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Amen

Let?s see. Barry Obama was a bi-racial boy raised primarily by his white grandparents. As a young man he abandoned his bi-racialism for blackness, became Barack, and was nurtured in the bosom of Rev. Wright?s militantly black Trinity church.

In the process of explaining why his long, close association with Wright and his church was not wrong, Obama said many times that his church was nothing to get excited about, that he had never heard or heard of anything ?particularly controversial in Reverend Wright?s statements,? that he is ?proud of his pastor and his church,? that Trinity Church is ?conventional,? ?a very traditional African-American church? that ?embodies the black community.? He could no more disown Rev. Wright, like an uncle to him, than his white grandmother.

Of course, as we now all know, Obama has proven himself quite adept at disavowing the undisavowable. He dismissed his white grandmother as ?a typical white person.? Once Wright exposed himself to everyone in his National Press Club harangue, Obama proved quite capable of disowning him as well, claiming to be ?outraged by the comments that were made.?

Now Obama has abandoned Trinity as well. It?s pretty clear, I think, that the only thing about Trinity that has changed is that it became an impediment to rather than an enabler of his personal political ambition. ?It?s clear now,? Obama says,

that now that I?m a candidate for president, every time something is said in the church by anyone associated with Trinity, including guest pastors, the remarks will imputed to me even if they totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles,? he said.

But if those remarks, and many others over the 20+ years of Obama?s association with the church, really did ?totally conflict with my long-held views, statements and principles,? why, Discriminating readers will want to know, did he resign only now?

The only thing we know about Obama?s ?long-held views,? if any, is what he has told us in his two campaign autobiographies and on the stump. Maybe all those harangues from the podium and in church publications did conflict with his views; maybe not. Maybe his ?views, statements, and principles? are, well, malleable. It doesn?t matter. This spectacle of serial disavowing does not present a pretty picture of loyalty, to anyone or anything. As I wrote here,

Thus I don?t think it?s going too far to say that Obama has been disloyal to the two communities that raised and nurtured him, no doubt with an eye on both occasions to his being accepted by a new community that would better serve his personal ambitions.

What if he succeeds? That is, what if he is accepted by the larger community with which he wants to identify, that of the United States as a whole, is elected president ... and then at some point in the future gets a better offer? Will he then treat the rest of us the way he?s treated his white family and his black pastor and his flock?

Perhaps that?s too harsh. Perhaps not. All I know is that if I were Michelle, I?d watch my mouth from now own.

UPDATE

And speaking of Michelle, Worcester (Mass.) Telegram columnist Dianne Williamson ?want[s] her in the White House? ...

but it?s precisely because I want her in the White House that I?m hoping she puts a lid on it before she becomes a liability. Enough with how she?s never been proud of her country until the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. No more talk about America being ?just downright mean.? And please, stop with the authoritarian vision of life under your husband, because you?re feeding ammo to Republicans and giving jingoists a field day. Plus, you?re starting to scare people.

She better hope for a little silence, since we?ve seen how Michelle?s hubby deals with family members and close allies who become liabilities.

Williamson?s judgment that it would be a great thing for Michelle to be in the White House can perhaps be best understood in light of her rather peculiar but nevertheless revealing praise: ?Not since Teresa Heinz Kerry has there been such potential.?

How true.

Full post as published by Discriminations on June 01, 2008 (boomark / email).