Thursday, November 1, 2012

Win or Lose on Election Night, President Obama Needs to Study This Interview With Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka



Next week, the American people will select their next President. The odds makers, stats junkies, and folks like Nate Silver are suggesting that Barack Obama has a higher probability of winning the presidency than does Mitt Romney.

However, probabilities are not predictions. Romney still has a significant chance of becoming the President of the United States of America. And as you know, I am putting my money on a combination of historical precedent where the country returns to its norm of having a white president, the power of white racial resentment and animus, and a skillful candidate in Mitt Romney who has run one of the most racist campaigns in modern politics against the country's first black president, combine to unseat Barack Obama.

Whatever the outcome next week, President Obama is going to be limited going forward.

If he loses, the irony is that Obama may be freed as a living legend to pursue the causes he most cares about, and to help people of color, the poor, and the working classes in ways that as President, he could not. If Obama wins, he will be bloodied and wounded. The Tea Party GOP will continue to obstruct his agenda. If Obama wins the electoral college, and loses the popular vote, all bets are off, as this outcome will only embolden the white nationalist secessionist crowd who are the base of the Republican Party.

The Right has already waged a war against Barack Obama's legitimacy. To them, he is not fit to be president because he is black and a Democrat. If Obama wins according to the rules, but not overwhelmingly the people's vote, the White Right, a group who hate Obama more than they love the United States, will be further emboldened in their wickedness and efforts to subvert the Common Good for their own narrow, parochial, self-interested agenda.

Here, Jimmy Snuka had returned to wrestling following a vicious beating by the white racist conservative, and "representative" of Apartheid era South Africa, Colonel De Beers. However, Snuka, like Obama, was not broken. This angle was one of the most overtly racist and honest plays on current events and politics in Cold War, 1980's professional wrestling. Racial slurs were casually used; Colonel De Beers channeled his hatred of non-whites; Audiences comprised of people from all racial backgrounds jeered the villain from South Africa.

Snuka was and is an elite and special wrestler. Obama is a special and unique American. If the latter wins reelection it will be a Pyrrhic victory. Obama will have expended so much energy in his battle with Romney's legions, that he will be unable to advance his agenda even as an incumbent. Snuka wore a neck brace, was beaten, and yet still later defeated Colonel De Beers in a series of great matches. In the end, the "good guy" inevitably won. This was great storytelling.

By contrast, President Obama may defeat Mitt Romney next week. But, President Obama will still lose in the near term.

Consequently, Obama had better watch Jimmy Snuka's interview for some tips about the speech he will give on election night: as either victor or vanquished, the tone will not be that different. Obama will be broken, but perhaps he can still find a way to win in the long-term.

7 comments:

The Sanity Inspector said...

The Right has already waged a war against Barack Obama's legitimacy. To them, he is not fit to be president because he is black and a Democrat.

Can't say that I altogether agree. A $16 trillion dollar public debt is nothing to sneeze at, and yet here our President has essentially sneezed at it during his four years so far. I'd be alarmed by that attitude in any President.

chaunceydevega said...

@Sanity. Who made that debt? What were the circumstances necessary for the stimulus? And how can we blame one president for a fiscal problem made by Republicans and Democrats alike? Funny, the Right was not obsessed with the deficit when Bush was spending the country into oblivion.

Do you have any evidence to the contrary about how race is central to the Right's assault on that black African who is not a U.S. Citizen who secretly snuck into the White House mess that a significant percentage of Republicans still believe?

nomad said...

"Who made that debt? What were the circumstances necessary for the stimulus? And how can we blame one president for a fiscal problem made by Republicans and Democrats alike?"

Well, no. You can't blame Obama for the mess made by the last president. We're living in a world created by Bush. Obama's fault lies in not trying to clean it up. Not the mainstreet area, though he did a phenomenal job for wallstreet. Go figure. The banksters got their money's worth, no doubt. The best president money can buy. No, Obama is like the fireman who arrives at the scene of a fire, puts out half of it but lets the other half go up in flames. He did a good job for the rich. For the rest of us things got worse.
"Matt Stoller writes in The Progressive Case Against Obama on salon:

Under Bush, economic inequality was bad, as 65 cents of every dollar of income growth went to the top 1 percent. Under Obama, however, that number is 93 cents out of every dollar. That’s right, under Barack Obama there is more economic inequality than under George W. Bush. ... most of this shift happened in 2009-2010, when Democrats controlled Congress. This was not, in other words, the doing of the mean Republican Congress. And it’s not strictly a result of the financial crisis; after all, corporate profits did crash, like housing values did, but they also recovered, while housing values have not.
http://www.correntewire.com/matt_stoller_s_domestic_case_against_voting_for_obama

Adam h said...

A little over dramatic. Obama will be brojken, or the political will of the base will be exhausted?

Anonymous said...

It's funny how the left rants about the right and the right rants about the left. You invoke racism, yet by doing so you completely ignore the fact that the majority of the country already voted a black man as President. How did that happen? It was the people in the middle. So you can yell about the right as much as you want, but if Romney is elected it is because those people in the middle shifted his way. It isn't a sudden influx of racism. It's people voting for the candidate that they feel gives them the most hope to turn the country and economy around. I don't see Obama as a black man. I see him as a politician whose policies and ideals differ greatly from mine. Is Romney perfect? No. Was Obama perfect? No. But people went with Obama mostly because they were disappointed with Bush. Now the same thing is happening to Obama. People first vote with their wallets. Had Obama's promise of 5.2% unemployment by Oct. 2012 came true, he'd be a shoe-in to win this year. But it wasn't. He made many promises that never came to be. Romney may do the same, but it is the 'Devil I don't know' choice over the 'Devil I do'. This isn't about race. It goes much deeper than that. To call an Obama loss racism would just be as ignorant as racists themselves.

nomad said...

Oh, it be racism alright. It's just that it could have been overcome with some progressive policies from Obama. A lot of disaffected progressives would be rallying behind him and beating the bushes for votes right now. He'd be poised for a landslide reelection victory. Instead, His betrayal of his constituency means we are left to decide which corporatist we want to head the perpetual war police state.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Chauncey: "Everyone does it" is a teenager's argument. I personally believe that the fight for a balanced budget was fought and lost in the 80s. We've just been fluffing up the pillows on the Titanic's deck chairs ever since. Spending money yet to be earned, confiscated from generations yet to be born...how is that progressive or compassionate?