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Thursday, November 19, 2009
It hardly seems a week since hearing about these radical Black conservatives on "Glenn Beck" on Fox News, yet we continue to see evidence that only is there a pocket of African-Americans that did not support Obama's rise to the presidency in 2008, but there is a growing number of African-Americans - and others previous supporters - that are going weary today due to President Obama's failure to produce promised results.
Exhibit D as to why I can support Mr. Obama respectfully as the President of the United States yet I cannot get behind his philosophies, his politics, and his directives for this country.
And, sadly for a growing number of his supporters, they are feeling a bit of what I have been exhibiting for a while in regards to this president.
Disillusionment.
Perhaps they are starting to discover what many others in America felt back in November 2008: the poise is impressive, but the policies are misguided for a nation at a time of great need.
On Tuesday, organizations such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the National Council of La Raza - three organizations that lined up behind President Obama if there were every any that did in 2008 - came out to criticize the White House this past Tuesday for its failure to stimulate job growth with its nearly $800 billion bailout package earlier this year, even as Wall Street has recovered during this period of growing unemployment. Cautious to agitate the administration, groups such as the NAACP stated that they merely want to prod the president in a direction he already seems willing to move in.
However, according to much of America - and now supporters such as these three organizations - a direction not pursued enough despite the record level of spending coming from the supermajority in Washington led by the first Black president.
What is striking to me in view of the "Time to Be Heard" show last Friday is this: the issue of race is always a talking point whenever criticism of Black Republicans and conservatives such as Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell, and Condi Rice are mentioned, yet race must be avoided whenever criticism of President Obama is noted. Regardless of the egg-shell walk that America is prompted to take on while engaging this president, the results are becoming clearer each day: the level of spending coming from Washington without the campaigned-upon results are making even the strongest of supporters walk away from the president's corner - albeit slowly - as the economic snowball of unemployment and shrinking prosperity for everyday Americans builds.
The inspiration that President Obama embodied as a candidate in 2008 has clearly become disillusionment in 2009 as more minorities, young voters, and crossover voters stoke their disappointment and disapproval of the bailout scenarios of 2009, particularly as they have seen their jobs continue to disappear. The pride of Black America oversaw the exodus of jobs from Black America as he jammed through a historic spending bill with the use of the electoral supermajority on Capitol Hill. The numbers of unemployed Americans - particularly those represented by the NAACP, AFL-CIO, and La Raza - months after the stimulus was passed is frightening. For example, South Carolina - a state that played a key role in Obama's primary victory over now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - has a Black unemployment over 20%. Michigan - a state that handled over 17 votes on Obama's march to 270 in November 2008 - has a Black unemployment rate of nearly 25%. Those that wore the Obama paraphernalia in November 2008 are now wearing those shirts and hats in extended unemployment lines despite the record level of voter turnout, campaign spending, and government spending stimulated by Mr. Obama.
Slowly, they are discovering that the "we" in "Change We Can Believe In" did not include as many of the underclass and working class of America as we thought just a short time ago.
These folks - the under-appreciated "we" - do not need the doled-out figures of jobs that are "saved" in the president's stimulus package, particularly as we discover that many of those numbers listed by the White House are invalid. These folks - as well as many others Americans - need to see directives that will create and sustain full-time employment opportunities for the nation to enjoy. That is how America will bounce back, not with a round of rhetoric, a pound of television persona, and a ton of government spending.
As some of the president's staunchest non-political allies start to increase pressure on the White House, the rest of America must take notice and push their governments away from this current legislative path, lest we seek to embrace another exhibit in the "why can't you support the president's policies?"
Exhibit EED: Enduring Economic Downturn
It hardly seems a week since hearing about these radical Black conservatives on "Glenn Beck" on Fox News, yet we continue to see evidence that only is there a pocket of African-Americans that did not support Obama's rise to the presidency in 2008, but there is a growing number of African-Americans - and others previous supporters - that are going weary today due to President Obama's failure to produce promised results.
Exhibit D as to why I can support Mr. Obama respectfully as the President of the United States yet I cannot get behind his philosophies, his politics, and his directives for this country.
And, sadly for a growing number of his supporters, they are feeling a bit of what I have been exhibiting for a while in regards to this president.
Disillusionment.
Perhaps they are starting to discover what many others in America felt back in November 2008: the poise is impressive, but the policies are misguided for a nation at a time of great need.
On Tuesday, organizations such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, and the National Council of La Raza - three organizations that lined up behind President Obama if there were every any that did in 2008 - came out to criticize the White House this past Tuesday for its failure to stimulate job growth with its nearly $800 billion bailout package earlier this year, even as Wall Street has recovered during this period of growing unemployment. Cautious to agitate the administration, groups such as the NAACP stated that they merely want to prod the president in a direction he already seems willing to move in.
However, according to much of America - and now supporters such as these three organizations - a direction not pursued enough despite the record level of spending coming from the supermajority in Washington led by the first Black president.
What is striking to me in view of the "Time to Be Heard" show last Friday is this: the issue of race is always a talking point whenever criticism of Black Republicans and conservatives such as Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell, and Condi Rice are mentioned, yet race must be avoided whenever criticism of President Obama is noted. Regardless of the egg-shell walk that America is prompted to take on while engaging this president, the results are becoming clearer each day: the level of spending coming from Washington without the campaigned-upon results are making even the strongest of supporters walk away from the president's corner - albeit slowly - as the economic snowball of unemployment and shrinking prosperity for everyday Americans builds.
The inspiration that President Obama embodied as a candidate in 2008 has clearly become disillusionment in 2009 as more minorities, young voters, and crossover voters stoke their disappointment and disapproval of the bailout scenarios of 2009, particularly as they have seen their jobs continue to disappear. The pride of Black America oversaw the exodus of jobs from Black America as he jammed through a historic spending bill with the use of the electoral supermajority on Capitol Hill. The numbers of unemployed Americans - particularly those represented by the NAACP, AFL-CIO, and La Raza - months after the stimulus was passed is frightening. For example, South Carolina - a state that played a key role in Obama's primary victory over now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - has a Black unemployment over 20%. Michigan - a state that handled over 17 votes on Obama's march to 270 in November 2008 - has a Black unemployment rate of nearly 25%. Those that wore the Obama paraphernalia in November 2008 are now wearing those shirts and hats in extended unemployment lines despite the record level of voter turnout, campaign spending, and government spending stimulated by Mr. Obama.
Slowly, they are discovering that the "we" in "Change We Can Believe In" did not include as many of the underclass and working class of America as we thought just a short time ago.
These folks - the under-appreciated "we" - do not need the doled-out figures of jobs that are "saved" in the president's stimulus package, particularly as we discover that many of those numbers listed by the White House are invalid. These folks - as well as many others Americans - need to see directives that will create and sustain full-time employment opportunities for the nation to enjoy. That is how America will bounce back, not with a round of rhetoric, a pound of television persona, and a ton of government spending.
As some of the president's staunchest non-political allies start to increase pressure on the White House, the rest of America must take notice and push their governments away from this current legislative path, lest we seek to embrace another exhibit in the "why can't you support the president's policies?"
Exhibit EED: Enduring Economic Downturn
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