Getting Over to Get Even.

Getting Over to Get Even.  Even though I have, for quite a long time, held a very low opinion of Obama’s performance as our president, I have never harbored a severe dislike for him personally.  Frankly, his arrogance and narcissism was so off-putting, I found it easy to simply disregard him on a personal level.  He is not the kind of man I would choose to drink a beer with by my garden, in the lawn chairs.  All that being said, his unfettered bent since the last general election cycle has made it rather difficult to separate the president from the man.  As this angle on Barrack has unfolded, I have come to ponder exactly what motivates the man to be what he is; to do what he does, the way he does it.  I have concluded that he enjoys getting over to get even; let me expand.

It is difficult for me to identify with what a black might feel about racism; I am white man.  It would naturally be just as difficult for a black man to identify with my life.  I have never doubted that this nation profited shamefully from the practice of slavery; the north as well as the south.  Just as much of the agricultural foundation of the south was built on the cheap labor of slavery, the accompanying industrial complex of the northeast took great advantage of black and immigrant Americans.  While knowing that this was an unworthy period in our country’s history, I have never felt a personal guilt for slavery.  If my ancestors were slaveholders, they will ultimately account for their lives.  I will be held accountable for how I treat people and how I conduct my affairs; my salvation will not lie in the sins of my white ancestors; as they may be.

I have written before about my personal belief that the ultimate remedy for racial discrimination is the elimination in the law, and the regulation of that law, of all the code language and practices that continue to foster a great racial divide in this society; under the guise of being a remedy to past transgressions.  Until we write law that demands equal treatment for all races, and the intent depends of the effective enforcement of that law, we will continue to be a racially divided population.  We will continue to foster professional civil rights leaders and a sense of entitlement from those who more desperately need a hand up than a hand out.   I am not so naïve to think that discrimination has ceased to exist in America; it has not.  I have seen it my life; and continue to see it.  However, there are two important points that must be made about discrimination.  First, reverse discrimination is also discrimination.  To try to correct past wrongs by wronging those who were not personally responsible for the original wrong is….well, it is just wrong-headed.  Secondly, there will always be idiots among us who hate.  Sometimes they will be white; sometimes they will be black; and oftentimes they will a combination of the two or another color altogether.  You cannot outlaw idiocy.  If a person chooses to be an individual full of hate and spite, they unfortunately have the right to live their life with that burden.  What they do not have the right to do is burden others with it.  That is where the law must draw the line, in equal terms between the races, and simply guarantee a person’s rights and dignity; not that person’s perceived entitlement to any type of special treatment stemming from skin color.

When I read Obama’s life history, I am struck by the common thread of subtle anti-Americanism.  How ironic that he becomes the president of a nation he has so long, both openly and surreptitiously, despised.  Why would he want to be the head of an entity that he finds so revolting?  Initially, you might think he was on a path to change the entity from within; to work within the structure of the legislative process to make us a better and more equitable nation.  But his public record is devoid of any effort resembling a legislative initiative such as this.   We see instead a record of using the system to his advantage; enjoying his free reign as an activist, and pursuing a professional career as a community organizer.  The problem here is that he never quit being a community organizer.  Once he achieved the historic feat of becoming our first black president, he shied away from the plentiful opportunities to accomplish real legislative, and lasting, change in our country and chose instead to continue the cheap and shallow rhetorical adventures of the community activist.  And that fire inside Obama, the one that kept whispering in his ear that America was full of white racists who were near descendants of slaveholders, was stoked once again in a blaze and it was time for a reckoning.  It was time to get over to get even.

Getting over is the quick and easy way to force your will when you have the upper hand.  It is much more efficient and effective than negotiation or discussion.  It allows, even glorifies, demagoguery and demonization of those who disagree with you.  It makes those in subordinate authority toe the line rather than risk an open disagreement with the one in authority.  It permits one to get by with outrageous, shameful, and hypocritical behavior through the use of deceit and outright lies.  For a President of the United States of America, it is pretty much a carte blanche to do whatever the hell you want to do.  Obama has taken full advantage of this and fully intends to take it to new levels in his remaining time in office. 

Getting even is the end product of long held hatred and resentment; the vengeful result of continually feeling wronged and treated in a fashion not found to be proper.  Obama’s long-held dislike for this nation, its history, and especially its assimilation of black Americans, was finally allowed to blossom fully once he occupied the White House.  Faced with fantastical opportunity to implement broad-based, racially inclusive, reforms through our democratic process, he chose instead to use every tool, lever, and device to get even for all the wrongs he perceived to have been experienced by black Americans.   He chose the method of getting over in order to get even for our shameful chapter of slavery.  And in doing so, he has not only disgraced himself, but also the office of the Presidency.  He has done a great disservice to black Americans; selfishly throwing away such promise to reconcile the many colors of our society.  He has taken a nation that was trying, in good conscience and in fits and starts, to resolve the vestiges of racial discrimination and plunged it backwards from whence it stood.  He has compounded an illness that was on its way to passage and has irrevocably made it more difficult for his successors to deal with the issue of racial discrimination in these United States.