Last June a fellow (liberal) blogger and I had discussed writing an ebook together for release on Amazon's service for the Kindle. He got sick for a while and then I had cancer a couple months after that and unfortunately, the book never came to fruition.
The premise was how Generation Y, from both sides of the aisle, can come together and agree on key points, then discuss and come to an agreement that works out best for both parties. It is a tough thing when you are polar opposites, but that is why it was important for us to try and write this.
I wanted to give you a preview of the first chapter, on President Obama, and my write up. I might continue to write my perspective on other chapters like health care and immigration but I unfortunately can not include my friend's response because he invested his time into the writing and it would be wrong for me to post that on my site without his cooperation.
I hope you enjoy this though, let me know your thoughts!
Chapter 1
President Barack Hussein Obama
This chapter on Obama, if written by a liberal as a representative for me, would be summed up in three words on why I don't like Obama, because "I'm a racist". Just one of the many false statements thrown around by the Left to sway the voters of America. The truth of the matter is that both political parties have a racist past that neither can escape. However I feel that neither party is racist today. As a matter of fact, if you take a close look at how the Left uses the language of racism to scare voters from the republican vote, I would actually refer to that as "racism", using minorities as chess pieces in a game for political gain. The Democrats made a smart political choice in the primaries to push a black candidate and a woman candidate because they thought it would be the perfect storm against the Republican ticket. They almost overplayed their cards by pitting the two choices against each other, tearing apart the Democrat party. What was shown that people were so sick of the Bush administration that they were willing to accept anything on the opposite ticket. There was also a good percentage of people who voted for Obama based purely on the fact that they wanted to make history and see the first black president, though they rarely admit it.
Barack Obama is an intriguing character, that is for sure. I have no doubt that he is a good family man and was probably one hell of a college professor. I think I would have had a blast if I was one of his students. I also respect the fact that he decided against releasing the photos of the abused prisoners in Iraq, which would have lead to a propaganda mess and recruitment tool for the terrorist. Another policy that I agree with is the electronic transfer of patient's medical records to streamline the medical field, it just makes sense and should have been done years ago! This is where my fondness of Obama ends. There just isn't anything else about him or his policies that make sense, to me, for him to be our president.
While his followers will undoubtedly state that his personal history says nothing of the character of the man, I completely disagree. Obama has had a radical past through acquaintances and lifestyle choices. The shady characters he was aquatinted with, his religious background, his racist tendencies, his short political background and lack of experience all feed into the "cons" portion of the attributes list that most voters chose to ignore.
Obama's "Friends"
You would think that being friends with a professor at a large university wouldn't be that big of a deal, you would be wrong. William Ayers, an unrepentant domestic terrorist of the Weather Underground has been friends with Obama for some years and coincidentally helped launch Obama's political career. Obama and Ayers also served on the same board, the Chicago's Annenbergh Challenge project, where they funneled money, for an education fund, instead to the radical community organizers group ACORN, which is currently under investigation for "voter fraud" in the 2008 election. I should also mention that ACORN is, for now, the group in charge of the Census, coincidence? Their paths also crossed again on another board, the Woods Fund, which among it's recipients was Jeremiah Wright's, Trinity Church for a Children and Family Justice Center where Ayer's wife worked. Money was circled back around to benefit Ayer's wife and Obama's church. I am guessing that Ayer's wife working at the Trinity Church, a black liberation theology church, is not a coincidence.
State Senator, Alice Palmer, introduced Barack Obama at a "political coming out" party in the living room of Bill Ayers, which was the launch of his political career. The only distance that Obama put between himself and this terrorist is when he said " I was only 8 years old when these horrible things (domestic bombings by Ayers) happened", and that Ayers is "Just a guy who lives in the neighborhood". This is a shoddy attempt at distancing himself. To me, it seems that he then had a lifetime to realize this was a bad character and to stay away from him. Instead, he believes that the man is a born-again American that can be forgiven. Maybe, except for the fact that in a 2001 interview that was released on September 11th, of all days, he said "I wish we had done more", in referring to his Weather Underground domestic terrorism days.
