I underestimated the hate in America. When Obama ran, I supported a different candidate because he was to the left of Obama. I thought electing a black man would be a great thing, but found his positions too conciliatory with big business. Obama was left of center, a man with a good heart, but I wanted a fighter, and I didn't think he would be one, at least not as much. When my candidate dropped out in late January 2008, the bruises from dkos battles were too great to endorse Obama right away, although I did in early May, a couple weeks before John Edwards did. Long preamble, but here's my point.
I was wrong. Electing an African-American was the most progressive thing we could do. Until we deal with race in this nation, until the racism of white privilege is extinguished, progressive outcomes will always be difficult to obtain. And electing Obama is beginning of the end of white racism as way of life in this nation.
I have a video after the fold, but this is the key point:
"At this point in my life, I have never seen my America turned into what it has turned into, and I want my America back," said one woman, on the verge of tears. "
It's not about health care, public options, details of plans. That is not what motivates the opposition we see. It's the end of a way of life in which mediocre whites have better jobs, better lives, better health care, because of their skin privilege. It's the end of an idea, an idea that told some whites that they were better just because their skin was pinkish or "flesh-colored" as Crayola so racistly used to describe.
It is the death rattle of racism. The racists feel it. Their way of life is ending. White privilege is going away. It may take time and there still are many examples of institutionalized racism (differing medical outcomes, diseases, health, lead poisoning, environmental injustice, African Americans overrepresented in poverty, job discrimination, educational discrimination, ... etc.), but the direction is clear.
With the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, their way of life is ending:
"At this point in my life, I have never seen my America turned into what it has turned into, and I want my America back," said one woman, on the verge of tears. "
TPM: Ross, Snyder Meet Angry Crowd In Arkansas Town Hall
That America is going, going, gone. Justice exists, a better America is being created. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream is in sight, and their nightmare is fading away for the majority of Americans.
The birther movement is just an example of the refusal to accept the legitimacy of a black man as President. Insurance companies cynically are capitalizing on the white racist anguish, profiting from hate in an effort to save their profits from disease and death. But this is about more than health care to the Tea Baggers, more than taxes. It's the end of their way of life.
America is greater than the sins of slavery and racism. It's not her America; it's America. And Barack Obama, a black man, is our President.
Barack Obama Inauguration Oath 2009
They cannot undo this. America already won.