AMERICA HATES THE POOR WHILE REPUBLICANS HOLD UP OBAMA

Four years ago Rahm Emmanuel walked away with almost all the black votes in his successful bid to become mayor of Chicago, thanks primarily to support from Barak Obama who could do no wrong in the eyes of many, if not most, black folks.  Today Emmanuel has won reelection, but had to endure a runoff, despite having received similar support from Obama.  While Obama has done  a relatively decent job as president, only the intentionally blind and deaf within the African American community can deny that he has completely ignored his promise to the Black and poor of this nation.  Still, he enjoys considerable, if not absolute support from the community due, in large part, to the efforts of one group that has worked tirelessly since Obama’s initial election to ensure that he remain a beloved and sympathetic figure within the African American community.  Of course there is only one group that has the will, the where-withal, and the tenacity to uplift Obama in the black community this way:  the Right Wing Republicans.  By refusing to acknowledge his right to govern (and by extension the rights and citizenship of all African Americans) the Republicans continue to dilute whatever anger and/or disillusionment that might have accrued in the black community.  While currying favor from the establishment that will never grant it, Obama has ignored the plight of black folks and cut aide to the poor (whom I have never heard him mention since he’s been in office.)  Yet the Republicans continue to attack him for being the revolutionary that we all had hoped he might have been.

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 Speaking of the poor, one of the more remarkable aspects of American insanity is often expressed in the hostility toward poor people.  Ronald Reagan rode off into the sunset as one of America’s greatest heroes simply by equating all poor folks with black folks, then blaming all of America’s economic issues on imaginary black welfare cheats, even as bankers and financiers stole billions.   Whether it is drug testing for Aid recipients or legislation proposed by Missouri Republicans banning seafood and steak purchases with food stamps, this country continues to find ways to express its disdain for the economically disadvantaged.  

Could there be other reasons for this animosity beyond the racism?  I believe this hostility is yet another battle in the over arching war over control of reality.  Simply put, if one believes that America is the land of golden opportunity for all, then there is no excuse for being poor.  The blame has to fall upon the poor themselves or the American system.  Since the American system is perfect … 

This notion that America can do no wrong (because they say it can do no wrong) is older than America herself.  It was conceived in hubris, weaned on arrogance, bathed in privilege and clothed in entitlement. American mythology allowed a slave owner to write that “all men are created equal.” It is the reason President Nixon could say that if the president does it, it  is not illegal.  It is the groundwork for Dick Cheney being allowed to blame all of his Iraq War mess on Barak Obama.   It is the basis for Triple R (Rabid Racist Rush) Limbaugh declaring that white people are the only victims of racism in America.  This concept of defining reality is descended from the Manifest Destiny Doctrine, but can also trace its roots all the way back to the Old Testament concept of the Chosen People.  Yet, they have even transcended the Chosen People motif and moved into the god-like realm.   They believe they have only to speak for a thing to be or not to be.

This constructed reality has only one major weakness.  Like the Emperor’s New Clothes, it requires agreement to be maintained.  Poor people, Black people, Indians.  Anybody not included in the American Dream must be marginalized or destroyed, because, by their very existence they threaten the legitimacy of the constructed reality.   There is a precise technical term for this tendency to create reality that in no way correlates to what transpires in the material world: madness!

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