Wednesday November 7, 2008 and again on Inauguration Day,
January 20, 2009 a broad spectrum of Americans celebrated the nation’s first
election of an African American to the Presidency. Jesse Jackson and other Black Americans cried
tears of joy, but many who voted for Republican John McCain were also proud
that America had finally made progress on this unfulfilled promise of racial
equality which Alexis de Tocqueville had pointed out in “Democracy in America”
(1835-40). Nearly all Americans want to
think of themselves as treating all people equally regardless of race or
ethnicity, and the narrative of an African American who had grown up in
difficult circumstances ascending to the highest office in the land was highly
appealing and cause for celebration. That of course was largely a myth, for
many Americans continued to harbor fundamentally racist attitudes and beliefs,
but at least for that one day they could make believe they were supporters of
equality. 
Any pretence of national solidarity ended with a secret
dinner on January 20, 2009 at the end of the Inauguration Day when House Republicans and some Senators met to plan
a campaign of obstruction against newly installed president Barack Obama. During
a lengthy discussion, the senior GOP members worked out a plan to repeatedly
block Obama over the coming four years, making it appear he accomplished
nothing. Attending the dinner were House members Eric Cantor, Jeb Hensarling,
Pete Hoekstra, Dan Lungren, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and Pete Sessions. From
the Senate were Tom Coburn, Bob Corker, Jim DeMint, John Ensign and Jon
Kyl. Others present were former House
Speaker and future presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and the Republican strategist
Frank Luntz, who organized the dinner. A
detailed account of who was present at the dinner on that January 20 night and
the plan they worked out to bring down Obama is provided by Robert Draper in
'Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the US House of Representatives.’
Barrack Obama surpassed
any reasonable expectations of what a president could possibly do to address
the disastrous state of the economy that he encountered on the first day in
office, the Republicans succeeded in blocking nearly every presidential effort
to improve the economy. There were more
filibusters of Administration legislation than at any time in history. But despite those efforts to undermine the
nation’s economic welfare, Obama was able to achieve economic improvement, with
less unemployment and more new housing starts than any time over the past four
years. His foreign policy achievements, including eliminating Bin Laden, have been stunning.
When Romney was
selected as the Republican opponent, the die appeared to be cast that the
official deciding factor in the upcoming election would be the economy. Romney’s only claim to legitimacy appeared
to be his experience as a business executive.
But when it turned out his business experience had almost completely
involving consolidating and eliminating businesses, firing workers, and
shipping American jobs to Mexico, China, the Philippines and India, it appeared
that advantage had disappeared. Concealing his vast wealth from American
taxation did not help Romney’s case. But
despite Romney’s appalling business record, many Americans continued to believe
he would be able to improve the economy for ordinary people, which was simply
false. The people who believed that were the elusive “swing” voters who are
really uncommitted Republicans looking for an excuse to vote for their party.
In this, the last
month of the campaign, Romney’s supporters have explicitly turned to racism to
defeat Obama, unleashing John Sununu and other representatives such as Newt
Gingrich, to explicitly attack the president on racial grounds http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/26/1094491/john-sununus-history-of-racial-remarks-about-obama/?mobile=nc which tapped into the implicit racism of
people who are mislabled “Independents,” whom most studies show to be largely
Republicans who are concealing their affiliation. Only 1 in 3 or 4 Independents are truly independent
The joy and justifiable national pride of electing
the first African American to the presidency has been replaced by deep-seated
racial bitterness, which is at its root will be the deciding factor in this
campaign. If the election were decided on the candidates’ merits, Obama clearly
would win. Most people realize that. But it is no accident that
Romney will win the southern states and mountain states that have traditionally
had strongly racist constituencies, and Obama will win the west and east coast
and upper Midwest states which have traditionally supported policies of social
equality. If Romney wins enough
electoral votes to win the election, it will confirm for America and the World,
that the country is deeply racist in its most fundamental way, revealing that
all of the talk of equality is pure window dressing. When Americans thrust their finger in the air
and scream “We’re Number One,” they are referring to being the number one racist. All
of the people of color throughout the world will realize this country’s
rhetoric about equality is meaningless.
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