Thursday, June 05, 2008

'Bout Right

This cartoon appeared in Business Day (South Africa) yesterday.

10 comments:

Dione said...

With two non choices such as these, America will certainly need the world's prayers- not that we would get them.

Do we pick the experienced candidate McCain that we do not trust, or do we pick the inexperienced candidate Obama that we clearly can not trust?

I wish I could support Obama, but I can't support someone who surrounds themself with individuals who hate America. The job of the president requires you to be a diplomatic leader, a quick thinker and problem solver. Obama isn't capable. McCain, he is capable, however he is more of the same going to war, and the downward spiral of our ecomony. A lot will depend on who these candidates pick for their potential vice president. I can't support any of this.

I'm worried about these next four years, and everyone else needs to be too!

Dione

Anonymous said...

You're silly!!!

Happy Birthday!

Ridwan said...

Thanks for your comment. I agree that these two offer more of the same. But so did Clinton in my opinion.

Nontheless, Obama is better than McCain in the lesser of evils count, and perhaps more so.

But judging from his comments to AIPAC, I am not feeling him at all (not that I ever did).

He remains a sell-out and that is bad for people of color in the US.

Did I miss something though? You say 'he surrounds himself with people who hate the US,' is this true?

If you meant Pastor Wright I think that is not so. Wright is more on-track about America's history than Obama.

I like what Glenn Ford has written. He says that if Obama is right about the Black context in America then it means that almost every Black person in wrong.

Obama is just a myth. A creation of the white imagination. That is why he is around.

And that is not "change I can believe in" ...

Peace to you.

Ridwan

Ridwan said...

Yeah I am silly Erica. You know that.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I am ever so grateful.

But no cake huh? Just jiving :0)

Peace Erica,
Ridwan

Dade Cariaga said...

Dione's apparent preference for McCain over Obama is mind-blowing. McCain is barely able to obscure his rapidly advancing dementia, let alone "think on his feet." And who is Dione referring to, when saying that Obama is surrounded by "people who hate America?" (That is a pretty ignorant statement, IMHO.)

I'm disappointed with Obama's AIPAC kow-towing, and it definitely helps dispel some of the (admitedly naive) hopes I had about him. But the political reality in the United States, is that the pro-Israeli lobby seems to be all-powerful. If it is ever challenged, it may prove to be chimeric, but no one seems ready to take it on.

Obama is still the only chance we have to save this country. He is flawed, of course. But, at least, if he were President, there is a chance that he would be open to hearing what progressives have to say. With McCain, we would only get the back of his liver-spotted hand.

Ridwan said...

Dade I wrote a lengthy comment at your spot about Obama and Aipac (excellent post by the way).

He more than disappointed me. I was in a room of South Africans when we wathced his speech.

Folks were shouting insults at him and a few looked downright angry.

Then this morning there was a headline calling him an "African son."

Don't mean much to me. Mugabe is also and "African son" ...

I think we need to ask questions of the democrats; Why have they not produced a kind of leadership that is different than the republicans, for example?

I know that the line between them grew less and less apparent under Bill.

And I know that Obama thinks Reagan was more than Bill.

It is an embarrasment that the liberal establishment looks no better than the republicans.

The problem is perhaps more complex than the obvious players on the stage. Maybe we should be asking why there are no other viable parties in the US.

Perhaps Hillary should think about busting out and running as an independent. I don't think she will, she is an establishment player.

I think Dione is frustated by the process and the choices that are standing. She is not alone but would be mistaken to view McCain as a viable choice (I hear her on prayer).

I can vote but won't. To me these are not viable choices.

Obama on Palestine is a dismal horror and a wholesale selling of liberal democracy's interest in human rights and the rule of law.

McCain is sure to be worse if one can imagine what that may look like.

I am sad brother. Sad not only for those who care about change in the US, but for the rest of the world where the likes of McCain have brought so much pain and dispair.

Thanks for your comment Dade.

Peace,
Ridwan

Shus li said...

Up until now, Obama hasn't done anything so offensive to me that I might not vote for him. But this blind support of Israel IS just such an offense.

But there are things I don't countenance as legitimate complaints about Obama, including that he is at the same time a "radical Muslim" and an Uncle Tom style sellout.

What amazes me is the amount of criticism he receives while McCain goes virtually unnoticed as he craps red white and blue in his incontinence brief and drools over pushing the button on Iran. He looks like a bad resurrection of Steve Martin in a Stephen King movie or something. Think Pet Sematary.

Had to get that off my chest.

Peace/Out

Shusli

Ridwan said...

Shusli thanks for your comment.

You are right about McCain, he is not nearly called out enough.

I think the Obama-Clinton circus has been front and center for 5 months and he has been exempted to a large extent because of it.

But I expect that he will not be untouched as the weeks progress.

Obama is far from being Muslim, radical, or radical Muslim. I did not receive any of those emails that made the rounds, thankfully.

Still, I absolutely think that the criticism that says he is an Uncle Tom is not only legitimate but it is an astute assessment in terms which relate to that character and the history of Blackness in the US.

Obama's firing of Pastor Wright and his exit from a church that was the base for much of his political career is testament to what he values most, whiteness.

At the heart of being an Uncle Tom is the political bearing to appease whiteness at all costs.

Obama has proven this to be very much part of what he represents.

And this includes his ardent support for Israel.

Peace to you Shusli,
Ridwan

Shus li said...

Perhaps, and yet Obama IS black. That fact cannot be changed either because of his politics, his pale skin color, or his White grandma.

The fact that he is in mainstream politics automatically means he has sold whatever soul he had and has bought into the system and power structure (which of course confers white privilege) as it is. It wouldn't matter if he were Native American or Asian, either - the net results would be the same. He would be the same race (which is constructed anyway), but he would be a player for the status quo.

By the way, I'm for tearing down the status quo. It's not collapsing fast enough on its own.

Respectfully,
Shusli

Ridwan said...

Yes Obama is Black and that goes without question.

But Uncle Tom (the literary character and the political symbol) was Black and remained Black.

There is no one unified Blackness, and it is not a skin color in total.

It is, in the main, a history and a politics.

Calling Barack a sell-out and referencing his beige politics (both of which I have done here) are not pathways for stripping his Blackness.

And here I refer to the historical and not biological context of his Blackness.

I absolutely agree with you that he he plays for the status quo, and therein lies most of his Uncle Tom status.

I am also with you on "tearing down" those status quo walls for sure.

Thank you kindly for replying Shusli.

Peace sista,
Ridwan