Socio-Political contributor – Ron Belgrave
The third (and final) presidential debate has now been completed and there are less than two weeks to go before the four-yearly election for the position of Head of State and Commander in Chief of the most powerful nation on earth. As the 6 November ballot date approaches the tension gets tauter, the temperature gets higher and the swing states get even more swamped by campaign activists.
But, whatever the impact of early voting, voter suppression or swing-state campaigning, it is going to be close on election day with both candidates currently almost equal in the polls.
The third debate was a winner for the President with his clear advantage in foreign policy aptitude and knowledge over Romney that was neatly epitomised by the “fewer horses and bayonets” zinger.
In retrospect, that third debate was predictable. It was predictable that President Obama would win it and he did and by a notable margin. Those predictions, doubtable a fortnight ago, could have been comfortably made in September – that is before 3 October, in other words before the (unexpectedly disastrous) first debate. Win or lose the election, that first debate will haunt Barack Obama for evermore because the gap by which Romney won the first debate outweighed the gap by which Obama then won the other two (46:44).
If Obama had won that first one (as expected) the momentum of winning the subsequent two supplemented by his then significant lead in the polls, the incessant Republican howlers (47%, rape, abortion etc.) and Romney’s policy flip-flopping would have meant that, by now, Obama would be almost certain to win. Instead, not only is it now a close race and almost too close to call, but Romney has the forward motion. Ah well such is life and politics.
Another of those Republican howlers in the past week was the suggestion from a top white Romney supporter John H. Sununu that the reason ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell is supporting Barack Obama is that they are both Black. Race and racism are constant features of American politics and some witty characters on Twitter responded back by saying that Sununu only supported Romney because they are both white. The irony (and hypocrisy) is that both parties talk incessantly about appealing to women voters but somehow it is taboo to actively seek to appeal to Black voters.
Whatever the reasons for who you vote for, what is clear is that having a Black person in the top job in the USA does not guarantee immediate change or rapid alleviation of the suffering of the Black people of the USA or of those across the world. It is clear by his choice of wife (and no one doubts Michelle’s fortitude, integrity or consciousness) that Barack Obama would seek to do all that he could to right the multiple, long-standing and continuing wrongs and failings of the USA.
But even “no drama Obama” with his inner strength and composure under fire is still just one person – one person in a sea of sharks that seek to limit his ability to act for good.
There are those who expected miracles when he was elected and the talk was of Moses and Joshua but the reality is that a volcano with a single ice cube on the top is not a glacier – it is still a volcano! Some of his supporters from 2008 have been surprised that he has not been able to achieve more of what they expected and some have been disappointed that the hoped-for overturning of racism in America and improvements for the Black people (13% of the population) of the USA.
For a volcano to be turned into a glacier (or at least cooled to a mid-way temperature) not only would the ice cubes at the top need to be multiplied umpteen-fold but ice cubes would be needed, in substantial numbers, at every level of the volcano and in the climate around, above and below.
If 13% of the US Senate looked like Barack Obama or so did 13% of state governors and senators or 13% of the ownership/management/staffing of the corporations, or 13% of the wealth or 13% ownership/management/staffing in the media (TV, print, news) etc. If 13% of all the power of the USA was in the hands/control of the Black population then America would be a different and better place and having an ice cube on the top could then really turn a volcano into a glacier!
