Forgive Me Barack, For My Forefathers Had Sinned
In a column ostensibly to explain why Jesse Jackson wants to castrate Obama, Shelby Steele explains the secret of Obama’s success:
Mr. Obama’s great political ingenuity was very simple: to trade moral leverage for gratitude. Give up moral leverage over whites, refuse to shame them with America’s racist past, and the gratitude they show you will constitute a new form of black power. They will love you for the faith you show in them.
Simple. Powerful. True?
It would certainly explain a lot — including why so many people find Obama such a messianic figure. In the Western tradition, what’s more transcending than forgiveness?
And if you’re already suffering from white guilt, forgiveness might be a very nice change of pace from Jackson’s 40 years of race-hustling.
Given that Barack Obama was out side the traditional African American experience, at least until adulthood when he joined Trinity and married Michelle–is this surprising?
I thank Obama for his gift of forgiveness. I live with the massive guilt of crimes against humanity done through the ages (from slavery to killing the passenger pigeon, I must be guilty). I did not participate in those crimes, but I must carry some sort of Biblical curse for them (Cain, or Ham, or one of those guys). I look forward to the day when Barack Obama can baptise us all in the healing waters of his ministry.
Amen.
Simple. Powerful. True?
Not really. They don’t want to be forgiven. They don’t mind if a black guy stays indignant. They find the painful penance delicious.
Simpler and truer is that Obama is (a.) a lefty black and (b.) from the latte left. Either a or b is sufficient to get a white lefty’s vote. Both together get white lefties excited. Add in the mesmeric oratory and you have a hypnotized crowd with a General Will.
To continue Jim’s thought…
(c.) “mesmeric oratory”
(d.) now throw in metrosexual good looks and you have an orgiastic moment in western history.