Where exactly do Republicans and conservatives fit in a political space where Barack Obama will soon assume the powers and duties of the President of the United States?
When posing this question, I am not asking whether Republicans will be included in the Obama cabinet although it is likely one will be. If unity is one of the objectives of an Obama Presidency how would President Obama reach out to Republicans and conservatives? Would President Obama direct his supporters to hold out the olive branch?
I recently had the opportunity to hear civil rights icon and Georgia Democratic Congressman John Lewis speak at
Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. His lecture was largely a testimonial of his first hand experience in the civil rights movement. Lewis was a contemporary of Martin Luther King, Jr. and like King he put his life on the line in standing up for the equality of all Americans before the law. Lewis became a Freedom Rider in 1961 and was beaten bloody by white mobs for his trouble. But this did not deter him. Lewis would sustain a concussion and skull fracture from Alabama state troopers during a non-violent protest march in 1965 he led from Selma to Montgomery on the Edmund Pettis Bridge. But this did not deter him. Unlike King, Lewis would live to tell his story. He would become an Atlanta City Councilor before his election to Congress in 1986.
Although I have occasionally been subject to ridicule for my beliefs, I cannot say I have ever been in a position where my life was put in jeopardy because of them. John Lewis has known such jeopardy simply because he exercised the rights all Americans should have and for that he has my utmost respect.
It would be an understatement to say that John Lewis was elated by the victory of Barack Obama. He said it has moved him to tears and to accept hugs from complete strangers. While Lewis initially supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, he would switch his endorsement once Obama eclipsed Clinton in the delegate total in late February, 2008. Lewis said Obama’s election made America “a better country and a better people.” He went on to say that America, even Republicans, were “one people, one family.” “We all live in the same house and we all have a place at the table,” said Lewis.
If Republicans and presumably conservatives have a place at America’s table, I cannot help but think that we would be assigned the worst seat. Not only would we have the worst seat we would get the smallest portions during mealtimes. I also suspect that we would be expected to do the heaviest lifting with very little reward to show for it. Republicans and conservatives would probably be asked to sleep out on the back porch after a hard day’s labor.
John Lewis is an American hero. But American heroes aren’t above criticism. John McCain considered Lewis an American hero. McCain went as far as to tell Pastor Rick Warren and national television audience at the Saddleback Forum last August that he was one of the three wisest people in America that he would seek out for counsel if elected President.
Despite such lofty praise from McCain, it did not prevent Lewis from accusing McCain and Sarah Palin last month of “sowing the seeds of hatred and division.” He asserted their campaign rallies reminded him “too much of another destructive period in American history.” Lewis would evoke George Wallace and the 1963 church bombing in Birmingham that claimed the life of four little girls.
But having listened to Lewis’ testimonial about his struggles in the 1960s, I failed to make any connection between activities in the McCain-Palin campaign and a church bombing forty-five years ago that resulted in the deaths of innocent children. So during the Q & A session, I challenged Lewis’ assertion. I told Lewis that I had no recollection of McCain uttering, “Segregation now; segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.” Nor did I recall Governor Palin ever blocking a schoolhouse door. I asked Lewis if such remarks had the effect of diminishing the meaning of racism.
Lewis affirmed his remarks by stating that he was not referring to statements made by McCain or Palin but rather by the behavior of those attending their rallies. (If Lewis had no beef with McCain and Palin how was it they were sowing the seeds of hatred?)
He based this information on things he saw on television and had read in the newspaper, specifically citing there had been people at McCain-Palin rallies who said “kill him” in reference to Obama. Lewis was given a hearty round of applause for his answer.
There was only one problem. What Lewis said wasn’t true. Evidently, he didn’t read The Times Leader, a newspaper out of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. According to
The Times Leader, the agent in charge of the local Secret Service field office stated the incident never occurred based on interviews with people who were at the Sarah Palin rally in Scranton on October 14th.
Nobody at the rally said “kill him.” Nobody at that rally called for Barack Obama to be assassinated much less acted upon it.
After the Q&A session, I went downstairs to try to get a word with him directly. After shaking his hand, I told him the Secret Service officially disputed the “kill him” statement. Lewis looked at me as if I was a lobster trying to reason with a chef bent on boiling it. Nothing I could say would convince John Lewis that people who supported McCain and Palin weren’t racists and purveyors of hatred ready to kill Obama. This made me sad rather than angry.
No one can question John Lewis where it concerns the civil rights movement because he was there. However, it is our duty to question John Lewis where it concerns conservative political activism because he wasn’t there. He simply saw it on TV and read about it in the newspaper and accepted what was put out at face value. He accepted it because he wanted to believe it. I thought John Lewis was better than that, but I alas I was wrong. Hero or no hero, John Lewis is a human being with both virtues and faults.
Whatever Lewis might say about the House of Obama, I do not believe that Republicans and conservatives have a place in it. This goes well beyond disagreement on the issues of the day. Many of Barack Obama’s supporters and liberals in general have a deep rooted conviction that Republicans and conservatives are inherently bigoted and predisposed to racism and all kinds of other hatreds. So long as such an attitude prevails we are better off staying away from the House of Obama.
If Barack Obama genuinely wants help from people whose support he has yet to earn, then he can earn it by publicly telling his supporters be they John Lewis or a first-time voter to stop calling Republicans, conservatives and other people with whom they disagree racists. This would go a long way in demonstrating the House of Obama is welcome to all people. However, in the real world such an admonition from Obama is about as likely as an apology from John Lewis to McCain, Palin and their supporters.
Republicans and conservatives are better off to rebuild our own house rather than wait for the day the welcome mat is rolled out to grant us entry into the House of Obama.
Aaron Goldstein was a card carrying member of the socialist New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP). Since 09/11, Aaron has reconsidered his ideological inclinations and has become a Republican. Aaron lives and works in Boston. 
