Herman

Cain

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June 9, 2008

With Obama’s Success, Fairness Moves to the Front of the Bus

Barack Obama’s victory in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination was not just historic because of the color of his skin. It was a historic victory for fairness in America. As imperfect as our political system can be at times, fairness moved to the front of the bus.

Attempts by some to make race, sexism or class warfare central issues in the campaign have failed. They are still issues and will be throughout the general election to November 2008, but they are now riding in the back of the bus.

Most of the mainstream media missed this historic significance for fairness. I did not, because I grew up in Atlanta in the 1950s and 1960s when I was not allowed to ride in the front of the bus because of the color of my skin, which is black.

I also experienced as a young man the indignity of separate water fountains in downtown Atlanta’s retail department stores, and all other public accommodations. Having graduated from high school in 1963, one year before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed such practices, I experienced unfairness and discrimination firsthand.

I was denied admission to both the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, even though I graduated from Samuel Howard Archer High School in 1963 with the second highest grade point average in my class as salutatorian. As a result, I attended Morehouse College and, in hindsight, I ended up with a great education and a much better college experience.

I’m not mad. I just see Obama’s accomplishment through a different set of lenses, as a lot of black people do. Although there are millions of accomplished black Americans in all fields of endeavor, becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is special.

No. I am not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black and I am black, as some people will do. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we should judge a candidate based on the content of their character and their ideas, not the color of their skin.

Barack Obama’s ideas for changing this country are disturbing to me, because they add up to more taxes, more government, more handouts and less individual responsibility. A lot of people who are excited about his candidacy have not looked past the word “change”. I have, and all of his ideas have socialist leanings. It does not sound that way when he is delivering one of his inspiring and eloquent speeches, but that’s what it is.

If you would like to look behind the Obama curtain of “change” you can find a summary by The Associated Press titled, “Where they stand: Obama, McCain on the issues” dated June 3, 2008. Decide for yourself.

The Democratic Party allowed the process to play out fairly, which is good for America, the Democratic Party and the political process.

The Democratic Party leadership could have stolen the nomination from Barack Obama, if they had reversed their decision to not allow delegates from Michigan and Florida to have full voting rights, since they went against party rules before the primary contest began. The Democratic Party tried to appease them and Hillary Clinton with a half vote per delegate, but it was not enough to change the final outcome.

The Democrats could have also stolen the nomination from Barack Obama if the superdelegates had caved in to the lobbying by Hillary and her team in the face of an impending defeat.

They did not.

Some of Hillary’s supporters are now saying Hillary was not treated fairly because she is a woman. If Barack Obama had lost, there is no doubt that some of his supporters would have said he was not treated fairly because he is black.

I never said that race and sexism were totally off the bus. But it is up to all of us to keep them in the back of the bus.

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