TheLoop21.com

By: devona walker (follow this member)
Mon, 01/25/2010 - 19:48

 So, here's me playing the race card. And I apologize in advance. But I gotta ask. Would progressives be so willing to turn their backs on Barack Obama if he were white? Would opposition on the right be so thoroughly unified, if they were not uniting to destroy the black president's administration? Would the media be so quick to dissect every move and play up every ounce of dissent if Obama was not the first "black" president? If he were, let's say, Bill Clinton, would he at least be given credit for saving the nation from certain financial ruin? If it were, let's say, Ralph Nader's pinto-driving-ass who had announced a spending freeze would they be calling him Herbert Hoover?

You thought you had it bad, going into work 30 minutes early, staying 30 minutes late, just to make sure your boss realizes you weren't a "lazy negro." Well, Obama is paying the ultimate black tax. 

He would have to perform miracles, then mainstream America would only consider him marginally competent. He would have had to deliver every single issue to his progressive base to keep them on board, and then they would likely still be sending love letters to Dennis Kucinich. And black folks, what's up with you? I can't help but think that perhaps Cornell West and members of the Congressional Black Caucus might just be suffering from a dose of haterism as they, in near unison, decide to start pulling his card. The media is already referring to him as a one-term president and the man is only one-fourth of the way through his first term.

The president's fall from grace.

Well, no one is calling him Barack the Magic Negro anymore that's for sure. But the reality is, the president is exactly now where Ronald Reagan was during his first term in office. And Reagan didn't have to do deal with a minority party singularly focused on bringing him down and a fickle Democratic base.

Obama's gotta deliver, that I understand. But what amazes me is how progressives are actually blaming the president for losses in Virginia, New Jersey and last week's loss in Massachusetts. It's progressives, the most vocal minority in U.S. history with the exception of the Christian right, who are clearly making governing this country impossible. They are incapable of compromising. They are literally just as hard-headed as the far right. If you consider their tempermental nature, impatience and tendency to grandstand, they are actually more annoying than the far right.

I won't blame them for the loss of independent voters, as I honestly believe independents are just Republicans who were just so pissed off at Bush that they voted for the other guy out of spite. But how can Obama be such a fire-breathing liberal to conservatives yet the liberals are acting as if he lied, cheated then stole their Prius and left them stranded on the side of the road. 

The truth is: The country is a mess. It's been a mess for years. Bush wasn't minding the store. Cheney was terrorizing the world. And no one seemed to give a crap. Until now, until they decided to put a black man in the White House. And now they are chomping at the bit to blame the black guy. I can just hear them now. We gave him a shot. He failed. He wasn't liberal enough. He was too liberal. He was a Muslim. He wasn't one of us. He was too professorial. He was too cool, too limp, too aloof. We tried. It didn't work. Now let's find someone to run against him in 2012.
"Sure, a Warren campaign would provoke guffaws from the right: What does a Harvard professor really know about an economic crisis? Yet underneath the polished pedigree is a teenage bride from Oklahoma. She’s as much an everyday person as Scott Brown; she just happens to be a brilliant scholar as well. When she’s championing the middle class, she’s not doing so because it’s politically expedient, but because she feels connected to it in a way few politicians are. And she has the intellectual chops to convert that connection into dramatic policy change. Sadly, few politicians can say that, either."

That's from the Daily KOs. It looks like they are already fishing for a new liberal savior to replace the fake populist Obama. I know it's not cool to play the race card every single time, but the level of rancor from the left is just maddening. It's only been a year and the netroots are a net drag and a big pain in the ass. 

Devona Walker is theloop21.com's senior finance and political reporter. She has worked for The Associated Press and the New York Times Company. She may be reached at devona@theloop21.com