The Hope To Change...Ourselves

So over the last few weeks I've been watching the stories of the day and sometimes it's difficult to come up with where I want to begin. I feel I'd be wasting your time if I just took the headlines of the day and threw them up here regularly with a touch of commentary and called it a blog. I try to make it a little more interesting since if you bother to read blogs such as this you probably already know most of the headlines of the day to some degree.

I will cover some of the important issues of the day throughout this blog but that's really not what this is about today. It seems we can't get away from the same old games when it comes to politics. One the one hand it's pretty much expected that most politicians are going to let us down but on the other hand we always head into election day thinking, (hoping is probably a better word to use), that the candidates will deliver on the promises they make.

The problem is seems for each of us is that rather than accept that a candidate we've believed in before is incapable of delivering on empty promises we want to play the blame game. It's easier to play the blame game than it is to admit being wrong. For several years we saw this with President Bush and it's our current situation with many who want to still believe in Obama.

Let's take some of the issues facing black Americans today, (I don't use hyphenated terms when discussing Americans like African-American, it's not to offend it's to point out that we're Americans end of story, you're an American who is black just as I'm an American who is white, I'm not a Caucasian-American, if any of that offends you....tough, because you're unreasonable). On the one hand it's easy to understand the faith black Americans have in President Obama, can you blame them?

I'm not going to go in depth on the history here because I've covered that before and if you want to take the time to read my previous thoughts on this feel free to, (warning: it's not a quick read so grab some coffee). I will say this though, what if the tables were turned on race? What if every previous president in American history was black and the civil rights movements or MLK jr., (who would be white in this hypothetical), were because of segregation and oppression against whites. Wouldn't most whites, (who would be a minority in this scenario), give a pass to many failures of our first white president out of pride?

Looking at the situation under those circumstances I can understand why so many minorities are willing to give a pass and make excuses for President Obama's failings. Take a look at this and let me highlight a few things. The first thing I'd like to point out is the fact that this article is from September 15, 2008 when President Bush was still in office. Keep that in mind as you read it.

"Young Black adults and recent college graduates (25 to 29-year-olds) are finding it difficult to find work. Their unemployment has risen from 5.1 percent in August 2007 to 6.9 percent last month"

"Perhaps for reasons of race or systemic economic justice, Democratic and Republican presidents have made the real unemployment statistics almost impossible to find in the media"

So in other words "perhaps" both Republican and Democratic presidents are somewhat racist and the media is helping them. Give credit for the willingness to hit both sides here but remember that President Obama has made things worse and the media is still helping hide the real statistics yet he's largely given a pass. We'll get more into that later but let's keep analyzing this story for now.

"People are rightfully suspicious of what the media now tries to pass off as “official” jobless statistic."

Do you understand now? Nothing has changed here this quote is 100% accurate in the current context. In 2008 under Bush it was fine, yet now the very same truth is treated like propaganda against Obama, funny isn't it?

"What makes the object — or the true jobless rate — so important is that it affects the social fabric of the African-American community.

A high unemployment rate can determine the quality of family life and education, crime, housing, how long people lives, how sick they are and many other vital factors."

I highlighted certain words here for a reason. If high unemployment is bad for all of these things, (and I agree that it is), then why was health care and bailouts the #1 priority of President Obama? It seems that had his priority been real job creation, (which he doesn't understand), then it would help with many of the problems within the black community.

"These social ills require special programs ranging from Food Stamps, AID to Dependent Children, unemployment compensation, housing support, energy assistance and Medicaid"

Record number of Americans now on food stamps, housing crisis, 3 years of unemployment. The vast expansion of these programs are directly tied to the lack of jobs. We need to reform these programs to eliminate fraud while at the same time follow smart economic policies that will have the effect of reducing the dependence on these programs. When both of these things happen it's good for everybody but if you say you want to reform these very programs your labeled as lacking compassion, or worse. I contest that it's not compassionate to put ideology ahead of logic thus condemning people to depend on these programs as a way of life, especially within the minority community.

"In the 1950s, the federal, state and local governments paid $23.5 billion for these program. By 1990, the cost for these programs hit $1 trillion — no small sum by any measure."

