It's Race! It's Gender! Or is it Generational?

A friend just sent me a "Sorry to see Barack imploding" email. Is this a bad news cycle for Barack Obama, you bet it is. Is it an implosion? Well, no. Explosion of the media, yes. But on a deeper level, we all have seen the battle lines being drawn in this country over race, even within the Democratic Party. Why? Is the generational gap just as big of a player in all of this?

Barack Obama has been talking about the racial divide in white and black American activism since he wrote "Dreams from My Father" in 1995. He addressed it, along with Rev. Wright in "The Audacity of Hope" in 2006. This video of the right Rev. Wright and the text of his sermons came up in Iowa just before the caucus. The campaign dealt with it in Iowa just as it has been this week - talking about the generational divide in politics amongst African Americans, and explaining his place and position in a church that has an amazing community outreach. And Iowans got it. And voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. Of course, news shows on FOX weren't fanning the flames and ringing the "unpatriotic" bell over and over again, so sane dialogue on the matter could be had.

I truly wonder if we as Americans are proving ourselves to be not ready for a black President. Every slur that's been aimed at Barack has had a racial underpinning. "He's a Muslim!" - he's not, but in having to defend against that, we've proven Americans as a whole are not tolerant of Muslims and don't trust one in public office. "His middle name is Hussein. Osama rhymes with Obama!" - again, see above about US attitudes toward Muslims. "He doesn't wear a US flag lapel pin!" - neither does McCain and about 1/2 the other people in public office, but no one ever brought that up about them before, so why just Barack? "He doesn't say the Pledge!" - also a lie. Again, questioning his "patriotism" which in turn points back to the "Muslim" rumors, which again, is racist. "His wife isn't proud of America!" - i.e. she's an angry black woman! And now, "His pastor/mentor is anti-American!" - which is basically using the "patriotism" meme to cry reverse racism. It's all racism in some degree or another. I'm sure if Barack were white and going to a fundamentalist Christian Church where his pastor preached about blowing up abortion clinics and killing abortion doctors, no one would care about that.

The fact is, there are a LOT of angry black men and women out there from a previous generation who until this moment, were watching their dream of equality wane as the years of their lives waned. If you remember, at the outset of this race, 50% of African Americans were pro-Hillary. Largely the older generation. Because they didn't dare let themselves believe that a black man could win. It would be too much of a heartbreak if he didn't and they'd pinned their hopes on a great hope one more time. Many spoke of him being assassinated and didn't want to contribute to that. It was the younger generation (aided by Bill Clinton's boneheaded remarks in NH and SC) and the win in Iowa that got them hoping again, and switching their votes from Hillary to Barack. But Barack is, and represents, the next generation - one that is tired of just playing the blame game and wants to turn the page and gain more power through more unified means. Could he have done that if people like Rev. Wright hadn't spoken out and stood up and been counted? NO. Does that mean that Barack must automatically believe that the ways of the last generation must be the ways of his? NO.

I think there is a similar divide in the feminist movement in this election, too. We are seeing a LOT of angry white women in this election. I got screamed at by a group of middle aged women leafleting for Hillary while I was walking my dog and wearing an "Obama '08" pin. I was called a "Self-hater," and a "Gender Traitor." I have felt since the beginning of this election that the far more important issues in this campaign were to remove a DLC powered candidate, who in my opinion represents the worst of feminism - victimization, coat-tail riding on her husband, letting unscrupulous men (Penn, Wolfson) set her campaign's agenda and tone, and using male behavioral patterns to try and justify herself as a woman who can lead (i.e. voting for the AUMF as a blatant political act to make herself look more hawkish and "tough on terror," even though she should've known it wasn't right) than to simply vote for a woman just because I'm a woman. Do I realize that I'm able to make these distinctions because women of another generation, like Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, fought for women when our voices didn't matter? Yes, I am the next generation, and I benefit from the previous generation standing up and being counted. Does that mean that I must automatically believe that the ways of the last generation must be my ways? NO.

I believe there will be a woman elected President in my lifetime, and my hope is, she will have earned it, and won't have been someone important's wife, and she won't come to office with a ton of baggage - historically, lobbyists, etc. But I understand there is a generation of women who fought really hard for things before me, and they see the reality of a woman President waning as their years wane, just as the black people of Rev. Wright's generation see the same reality regarding a black President. Put in this context, Geraldine Ferraro's racially controversial comments this week start to look a lot like Wright's comments. We have two older generations of folk who are angry that they never got their shot, and believe that their time has come, and that time is NOW. And the overriding message coming out of all of this hullabaloo? People aren't over race, yet. Black or white. Even Democrats and those who are supposed to be pro-Civil Rights.

Maybe I'm wrong. We'll see if the general populace will be able to differentiate between Barack and his pastor. Older generation vs. next generation. Barack has been doing some wonderful interviews that have very thoughtfully brought up this very topic. Anderson Cooper and Barack had a pretty great dialogue on it last night on 360, and then David Gergen and Roland Martin and Anderson discussed the same topic with clarity and reason afterwards. If that kind of journalism prevails, this could open up some really important discussions that we need to have as a country. If it just gets turned into a circus sideshow the way FOX likes it to, well, than I feel the country will be worse off for it. Whether Barack's campaign goes on or not. I think the losers will be the American people because this conversation has been about 250 years in the making and needs to happen. Also, we'll lose our first honest to goodness opportunity in our modern times to elect a people-powered, grass-roots, bottom-up, people-funded, PAC-free, lobbyist-free, democratic (in the larger definition of the word) NetRoots candidate who will be answerable to WE THE PEOPLE instead of the ruling class.