Tony Rezko, a Chicago slumlord now serving time, secured Obama a sweetheart deal on his $1 million+ home. This saved Obama over $300,000 on the home. Rezko bought the adjacent lot at the same time. It was "coincidentally" too small to develop on, so he sold it to Obama at a low price. Maybe if all of these other associations never happened I would be able to brush this aside and say that Obama just got lucky. However, I know that one plus one equals two.
Mothers have said throughout time, "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are". If these are the types of friends that Obama has, and recent news on the happenings of ACORN are true, what does that tell us of our current President?
Obama's Religious Background
If there was one problem I had with my party's reaction to Obama during the primaries it was that Obama was "secretly a muslim terrorist". If there were two problems, I would probably also go with the "Birthers" that want to see his official birth certificate. Listening to those kooks and labeling the party based on them is just like labeling all democrats as "lazy, hippie, peace-loving whiners", it is an offensive blanket statement. The biggest problem I had was with his Christian religion!
Obama prayed in his car, to God, whether Trinity United Church of Christ, overseen by Reverend Wright, and black liberation theology was right for him. He wrote that in his book, he also reads it aloud in the audio version. Sometimes I don't even know where to start explaining this relationship to people, who were too enthralled, with Obama to realize it at the time. Wright says that in order to understand Black Liberation Theology, what he lives by, you must read the words of James Cones. So according to James Cones:
"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."
Wright has been plastered across the television networks and YouTube throughout the past two years now for good reason, he believes that America is out to get black people and that his church is the only refuge. The sermon on the Sunday after 9/11, Wright said that "America's chickens have come home to roost" and "Not God Bless America, God Damn America".
In order to show full support of Obama and his hatred for any white candidate running against him, he also said in reference to Hilary Clinton "She doesn't know what it's like to be called a "Nigger"". Wright's outright hatred of the white race seemed apparent in almost any clip you watch of him on the internet. It may be that those are the only ones available, but where are the others then?
When Obama was asked to disown his pastor, the first time, he said "I can no more disown my pastor than I could the black community" and "that is not the Rev. Wright that I have known for 20 years". How can you sit in a church for 20 years and not hear this kind of vulgarity? How could you allow your children to listen to such hateful sermons under the guise of Christ?
Eventually, Obama said that the continuous comments of Wright were wrong and he disowned him, without apparently disowning the black community. Most recently Wright was heard to say that the reason he can't communicate with Obama in the White House is because "Them Jews keep me from talking to him (Obama)". Classy.
In cases of politicians, I typically try and stay away from the candidate's family because they are "unintentionally" put into the spotlight. With Michelle Obama, however, I feel that she went out to campaign for Obama and therefore put herself into the spotlight and nullifying her chance to hide under the "family is off limits" umbrella. Take it as you will when Obama's wife said "For the first time, I can say that I am really proud of my country" when speaking of Barack's chances.
When speaking of the racial tensions that he has experienced in his past, Obama was said to "thrown his grandmother under the bus" when he said that she has made comments that "make my head turn", in reference to racist remarks. He didn't help his case when he tried to clear that up by saying that "She (his grandmother) is a typical white person who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that doesn't go away and that sometimes comes out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society." Essentially, saying that she is a "typical" white person, he means that the majority of white people hold racist tendencies.
The case couldn't hit closer to home when Obama was in the western part of Pennsylvania, my home state, with a group of elitist fundraisers in what was supposed to be a "closed door" fundraiser and he made the comment "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, and it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." This helped make it a blanket statement that those that don't vote for him are just a bunch of redneck racists who can't handle having a black president, which would void all my words up to this point apparently.
I want to cover the policies that I have the most problems with when it comes to President Obama. Some of these policies I found so offensive that, they alone, would be enough for me to oppose him being president without even looking into his background history. If people feel that policies are most important and character isn't, these should also have been enough to keep him out of office.
Eight years.
That is how long it took for Obama to rise through a political system to become President. Essentially a shorter amount of time than the two terms of any President! From Illinois State Senator to US Senator to President. He only served between 140-150 days (in other words 41% of a year) on the floor as US Senator, total, before stepping into the shoes of President. During his time, the man who is supposed to "lead" us, voted "present" instead of "yes" or "no", on legislation, about 170 times. It was a calculated effort, from the beginning, to show that he was neither "for" nor "against" any voters in the future, it was a cop-out.
