This past holiday season was a time for family get-togethers and as such I had time to talk with family on a variety of topics. Politics is not a major source of discussion but it does come up over a period of time and I was curious to find out how other family members felt about potential Presidential candidates.
My mom is the most vocal family member on politics and she is also the most liberal and opinionated. I grew up taking my political cues from her. She generally supports a progressive Democrat in the primary and is distrustful to disdainful of all Republicans. I remember her saying back in 2000 that Colin Powell was not to be trusted because he would drop bombs on black people if his commanders told him to...and she was right. My father disagreed big time on Powell but he is a traditional Hubert Humphrey-labor Democrat who likes ‘mainstream’ liberals. He liked Howard Dean as the frontrunner in ’04 until ‘the scream,’ then it was Kerry all the way. Some family members are also more ‘practical,’ or ‘traditional’ as you may, in political opinion like my father. Other family members vary. Some are really only interested in a political campaign if a black candidate is running, and s/he will get their votes. Some people in the family who rarely vote supported Al Sharpton for local offices he’s run for...but NOT for President as he had worn out his welcome by then. We all supported Jesse Jackson in his runs for President. And even Dr. Lenora Fulani has tallied votes from my family. There are a couple of Republican cousins who are tolerated at get-togethers as long as they don’t discuss their political opinions. So given the range of perspectives, I found it interesting that NO ONE in the family is supporting Barack Obama for President at this point. Every single person believes he’s too inexperienced and has absolutely no chance to win No one dislikes him and some think that he has potential in the future as a candidate but as a family, we just aren’t feelin’ Obama for President.
I wondered why it is that Obama’s candidacy would be so summarily dismissed within my family in spite of the Obamania in the media and have come up with my own conclusions. The symbolism of Shirley Chisholm’s campaign made her a heroine and the stature of Jackson’s candidacies made his campaigns outright crusades. Obama is charming, speaks well and laces his speeches with religious references but he still does not have the same speechmaking style, cadence or charisma of those who have a background in the black church. We are attentive but not dazzled with Obama’s oratory as so many others are. Now there are black politicians who did not come up in the black church (both Charlie Rangel and Cynthia McKinney are Catholics) but are nonetheless the glib rabble-rousers and mischief-makers that I find appealing. However, Obama has shown no signs of being a candidate who is an usurper. Obama is not putting out the feelers for a Presidential race as a ‘symbolic’ campaign or a crusade for a cause. He would be ‘in it to win.’ Nonetheless, common sense tells us that he cannot win running a mainstream campaign. This is still America after all.
Therefore, what does Obama’s candidacy represent ? From what I see so far, I think Obama’s candidacy represents an image or illusion of what many would like to portray of America. I think many feel that if a black man from a mixed-race-creed-country background can become President of the United States, then we truly have a ‘colorblind’ society that will release America from all her collective and individual baggage that go along with the racial and socioeconomic divides that plague society. While it’s a worthy, though lofty goal, it is too illusory to be the reason to support a Barack Obama Presidential candidacy. To achieve such a goal requires more than just audacious hope, but it requires bodacious plans and commitment that America has never been ready for. I’ve heard no such plans and commitments from Obama that would match the hope his campaign would represent to so many, though I eagerly wait. We’ve had black candidates run symbolic campaigns with bodacious attitude and I can understand the need to move beyond symbolism. However, I don’t want a Presidency that provides symbolism from the top without seismic changes from the core. Therefore, when it comes to an Obama candidacy, so far I’m just not feelin it.