Vote For Obama....Just Cause I Said So
On last night's Black Women's Roundtable podcast, a black male caller strongly stated that any African American that did not vote for Barack Obama was "lost." He further proceeded to take any black woman to task that dared to expect anything from Barack Obama.
Now, this same gentleman could not offer one solid tangible political, social, or economic-based reason why black women should vote for Barack Obama other than the fact that Obama was the first black man with a real "chance" to win the presidency. His stance was basically that you don't need to know anything, because Obama had done all the "heavy lifting" by defeating "mighty whitey" in Iowa, so all we needed to do was shut up and vote for the brotha!
Now, I'm not against Obama as a presidential candidate, but I am against being told to vote for him with the singular reason of "cause I said so." In fact, I can't recall taking "cause I said so" as an answer since I was a little girl and I had occasion to lose my mind and as my mother "why?" about some random thing or another. And since my childhood, I have not met anyone that had the power to make me understand what happened to Lot's wife with a single look like my mom, so "cause I said so" ain't gonna fly with me from some ordinary joe.
11 comments:
I'll give u a reason...
Bush-Clinton-Clinton-Bush-Bush-Clinton
Not counting Sr. Bush's VP years.
That's a reason.
I'll tale Edwards.
I'll take Obama.
But DAMNIT I'm NOT taking Clinton.
JJ -
I feel you, but that's not a real political reason, that's a feeling. What makes you believe so strongly that Obama or Edwards would be any different than Clinton on the issues facing this country?
Which one of them is going to end the war first? Do any of them have a plan to jumpstart our economy? What exact "change" can we expect if they get the office?
That's my point.
Professor Tracey,
You ought to cross post this on WAOD.
Look I'm a hardcore political junkie who had thrown her hands up on the game but got back in after Obama won the Iowa Caucus.
I checked voting records and pay attention to speeches. My Sunday mornings were spent watching the political news shows.
Hilary Clinton doesn't know the meaning of the word change. She's been on the wrong side of too many important votes.
Obama is more corporate then he lets on. Some of his biggest backers are Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and the like.
Not a good look with a bankruptcy bill that needs repealing. And he's also been on the wrong side of some important many votes.
Edwards is the only one talking about anything I want to hear...namely getting corporations out of politics (and possibly busting up monopolies..anti-trust laws anyone?) and poverty. The problem being that he's done a lot of talking over the past four or five years and not much doing.
With that said the previous CLinton years gave us:
1. Nafta
2. Disatrous Welfare reform
3. Expansion of the prison industrial complex
4. Don't ask Don't tell
None of that was good.
Oh and here's another one for you -Obama is for retro-actively applying the new crack legislation and Hilary is not.
There's a political reason.
And not wanting another Clinton is office is NOT a feeling. It's a recognition that if this country is to move forward there has to be a shake up in who we elect for top office.
Choosing from the same two families and the same small inner circle of polirticians has gotten us NOWHERE.
Neither Obama or Edwards is all bad or all good but they definitely offer something different and hopefully better then what we have had.
Is that clear enough?
Thank you JJ!!! That's what I'm talking about! I appreciate you sharing. I really want to hear people express their reasons and issues for voting for one candidate over the other.
And you don't have to convince me, Clinton isn't wowing me either, but I'm not voting for the others just "cause" folks are tired of Clinton.
I also agree with those things you listed as a problem under the Clinton age, but I would love to hear your thoughts on what Obama and Edwards have expressed in relation to changing those issues such as don't ask, don't tell and the growing prison system.
You raised an excellent point about the new crack legislation - I will be make a separate post about that this week. I'm a bit wishy-washy about that piece of legislation.
The only reason I will be voting for Barak, is that he is the lessor of all current political evils, simple as that.
Bill Clinton took the nation from a mind-boggling deficit to a balanced budget. I will never understand how Republicans have convinced the public that they are 'fiscally responsible'.
Both Reagan and the two Bushes have torpedoed America's savings and credit in military Imperialism.
I am totally AGAINST suddenly freeing thousands of crack addicts to return to black neighborhoods jobless, untreated and uneducated. That is lunacy in its highest form. These are not heroic political prisoners like Mandela was. They are people caught up in a vice that is killing our youth.
The Clinton era moved a whole lot of black people up from working class into middle class. THAT is why black people love them. Even the welfare reform got a lot of women into the working world who did not have the opportunity to do so before. Do the numbers -- there was NOT a sudden surge of homeless black women and children due to those actions.
But even if people disagree with me -- BILL CLINTON IS NOT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.
Forget my person opinion of Hillary Clinton (which isn't all that great) -- If I was to strictly pay attention to who has paid more attention to what WOMEN want in this country, hands down that person is Hillary Clinton. Joseph Biden was a close second, but he's gone.
My decision is not based on personality exhaustion. It is as follows: Who will do the best for me in terms of
1) The Economy
2) Get us out of Iraq
3) Crime against women and girls
4) Education affordability & access
5) Racial equity in home ownership
6) Assistance for small businesses
And even if that person is a two headed alien from the planet Mars, they will get my vote.
justatest said-"And even if that person is a two headed alien from the planet Mars, they will get my vote."
---------------------
LOL !!
i truly feel the same way-LOL..that is funny...
who is the lesser of all the evils that want the job?
what you said about the upgrading that bill did for people of color was on time--
who is the lesser of all the evils that wants the job? right now i have not made up my mind. which is one reason i have not really commented on my thoughts concerning each canidate...i've never been into what they have turned into "hollywood-politics" very much before--though all the newness of this election has me watching and listening more closer...
they all say so much that they are going to do-and then going through what they have done to get to this point is much info. to go through--
for me it is still too early....i do know that i will know for sure once i step into the booth and pick up that pencil...
i'm still just watching and listening...and learning.
The Clinton era moved a whole lot of black people up from working class into middle class. THAT is why black people love them. Even the welfare reform got a lot of women into the working world who did not have the opportunity to do so before. Do the numbers -- there was NOT a sudden surge of homeless black women and children due to those actions.
That's a myth. One that if people took time to really study the Clinton years would understand.
Bush Sr. was the one who started rolling back a lot of the Regan tax cuts. Clinton did some more but much of it was started by Sr. Bush.
The economy was moving in the right direction BEFORE Clinton took office. Clinton came in and did some tweaking.
Welfare reform did not place woman into good jobs that took them out of poverty. What it did was take poor woman place them into temporary/low paying jobs and forced them to place their children in bad daycare situations.
It took away the education option that used to count as work (the only thing that has been proven to get single mothers out of poverty) and many people were unemployed but because they weren't looking for work didn't compute in the unemployment numbers.
I could go on but there are plenty of non-partisan studies out there that looked at the effects of the 1996 Welfare Reform.
I've read several.
What exactly has Hilary done for Women?
Give me some examples please?
I can run down a whole list of things that she has done that's against women, blacks, hell America in general.
The Clinton's are NOT a fan of Black folk and in no way deserve our admiration or loyalty.
JJ,
I have to disagree with the part about Bush Sr being responsible for the growth of the black middle class.
My undergraduate degree is in economics, and I went to school in the Clinton years -- so I spent 3 years discussing nothing but the Reagan, Bush & Clinton economic policies.
I don't want to write a treatise on economics here in this blog, but the economy was NOT going in the right direction when Clinton went into office. That is a falsehood an a re-writing of history by the Republican spin doctors.
Hmmm and maybe I should also disagree with the 'bad daycare situations' -- because my mother runs a daycare that has quite a few kids who are paid for by government funding -- and the care that they get there is clearly light years better than anything they ever get at home.
Post a Comment