the rix mix

It's a great day. & yet it's difficult to enjoy it. There was a coup d’état in this nation 8 years ago, proving Ben Franklin's long ago warning of what would happen when "the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other." Are we still capable of any other? The Democratic Party has a candidate who says we are. Republicans & their backers & Democratic enablers want to make the current conditions permanent. To do this, they reach first for the most reliable weapon in their arsenal: racial division.

We're going to find out for real between now & November just how pervasive & deeply-seated racism is in America. It's appropriate to compare Barack Obama with Jackie Robinson, for Barack is as gifted a politician as Robinson was a baseball player. & he'll suffer the same opposition & abuse, if perhaps not as directly to his face. In 1947, racist baseball fans demanded that white mediocrities be promoted over the Hall of Fame quality stars of the Negro Leagues. Robinson had to be three times as good, three times as exciting, & three times as thick-skinned as any white player was expected to be. He had to do it alone. In many ballparks, a white person had to be courageous just to express support for Robinson. Fear & danger were everywhere. The stakes are higher now. The people have a chance to begin the process of restoring the Republic.

Barack is more inspiring than Bill Clinton in 1992, when a scandal-wracked governor from a poor state defeated one of most "qualified" men ever to hold the office of President. Running a charismatic, intelligent, upbeat senator against a stumbling, aging, poorly informed, culturally out-of-touch, flip-flopping, pro-war senator, this election should be a gimme for the Democrats. It's not. & we know why. We're going to expose some truths about America in 2008.

Labels: THE election