Presidency and race collide in 2008 election

Barack Obama’s election victory was a bittersweet pill for many people in this country.

All Americans can take pride in and celebrate the Obama presidency as a symbol of progress in the struggle for equality and civil rights.

Race has long been a sore subject in America; it is perhaps the greatest source of resentment, marginalization, and division in history.

Perhaps the Obama presidency will begin to bring about reconciliation in a nation plagued by old resentments.

However, I’m left with the thought: this guy is the first black president?  I was never an Obama supporter because I found his positions on important issues to be too far to the left for my liking.

As the campaign wore on, I learned that apart from writing a few books, “community organizing,” and voting “present” in the Senate, he brought a remarkably barren resume to the table.

Somehow, propelled by the thin bromides of hope and change offered up to a nation fatigued by eight years of Republican leadership, he has become the most powerful man in the world.

Obama has inspired many people in this country and embodied the American ideal that anyone, no matter their race or creed, can make it here.  But to what end?

Now that the Democrats are in charge, there is talk of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine and Obama has stated “we’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong,” as our military in order to achieve national security.

Why, an alarmist might be led to believe that the first things on our new president’s agenda are the squelching of dissent and subversion of the Posse Comitatus Act.  When did these things become American ideals?

The Obama presidency isn’t a sign that racism has been eradicated, but it does show that attitudes toward race are changing in this country, which I’m all in favor of.

It is his ideas and actions, the criteria by which we are to judge people if we really wish to create a colorblind society, that bothers me.