US Politics And The Obama Issue

I started this blog last night after I posted a comment on Limmy’s Blog. I felt it was fairly urgent to follow up what I was saying there with the point I’m just about to make. As it is, I got distracted and ended up with an unfinished draft.

Whenever the subject of US Politics is brought up, namely the US Presidential Candidates- I simply say, ” I dont, care!”, this is always met with a sentiment of horror and a reply along the lines of, ” Well, you should care because this will affect the rest of the world- especially the UK!”

You see, right though that may be, no amount of you or I caring about who will become the future US President, will change the outcome. It’s barely the decision of the people in America. The degree of private and elite interests in both the selection of the candidate and the influence on elections is unparalleled.

The fact that the Obama/Hilary/McCain debate outstretched itself to almost every facet of UK public media on a daily basis gave me a severe case of political fatigue. Now that Obama is the presidential candidate, the hype surrounding him seems to have grown and grown. I have never really had a problem with Obama because, as I don’t think it will make a huge difference to my own life, he may make the biggest difference in terms of social confidence within the black community. In other words, a black president may give a large section of America a greater chance at increased social mobility. This in turn would decrease the polarity in black and white levels of opportunity, probably not a massive amount at first or even within the next decade, but the psychological impact on black children to aspire and achieve, and the inclination of some sections of white society to supress and homogenise elite institutions would be reduced. This isn’t to say that all black people lack aspiration or that all white people suppress and prejudge, of course that isn’t the case, but where the problem’s exist, hopefully, a light will be shone.

Did Deval Patrick miss out because of old fashioned aesthetics?

My only issue, and maybe it is one that has been prevalent in the other campagnes, maybe it’s fairly comment, is the fact that Obama seems to have lacked- at certain points, the ability to speak for himself. the incident’s I am referring to are the ones where he seems to have been rehashing speeches from another person. Although, the sad fact is, Deval Patrick seems to have more of an impact in both instances of the ‘speechgate’ incidents. It begs the question, what stopped Deval reaching the heights which Obama scaled? Is he too too black? I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. It could simply be a case of merit for all I know. Although I’ll let you judge this next clip yourselves.

I know what you are thinking. If I don’t care so much, why do I have so many opinions right? The short answer is, who could fail to have an opinion in this election? As I said before, it’s being rammed down our necks on a regular basis. This time, there is more at stake than simply a job- it seems as though, in some circles (and by no means am I putting this at the candidates door) that this is a battle of ideology in the fundamental structure of American social psychology.

Moreover, another major issue I have is the fact that WordPress seems to dedicate an inordinate amount of featured blogs on American issue’s, namely this election. It seems to be an exclusively American front page. I think more room needs to be given to other political issue’s outwith America, they do exist you see. So I say let’s forget about the Obama issue for a while and let some other issues and writing get a look in.

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