Somewhere, Dr King is smiling

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:31 pm

Somewhere, the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr is smiling. His dream hasn't come true yet, but we did make a significant step in that direction yesterday.

Politics aside, this was a "shining moment" in the history of The USA. Every now and then, amid all the corruption and incredibly petty Hollywood scandals, we get it right.

Every now and then, we actually sort of kind of live up to what the Founding Fathers wanted our country to be.

You don't see a child of Gujarati or Bengali immigrants sitting at 10 Downing. You don't see the son or daughter of Algerian immigrants serving as PM of France. No Turk has ever been Chancellor of Germany.

But in the USA, for all our grievous faults, (and they are legion), every now and then, we get it right.

Quintus · Post by **Quintus** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 6:51 pm

Yeah well before you get too carried away you don't see a daughter of anyone as President of the USA. America is a bit behind in the equal opps stakes: India had a Prime Minister in Indira Ghandi, the United Kingdom had a Prime Minister in Margaret Thatcher and Pakistan a Prime Minister in Benazir Bhutto.

I don't think that Obama was the children of immigrants either but the child of an immigrant father and an American mother, there is a certain difference at this stage of migration to (and assimilation into) Western countries.

More seriously though as a non-US citizen I couldn't give two hoots about his pedigree, I'm just interested to see if he will be any good - it shouldn't be too difficult to be an improvement on the last incumbent of the White House. Time will tell if you have got it right.

Sorry - I couldn't resist that, but as to your first point, yes, Martin Luther King would be proud and also those who exerted themselves in the cause of civil rights so long ago.

joerock22 · Post by **joerock22** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:35 pm

I agree Dr. King would be proud, but I hope people didn't vote for Obama just because they wanted it to be so. I'm white and I ignored race altogether. I voted for Obama because I looked at where both sides stood on key issues and liked Obama's views better.

Of course, I know there were thousands of hicks and racists who voted for McCain just because they didn't want an African American President. Ideally, no American voter would give a crap about race (or gender). People would vote on what each candidate said, how they fared in debates, and what they stood for. OK, now that I've forever branded myself as an idealist, I'll end my political commentary.

zachanscom · Post by **zachanscom** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:52 pm

i think it was a sham. it's impossible not to involve race in this because it was the reason obama won. well there are 2 main factors. his powerful rhetorical abilities and his skin color. he was able to convince the people of change, and his physical appearance reflected this. so far, this change he promised hasn't resulted in a whole lot. he just received the nobel peace prize for doing nothing, basically.(my hypothesis is that this is more of a way for them to exert control over obama, to coerce him into doing "peaceful" policies lest he look undeserving of the award, but this is for another discussion)

he claims to be looking out for the working class, but they have been screwed the most, even worse than under bush or clinton. he didn't bring change, he's the same as all the other recent presidents, doing whatever to preserve their own power, even if that means reneging on recurrent campaign promises. he obviously doesn't have much regard for the intelligence of the american public.

obama was a product of the media. the marketing slogan used to sell him was race and change. but all you have to do if look at the people he associates with, a racist pastor and a former terrorist who blew up a police station and claims he'd do it again. this guy is one step above liberal college student in his ideology and 2 steps below bush in his administrative abilities.

a black president? so what. "judge not a person by the color of their skin but by the contents of their character"

randynovotny · Post by **randynovotny** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:29 pm

I feel this is not the place to be discussing politics. this discussion needs top go to another forum, especially since it's about politics and race and has nothing to do with the Slitherine products.

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:45 pm

Well this is the off-topic forum after all, but the fact is that this thread was dead and buried before zachanscom resurrected it... and maybe dead is where it belongs.