Look at that from this perspective. Between 1950 and 1990 we faced wars, recessions, political corruption, economic booms and busts, just like now and look how large the cost of these programs have grown. On our current course, how much do you think it will cost by 2030? Reforming these programs aren't just a matter of smart policy, they are a matter of our very survival as a nation.

"Some economists argue that the national Black jobless rate or employment-population ratio (the proportion of the working age population with a job) for African Americans is 42 percent of all those of working age. The translation: Almost half of all African Americans who can work aren’t working."

Remember, this is 2008, we aren't even talking about our current situation, which is worse.

"The social consequences of such a high unemployment rate are astounding. Policymakers and social science contend that they have resulted in overcrowded jails, failing schools, deteriorating housing and a broken health care system."

President Obama talks about all of these problems as most politicians do, yet he continues to follow failed policies in terms of job creation and reducing unemployment even though high unemployment is directly tied to many of these problems in the first place.

"since 1960 both Democratic and Republican presidents have rigged the numbers and the media has played along"

So much for change huh?

"He says even the Clinton administration, which was widely praised for its policies toward African Americans, helped push the real statistical realities of Blacks under the carpet.

According to him, the Clinton administration redefined the workforce as people seeking work for less than a year, so that those who were out of the job market for more than a year were not counted in the unemployment statistic.

The Clinton administration also thinned the household economic sampling from 60,000 to 50,000 by dropping mostly inner city households, resulting in a count that reduced Black unemployment and poverty levels."

So, simply put, Clinton lied, what a shock, but at least he didn't have sexual relations with that woman Ms. Lewinsky, right? Never mind, let's get back on track and look at today.

Let's analyze a more current story to see just how much of a hero President Obama has truly been for the poor and minorities since enacting his progressive platform of deception. Read this from August 17, 2011. Just 9 days ago.

"The poverty rate is 14.3%, the highest since the mid-1990s. A record 45.8 million people receive food stamps"

Think about that statistic for a second. How is this possible after nearly 3 years of President Obama, 2 of which the Democrats also controlled the entire congress? If you know about the past then this really wouldn't come as a surprise. This always happens when the government strays from the Constitution and becomes entrenched in issues it shouldn't be involved with. Big-government socialist policies always lead to massive increases in poverty and government dependence and that never works out well for those most vulnerable, the poor and minorities.

"There’s no major Washington lobby for the poor"

That right there is key. President Obama is currently out on the west coast going to expensive dinner fundraisers and trying to rally voters. All politicians and presidents especially do this so I'm not criticizing him for it. The point is that while there's no lobby for the poor, the poor also aren't where the major campaign cash comes from, hence no lobbyists.

"Earlier this year, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, released a study questioning the plight of the nearly 44 million Americans whom the Census Bureau categorizes as impoverished, but also own appliances such as air conditioners and TVs."

Not to mention homes, (even though many have fallen into foreclosure due to the housing market crash), cars (where the cost of gas hurts), and cell phones (which amazingly also has a government subsidy program now. That's great now people can become dependant on the government for their phones also).

Speaking of the cost of gas. Do you remember in 2004 when President Bush was being hammered for gas reaching over $2.00/gallon? While it's true that during Bush term 2 gas peaked at over $4.00/gallon, we now seem to accept the "new normal" as gas is averaging about $3.50/gallon and rather than hear complaints all over the place I actually heard more praise for the fact that gas had come down 12 cents. Don't high gas prices also disproportionately hurt poor people? Where's the outrage?

"At a Decorah, Iowa, town hall meeting on Monday, President Obama repeated his argument that “a rising tide does lift all boats” – in other words, economic policies that aim to benefit all Americans are sufficient"

The rising tide lifting all boats quote is actually a JFK quote originally and the only problem here is that JFK and modern Democrats, like Obama, have completely different views of taxes. Most Democrats fail to mention that.

"Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large federal deficits on the other. It is between two kinds of deficits, a chronic deficit of inertia, as the unwanted result of inadequate revenues and a restricted economy, or a temporary deficit of transition, resulting from a tax cut designed to boost the economy, produce revenues, and achieve a future budget surplus. The first type of deficit is a sign of waste and weakness, the second reflects an investment in the future" - JFK

You see, the rising tide lifting all ships was a reference to how low taxes and a booming economy are good for everybody, especially the poor. The only problem is that after JFK was assassinated it fell to racist liberal LBJ to actually pass the tax cut. He did so, but coupled it with his massive government social engineering expansion often referred to as the "great society". The massive expansion of government led to a massive increase in government spending and diminished the gains of the JFK tax cuts, (which adjusted for inflation were actually larger than President Bush's). Isn't history fun? It's a shame that while President Obama like to use quick quotes of JFK he refuses to look at his economic policies when it relates to taxes as he travels the country calling for tax increases rather than spending reduction.

"But Smiley and West say the Obama administration has ignored the plight of blacks and the poor while focusing heavily on business interests."

Remember, as I said before, poor people don't raise a lot of campaign cash for either party, "business interests" do. That's the key. Much of the insight here is very telling as we always see progressive liberal politicians run on the platform of caring about the poor and attacking conservatives like myself for not having any compassion for the poor. Yet when they get into office the plight of the poor seems to increase under their policies while folks like me still get criticized for lacking compassion.

"In the 1990s, Smiley criticized President Bill Clinton for toughening penalties for crack-cocaine possession."

How dare President Clinton toughen penalties for crackheads, where's his compassion? Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

"Blacks still have deep affection for Obama. In a recent Washington Post poll, 86% of blacks approved of Obama’s job performance. But just 54% approved of his economic policies in the Post poll, down from 77% last fall"

Remember earlier when I talked about how I can understand why the black community wants the first black president to succeed to the point where he'll be largely given a pass on his failures? This proves that to be true. He's down to a 54% approval with black Americans on his handling of the economy yet still enjoys a 86% approval in his job performance. My point being correct is the only explanation as to how this is possible.

Earlier I stated how this post is really about you and that's what I'll get into now. I recently explained how Obama deserves to be re-elected if a majority of Americans fall for his rhetoric rather than looking at his results. Washington and the politicians can't fix our country, only we can.

We need to stop looking at every damn issue as being about black and white, or left and right. Everything comes back to a fight between Democrats and Republicans. It's the same fight over the same issues every single election and it blinds us from being objective.

We are the key to saving our own future. If we don't engage in educating our kids, teaching them about the importance of a strong work ethic, and respect for other people, then how can we expect them to grow up with anything less than an attitude of greedy expectancy?

If we can't be honest, then we can't be saved. I understand why so many people aren't engaged and are therefore more easily duped by the routine promises of the political elite. As Americans we have the Constitution to remind us that we have to have a natural distrust of politicians as they will always be inclined to abuse power if we give it to them. You see this with things like the EPA.

When a politician proves to be incapable of improving our country then we have a responsibility to hold them accountable. The problem is that far too many of us refuse to hold them accountable because we don't want to feel like traitors by voting for a Democrat if we're a Republican or voting Republican if we're a Democrat.

Many minorities feel the same way about President Obama. Electing America's first black president is quite an accomplishment. However, now many minorities feel as if they are traitors if they don't support him. Turning so much of our political discussions into arguments about class warfare or racial bias blinds us from discussing what's really important. A future of freedom and success for our children.

Look, I'd rather be playing Gears of War 3 on my XBOX than spending hours researching and engaging in politics but I have a responsibility to try and help ensure that my children have a chance to live in freedom as I have. The more we ignore the wrong steps taken by our politicians and the more power we give to the elite political class under the pretext of taking care of us then the more we deny that freedom to the next generation. Which we all claim to care about regardless of party or class.

Let's be honest with ourselves first and foremost since most of the politicians aren't going to be. Let's get it right and correct the One Big Ass Mistake America (OBAMA). He had his chance and he failed. There's no shame in that, many have failed in the past and most politicians have failed to deliver on campaign promises. The presidency isn't an easy job, but when a president proves he isn't up to the task we have an obligation to not overlook bad policies for the sake of saving a political party, saving the future for our children is more important.

Gingrich/Cain 2012!....or Cain/Gingrich 2012! Doesn't matter to me. Think about it. See you next time, thanks for reading.