The politics of affirmative action

With Barack Obama’s historic (and hysteric) ascension to the White House, a giant hurdle in American politics has been breached. Rejoice, for the Age of Affirmative Action Politics has finally arrived! Mr. Obama’s speech, while characteristically lacking in substance, did contain an admixture of all the right words, yet somehow failed to proclaim the end of racism in America. My guess would be the reason for that failure was to keep from alienating all those who are still investing in that conceit.

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Among those is one Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Who as Mr. Obama’s “mentor” for two decades guided him to the threshold of his historic mission and almost derailed that mission when the substance of his teachings were made public. The Rev. Wright recently appeared as a guest preacher at Washington’s Howard University, a prominent, mostly African American school. In his sermon the Rev. Wright stated, “Michelle Obama is the first African-American sleeping in the White House legally, and she is sleeping there not as a kept woman like Sally Hemings, she is sleeping there as a first lady of the United States of America.  But hold on, sisters.  Hold on, sisters.  You can one day be sleeping there as the first female President of the United States of America.  Stand up.” Again what we are hearing is a call for affirmative action in the political process so that others of the aggrieved classes can also enjoy the fruits of power. So now that America has its first real black President (sorry, Mr. Clinton), we can now look toward the horizon in search of other windmills. Certainly a female President will be the next hurdle we will be forced to jump, if not a black female President (for which the Rev. Wright definitely seemed to favor Michele Obama). Then there are other hurdles. What about the first handica...er, physically challenged President. We all know that FDR was stricken with polio and was thus unable to walk. But somehow with the collusion of the media (some things never change), Mr. Roosevelt managed to keep that a secret. We can now look forward to the time when opposing a Presidential candidate who happens to be confined to a wheelchair will result in accusations of insensitivity as those who opposed Mr. Obama were accused of being racist. We have also never had a mentally challenged President, albeit judging by the performance of some past Presidents that point is debatable. A President with mental or intellectual challenges would cure that quickly and make everyone feel good. And what about the gay lobby? Isn’t it about time that the country had its first openly gay President? This could be a President of either sex and could thus kill three birds with one stone if that openly gay President also happened to be a black woman. Four if she were handicapped as well. JFK was the country’s first Catholic President, as all others before him happened to be Protestant of some sort. Yet we’ve never had a Jewish of Muslim President, although the latter will quite likely be in office before the former. Also, it’s important to think about those millions and millions of undocumented workers who happened to have made it into the United States and now live here without political representation. Soon we will be able to celebrate the inauguration of the first illegal immigrant to be elected President, as a yet to be formed Undocumented Workers’ Party will literally outnumber both the Democrats and the Republicans combined and represent a power block no one had actually reckoned on. We also have a fairly vibrant youth movement, which could result in America’s first teenage President. The Constitutional proviso that the President be at least age 35+ could stand, as we seem to have some fairly old teenagers living with their parents these days. Finally, yet not least importantly, America will not have run the full gamut of Affirmative Action Politics until a Native American becomes President. The candidate’s policies won’t matter, as the very fact that a member of one of America’s most aggrieved sub-groups seeking high office should automatically get the nation’s nod. After America has finished its infatuation with all its oppressed groups, perhaps someone will come back with the novel idea of politics that revolve around ideas and issues.