When Obama was asked to disown his pastor, the first time, he said "I can no more disown my pastor than I could the black community" and "that is not the Rev. Wright that I have known for 20 years". How can you sit in a church for 20 years and not hear this kind of vulgarity? How could you allow your children to listen to such hateful sermons under the guise of Christ?
Eventually, Obama said that the continuous comments of Wright were wrong and he disowned him, without apparently disowning the black community. Most recently Wright was heard to say that the reason he can't communicate with Obama in the White House is because "Them Jews keep me from talking to him (Obama)". Classy.
Obama's Racist Tendencies
In cases of politicians, I typically try and stay away from the candidate's family because they are "unintentionally" put into the spotlight. With Michelle Obama, however, I feel that she went out to campaign for Obama and therefore put herself into the spotlight and nullifying her chance to hide under the "family is off limits" umbrella. Take it as you will when Obama's wife said "For the first time, I can say that I am really proud of my country" when speaking of Barack's chances.
When speaking of the racial tensions that he has experienced in his past, Obama was said to "thrown his grandmother under the bus" when he said that she has made comments that "make my head turn", in reference to racist remarks. He didn't help his case when he tried to clear that up by saying that "She (his grandmother) is a typical white person who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that doesn't go away and that sometimes comes out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society." Essentially, saying that she is a "typical" white person, he means that the majority of white people hold racist tendencies.
The case couldn't hit closer to home when Obama was in the western part of Pennsylvania, my home state, with a group of elitist fundraisers in what was supposed to be a "closed door" fundraiser and he made the comment "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, and it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." This helped make it a blanket statement that those that don't vote for him are just a bunch of redneck racists who can't handle having a black president, which would void all my words up to this point apparently.
Obama's Policies
I want to cover the policies that I have the most problems with when it comes to President Obama. Some of these policies I found so offensive that, they alone, would be enough for me to oppose him being president without even looking into his background history. If people feel that policies are most important and character isn't, these should also have been enough to keep him out of office.
Eight years.
That is how long it took for Obama to rise through a political system to become President. Essentially a shorter amount of time than the two terms of any President! From Illinois State Senator to US Senator to President. He only served between 140-150 days (in other words 41% of a year) on the floor as US Senator, total, before stepping into the shoes of President. During his time, the man who is supposed to "lead" us, voted "present" instead of "yes" or "no", on legislation, about 170 times. It was a calculated effort, from the beginning, to show that he was neither "for" nor "against" any voters in the future, it was a cop-out.
What scares me most about Obama's personal beliefs to be mirrored in his policies domestically is his stance on abortion. He has blocked legislation that would prevent late-term abortions, those made in the second and third trimester! I am against any abortion at all but to perform this nearer to the date of birth is absolutely disgusting. The case presented to him was of an abortion that went wrong, the baby was born and then put into the hospital linen closet to die. The reasoning was that it shouldn't have lived through the birth to begin with. Unbelievable. Obama has brought the message closer to his home by saying "I have two daughters and I will teach them all I can but if they mess up, I don't want them punished with a baby!". Punished? Having a baby is punishment for what exactly? Risky behavior in the first place? These are the true colors of Obama's abortion policies.
Why be scared of his domestic policies. when his foreign policies are enough to get us "nuked"? Obama has made it abundantly clear that he would like the United States to take a nuclear arms option completely off the table. This, only seven years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil. We also happen to be fighting a war in two countries and worrying about fronts in at least 3 more, including North Korea whom have threatened us and are already test launching missiles over the heads of the Japanese and Chinese. The enemy's knowledge that we possess weapons and are willing to use them is typically enough to deter them from acquiring and/or using their weapons in the first place. Let's just throw that card out the window.
What you must take away from this chapter is that there are racists in this country but the conservatives in the Boomer generation through ours are more and more tolerant. The reason we were against Obama had nothing to do with the color of his skin and everything to do with the content of his character, I got that from another great man who happened to not be "white". Instead of resorting to the typical blanket statements and name calling, we need to have a civil debate on the policies and actions of our candidates to cut through all of the BS that is found on the internet and in the coffee break rooms across this country.
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