Win or Lose, I "Tremble" for My Country

Election Day 2008 is upon us. I have been predicting a McCain/Palin victory for quite some time, and I stand by that prediction. However, the brute fact of the matter is that, God help us all, I could be wrong and Barack H. Obama could be the next president of the United States.

Regardless of what scenario unfolds, one thing is certain: the “post-racial” America at which Obama’s candidacy allegedly intimated will have receded ever further from our sights.

If Obama suffers a loss, his supporters generally, and his black supporters in particular, will insist, unabashedly, indignantly, incessantly, that it was because of “racism.” A Democratic-friendly media that has spent decades nurturing and shaping our culture’s “politically correct” orthodoxy, as well as, more recently, Obama’s pubic facade, will all too happily facilitate this insidious fiction. Distrust and unease between blacks and whites will deepen.

If, on the other hand, Obama prevails, then inter-racial tensions -- over the long run, in any event -- will worsen to an extent perhaps even greater than that to which they will worsen in the wake of his defeat. This may sound counter intuitive to some, but there is some reasoning to my madness.

While Obama the man, in spite of being bi-racial, is self-consciously, almost obsessively, “black,” the symbolism of an Obama presidency is of virtually infinite richness insofar as it conveys to both our nation and the world the unmistakable message that the United States of America has truly transcended race and, thus, “racism.” An Obama presidency will prove that white Americans aren’t just talking the talk, as they say, but walking the walk when it comes to race and “racism.”

There are heavily entrenched “special interests,” however, that will fight tooth and nail to prevent this perception from taking hold. The self-understandings, power, and financial well-being of numerous academics, media personalities, Hollywood celebrities, “civil rights” advocates, and political activists vitally depend upon preserving and strengthening the impression that America has always been and remains an incorrigibly “racist” society.

Thus, if Obama wins by less than what had been forecasted, there will be some who will attribute that to “racism.” Criticisms aimed at his policy decisions and judicial appointments (which, for Obama, are one and the same), or his selection of cabinet members, will be dismissed as expressions of “racism.” Since, up until this time, at any rate, the charge of “racism” has been powerful enough to stop many whites, especially whites in the “media,” dead in their tracks, a chill threatens to overcome our political discourse. This can only exacerbate inter-racial relations and engender resentment on the part of those being intimidated into silence.

President Obama, given his life long yearning to achieve “authentic blackness,” a goal which in turn requires a leftist political disposition (if not necessarily a leftist ideology), will do nothing to better this situation. In fact, he will only make it worse.

Anyone who has read his Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, and followed his life since then, knows that Obama believes that America is a country in dire need of “fundamental transformation,” or “Change.” That is, he believes that America continues to be guilty of great “racial injustice.” Far from being the “trans-racial” unifier that he once purported to be, Obama is a racialist of the first magnitude, a black racialist who differs from the Al Sharptons, Jesse Jacksons, Jeremiah Wrights, and Louis Farrakhans of the world only in degree, not kind.

Thomas Jefferson once said that his country’s practice of slavery made him “tremble” for it. On this Election Day eve, I can honestly say that I tremble for my country, whether Obama loses or, especially, if he wins.