will begin to open doors allowing for a serious hearing of issues that have long been regulated to the sidelines. It has already begun on the local level with folks like Kwame Kilpatrick, Corey Booker, and Jesse Jackson Jr.
I fear that a McCain presidency will only further hinder our progress into the future. Our nation is not only browning but those of us in the majority are beginning to shed the ways of our ancestors.
The revolutionary change that is necessary for our country to truly embrace its entirety is far from being immediately upon us. But voting for the McKinney and Clemente ticket will not help further this cause either. I say this not to discourage anyone voting for the green ticket, as I do not find it a wasted vote at all. But I do believe that if Obama can be elected, and change often being quite incremental, that not far behind our generations leader will not only be heard, but truly understood, so that maybe one day when our next entertainer turn politician runs for president it will be in the person of an O’shea Jackson instead of a Ronald Reagan type. Or better yet a McKinney and Clemente ticket will have a legitimate chance at making an impact.
I have not arrived at this decision easily, and may very well loose a couple of stripes with my more militant brethren. But I do believe that the potential in the possibility of an Obama presidency will absolutely help inch us towards a 21st century that embraces the totality of where we are as a nation.
Let the arrows fly, Peace.
***Quick Aside: For those that don’t know, Barack Obama is not the first Afro-American to be on the ballot in all 50 states. Nor would have Hillary Clinton been the first women on the ballot on all fifty states. That historical landmark has already been accomplished by one person, Lenora Fulina.
Fulani ran for President in 1988 as the candidate of the New Alliance Party. She received almost a quarter of a million votes or 0.2% of the vote. She was the first African-American independent and the first women presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states.
