Déjà vu


I hate to bring this up but I am having flash backs.

In the eighties, I was involved indirectly with what had started out as a dream and turned into a contentious nightmare, the Rainbow Coalition. The Coalition attempted to put a happy face on politics representing the diversity and different perspectives of people across the land. It was an experiment that up til then had little precedent..

At the beginning, we were all idealistic liberals and democrats working together for a perfect party. The general direction of the party was to entertain change for the party bringing people of color the measure of equality they sought.

In the early days, the Reverend Jackson, who was the titular head of the coalition, seemed to be the ideal candidate to take the place of the revered Martin Luther King.

Then things started to take on a life of their own.

The candidate seemed to line up with radical Black Islam….

And then Jackson made some unfortunate remarks and failed to redress them, actions that were not wasted on their liberal support base—causing them to fall away from the “coalition.”

At the same time, White Protestants and Catholics started to think that the Democratic party, the party they had grown up with, no longer looked familiar or represented their interests; thus, the Reagan democrats.

It took twenty years for some of them to drift back; most, have filled the ranks of “independents.” And never rejoined the democrats.

It is hard to believe that such an honorable purpose had turned bad so early in the political game.

Why do I bring this up?


What is particularly a concern of mine today is not the candidate, it is the voter.

The question that will decide the candidacy of Obama is whether the electorate has grown and matured sufficiently to consider a new type of candidate, a man of color, a man who thinks and acts differently than most candidates, a man who wants to get beyond our own limitations and circumscribed view of the world..

We know the problem is not with Obama; it is with us.

That is the real bedrock issue.

We know that the South drifted away from the Democratic party after Johnson pushed through his civil right reforms.

My concerns, based upon the charges and counter charges among the candidates and the prejudices of the voters have surfaced and it is clear that the values, spirituality and other non-political issues have taken center stage again.

Therefore, if we cannot rise above the religious and values issues, how can we be expected to deal with color as an issue and so many willing to believe that the world began with Jesus.

If Obama wins the primary, we may find ourselves immersed up to our necks in the issues of the fifties.

During one debate at a church in Brooklyn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and I shared the same few seats.. Jackson was scheduled as the keynote speaker.

I was so awed that such a man of peace would participate in this wonderful experiment but at the same time worried that perhaps mankind was not ready for such a test. We were already seeing signs of fragmentation in the ranks.

Events later proved me right.


The question continues in my own mind: Are we ready to embrace the man and ignore his faith or his color or his creed?

Not from what I’ve been hearing…..

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon