UPI FILE
In
2009, President Barack Obama hosted the “Beer Summit” in the Rose
Garden of the White House in what was touted as an attempt to improve
race relations in the aftermath of the arrest of a black professor by a
white police officer.
There was a comedy about ancient Rome titled “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” More recently, a funny thing happened on the way to the Oval Office. After the new President was anointed by the mass media and leading celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, America’s emperor was shown to be naked. Everyone on both sides of the racial divide has an opinion about why Obama is being attacked.
A great many African-Americans represented by the likes of the Reverend Jesse Jackson preach that white Americans refuse to show Obama the proper respect and go along with his programs simply because he is black. However, a great many white Americans, and maybe even right-minded people of all races, are angry at the President after he demonstrated his incompetence over the past three years. Tens of millions of Americans don’t like Obama not because he is black but because he has pushed America into the red.
Like the Elton John song, “I’ve Seen That Movie Too,” I saw it begin with the election of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, a francophone and constitutional lawyer who became a rock star north of America’s border in 1968.
Trudeau was Canada’s Prime Minister from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Trudeau changed Canada with a radical new socialism. And the weapon used against his English Canadian critics was that they were simply prejudiced, that they refused to see all the good that Trudeau was doing for Canada. In fact, if you were bold enough to oppose Trudeau’s Official Languages Act (1969) you were downright anti-French.
Regardless of the onslaught that Trudeau orchestrated over 16 years, his liberal supporters and the Liberal Party met all such claims that critics were anti-French.
It took Canada’s economy 20 years to recover from Trudeau, who not only imposed his ideals on a nation but divided French and English more than any Canadian Prime Minister.
Trudeau almost broke up the confederation.
- One year after Trudeau took office, French and English were both declared the official languages of Canada.
- In 1970, terrorist separatists kidnapped and murdered Quebec’s minister of labor and immigration, Pierre Laporte. The federal government ordered in troops and suspended civil liberties.
- The party that pledged Quebec separatism won the 1976 provincial election and passed several measures to strengthen the movement.
- Quebec voters narrowly rejected secession from Canada in a 1995 referendum, but many in the province are still pushing for separation.
Obamamania Could Turn Violent
A generation later, America has its own Trudeau, a minority and charismatic leader. And the same social disarray that happened in Canada has begun in the United States, from the George Zimmerman case to race-baiting by the likes of Al Sharpton.
Despite all of Obama’s failings as President, a great many African-Americans think that attacks made against him are mostly due to his skin color.
I can’t accept such nonsense. Obama has proven that he is unfit for the highest office. At the same time, he has made race relations worse, not better.
A recent Newsweek poll came to the same conclusion. Four years ago, 52 percent of Americans told Pew Research Center that they expected race relations to get better as a result of Obama’s election; just 9 percent anticipated a decline. Today, that 43-point gap has vanished. The survey shows that fewer than one-third of Americans believe race relations have improved since the President’s inauguration, while an equal number believe they have gotten worse. If you consider those who say nothing has changed, then you are left with this staggering fact: Six out of 10 Americans believe that race relations have either deteriorated or stagnated under Obama.
Newsweek reported this month that: “Whites are especially critical of Obama’s approach: a majority (51 percent) actually believe he’s been unhelpful in bridging the country’s racial divide. Even blacks have concluded, by a 20-point margin, that race relations have not improved on Obama’s watch.”
The article concludes: “(T)he election of an African-American president now seems to be deepening our divisions rather than diminishing them.”
This divide has grown since the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida. According to CNN, blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to say Martin’s death was racially motivated. African-Americans seem convinced that Martin was targeted because he was black, while whites are not so sure.
In fact, blacks overwhelmingly approve of how Obama has handled the controversy, while a majority of whites disapprove.
I don’t know what happened that night between Martin and George Zimmerman because I wasn’t there. You know who else was not there? Obama. But that didn’t stop him from chiming in, just the latest example of Obama using his Presidential podium to inflame race relations.
My expectation is that race-baiting is only going to worsen. In fact, the United States is headed for a no-win situation.
If the President is defeated in November as I hope, I expect millions of blacks to be angry and declare that America couldn’t accept a black President. Violence may even erupt.
And if Obama wins a second term, he will have four more years to continue his socialist programs. As for us critics, we will continue to be branded as “racists” rather than realists.
I saw it happen during the Trudeau years. America can suffer a similar fate or something worse.
Yours in good times and bad,
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