Rebuttal to "White Guilt is Dead" by Tom Adkins

A family member forwarded on this unfortunate and pathetic rant: "White Guilt Is Dead" by Tom Adkins. My response:

White Americans didn't vote for Obama out of some sense of "white guilt". They voted for Obama because:

• Foreign policy: Obama advocated a progressive foreign policy based on cooperation with our allies and diplomacy, not one based on unilateral military action. .

• Energy Policy: Obama defined an energy policy based on renewal energy and true energy independence -- with investments in wind, solar and battery technologies. By contrast, the McCain campaign's motto was "Drill Baby Drill". Thomas Friedman summed it up best in his column "Making America Stupid". This was a critical point for people of my generation.
  

• Economic Policy: On the economy Obama demonstrated maturity and poise. By contrast, John McCain was erratic and displayed surprising naivete, referring to the "fundamentals of the American economy" as "strong" only days before the largest stock market crash in decades. Then he decided to "suspend his campaign" to return to Washington where he was neither needed nor wanted:

• Positive campaign: Obama was seen as running a largely positive campaign, a refreshing change compared to the "Swift Boating" of the 2004 campaign or the negative campaign run against John McCain himself in South Carolina in 2000. Ironically, even though the public felt McCain ran a more negative campaign, many senior Republicans lambasted him for not running a negative enough campaign.

And quite possibly the most important reason:

• Selection of Vice President: On the most important decision a major party candidate could make before being elected, Obama selected one of his most qualified adversaries. Joe Biden, although prone to sticking his foot in his mouth, is one of the most knowledgeable men in the Senate on foreign policy, and he's made some of the best suggestions on the way forward in Iraq.
  

• By contrast, McCain selected Sarah Palin, an unqualified candidate who carried her ignorance as a badge of honor. I can only guess McCain cynically hoped that Palin would capture disaffected Hilary Clinton supporters and shore up his right flank with the Christian Conservatives. Had McCain selected Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, he may even have won the election! The selection of Sarah Palin blew it on McCain's biggest positive: his experience.

The fact that Obama was black didn't factor in my decision in any way. As far as Obama's heritage, what was far more important was that he rose from humble beginnings to excel. That's not a black, white or hispanic story. That's an American story.

But while we're on the subject of racism, perhaps Mr. Adkins might comment on the usual dirty tricks practiced during this election -- mostly in the south.

For example, distribution of flyers on predominantly minority college campuses warning students if they had parking tickets they could be arrested when they showed up to vote. Or the distribution of flyers to senior citizens (again, mostly minority) that due to the large crowds, election day for Democrats would be on Wednesday.

Or perhaps Adkins could dedicate his next column to the woman shot dead for backing out of a Ku Klux Clan initiation in Louisiana. This didn't happen years ago -- it happened last week.

It would appear to me that racism is alive and well in America.

Finally, as I observed the festivities on election night, I remarked to my friends (both Republican and Democrat) that "only the most recalcitrant curmudgeon could say this was anything but a good thing for our country."

I see Tom Adkins has proved me correct. Forget about the so-called "Era of White Guilt". We'll be better off when his "Era of the Angry Old White Man" is over.

There's a first time for everything

Hello everyone!

I've discussed my political viewpoints with family & friends for many years now. I have voted Republican for four presidents: George H. W. Bush in 1992, Bob Dole in 1996, George W. Bush in 2000 and George W. Bush again in 2004.

However, it was around the time of the 2004 election that I began referring to myself as a "Reluctant Republican". The Iraq war was starting to go badly, there were almost daily gaffs by Bush and I watched our federal budget deficit ballooning.

I was never an enthusiastic supporter of the Preemptive War concept. But I took some solace in Thomas Friedman's D-Day column in which he referred to "turning lemons into lemonade". Like Friedman, I, too was hopeful. But then I saw the degree of incompetence in which the peace (occupation) of Iraq was conducted and I was horrified.

Nonetheless, I voted for Bush a second time thinking he was "the man to fix Iraq". Unfortunately, I was wrong. Iraq didn't get better, it got worse. And there were increasing challenges to my faith in the party at home. The Terry Schiavo case dealt a mortal blow to my confidence in the party. Why would the party of "smaller government" and a party based on the precept of "staying out of people's lives" go to such great lengths to control the private, personal lives of two people? I was particularly sickened by Tom Delay's disgusting comments.

Next came the scandals of Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff. The Republican party appeared rife with corruption. I wasn't amused. Iraq continued to get worse. "But look at the economy" I would say -- "if Bush was so wrong, why was the stock market at 14,000? Why is home ownership at record levels?" And then the economy began to tank. Incredulous, I watched a Republican administration partly nationalize our banking system.

Although I supported McCain in 2000, I became an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama. And I decided to put the proverbial pen to paper and begin blogging on my thoughts. Imagine my surprise when I checked out Blogger.com to see that Relucant Republican was taken. As was The Reluctant Republican. And Rational Republican. I could see I was not alone.

So I settled on (Another) Reluctant Republican.

Welcome!