For those people checking in after their Christmastime weekend festivities, this post will come as a stunner. It’s written by the former personal attorney and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence B. Jones. A man who has a book coming out in January heralding Dr. King’s transforming impact, which seems like the jumping off point of comparison used to level a devastating critique of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Mr. Jones is a Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. According to his bio at Huffington Post, His personal, insider’s account of the 1963 March On Washington, Behind The Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation, will be released January 2011 from Palgrave Macmillan.
A snippet of his post is below, which really should be read in full:
[...] And, so it is with Obama’s continued squandering of the extraordinary support he developed for his election as President.
It is not easy to consider challenging the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States. But, regrettably, I believe that the time has come to do this.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist nor have a PhD in political science and sociology to see clearly that Obama has abandoned much of the base that elected him. He has done this because he no longer respects, fears or believes those persons who elected him have any alternative, but to accept what he does, whether they like it or not.
It is time for those persons who constituted the “Movement” that enabled Senator Barack Obama to be elected to “break their silence”; to indicate that they no longer will sit on their hands, and only let off verbal steam and ineffective sound and fury, and “hope” for the best.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
The pursuit of the war in Afghanistan in support of a certifiably corrupt Afghan government and the apparent willingness to retreat from his campaign commitment of no further tax cuts for the rich, his equivocal and foot dragging leadership to end DADT, his TARP for Wall Street, but, equivocal insufficient attention to the unemployment and housing foreclosures of Main Street, suggest that the template of the 1968 challenge to the reelection of President Lyndon Johnson now must be thoughtfully considered for Obama in 2012. …
One can only imagine the incredible thought and intense contemplation that went in to making such a profound challenge to Pres. Obama, something that is a long time coming. Only a man of considerable weight and an African American could do it and hope to be taken seriously, let alone gain any traction at all.
The speculation about who could possibly make such a challenge matter began a long time ago, but it is shoved aside before any conclusion is drawn, because of understandable trepidation and fear of the reaction of the African American community. No one has named anyone who would dare come forward to do it yet.
The media would not make what Mr. Jones is suggesting easy.
The positing of the possibility may even rally people closer to Mr. Obama, though this hardly matters, because without someone of weight coming forward to write of the possibility of challenging him the current depressing situation has no hope of shifting.
It seems impossible it was just two years ago when people thought Obama’s election had squelched conservatism, but now it’s enjoying a revival not seen since Jimmy Carter faltered in 1979, which led to the Reagan era that conservatives hail to this day. Democrats still have nightmares over what they believe a presidential challenge cost them in 1980, even if it was Carter’s weak presidency that is really to blame, so the naysayers will be sure to bring that up saying a Republican win in ’12 can’t be let to happen. A primary challenge to Obama seen as a gimme to the Right by many.
However, Mr. Obama’s electoral map is stunningly abysmal after the Democratic midterm collapse, so regardless of his personal likability, his political incompetence even if he could win in ’12 is so total that progressives should be asking themselves just what is gained even if he wins?
Things are dire for Democrats and it’s Pres. Barack Obama who set it all in motion.
After the midterm catastrophe and after witnessing the appalling political incompetence of the Democrats under Obama’s lack of leadership and feckless messaging, followed by absolutely no plan for the lame duck session or a gaming of how to fight the Republicans using basic Democratic principles to stand firm, it’s clear that Mr. Obama is not only not going to change, but there’s no hope he’ll do anything other than join Republicans in their disastrous policy prescriptions, making America’s troubles worse.
Democrats, liberals and progressives, Blue Dogs too, will have to decide if Barack Obama is more important than the relevance of the Democratic Party and the principles to which people pledged their lives to make manifest for the good of this nation.
Political soul searching is certainly called for, it’s just a question of whether Democrats today have the courage and strength of character to do it.
No surprise, I’m sure, that I think the likelihood is very small that the Democratic leadership of whatever stripe will do any serious political soul searching regarding Obama and the “relevance of” the Dem party — at least not in the sense of actually doing anything like what Clarence Jones suggests. By now, anything but more of the same from Obama and insiders, and the majority of the Dem leadership, would count as a political shockwave.
Jones’ excellent post uses Dylan’s “Blowin in the Wind.” The line of that song that stands out for me at this point: “Yes, how many times can a man turn his head, Pretending he just doesn’t see?”
At least a growing number of people are “seeing” — I don’t care if it’s what they’ve always seen (Obama isn’t read; isn’t a progressive, etc.) or have come to see … the more voices, the better.
This really is a remarkable development.
Obama’s fan men are going berserk.
No one likes this development, believe me.
It is a GREAT developement. The AA vote is the big fear. I here fewer calling in to C-span to defend him and more calling to complain.
It is a ridiclous and sad state of affairs when Joe Scarbourough can make the Democratic case better than the President.
The cats out of the bag now, has been quitely for a while but I believe it will start to gain much more momentum and traction.. It won’t be long now until the idiots in the MSM really start talking about how the left( the DFH, “net roots” ) is openly talking about a primary challenge. Add to that the pile on attacks from FOX news on a primary challenge, and you will have a recurring theme for a very long time.
Once the full effect of no repeal of DADT, and no passage of the Dream Act(both are looking worse by the second), the inevittable formal announcement on the extensions of the Bush Tax cuts,and the cumulative failure of leadership and corporatism of the past two years finally explodes, it will only be a matter of time before someone breaks ranks in the Dem party, and.or left leadership and starts to openly challenge Pres Obama. Mr. Jones, a leader in the struggle for civil rights and a respected African American icon, his call for a primary will give cover to Democrats to challenge Pres Obama.
On a personal level I want Pres Obama to not seek reelection-for the good of the country and the Democratic Party (wait -it’s not clear Pres Obama is a Democrat). I even went online to the White House website and sent a message stating just that, “please don’t seek reelection”,not that it means anything.
The 2008 campaign was uplifting in so many ways for me. My daughter is biracial (half white-me, half African American-her Mom) and to have both a woman -Hillary Clinton, and Pres Obama-biracial, be the two leading candidates for the Presidency was tremendous. Either of them winning would break a barrier for my daughter as well as the country. Hope filled the air because of both of them.
But to see the President govern in the manner he has is truely heartbreaking-what a missed chance to change the direction and dynamic of the country.
Remember when we were talking about an embarrassment of riches when it came to candidates?
Gates is on some big Navy boat somewhere and he just told the sailors that he thinks things will stay the same DADT wise for a long time. He said he wants change(kabuki?) but it does not look like politically it is going to happen.