Liberalism and black interest in this country never has been anything but a forced marriage.

If you believe somehow that Liberal Paternalism draws its roots in some guilt associative race consciousness – then I suggest you spend some time in Appalachia, a Native American “Reservation”, and with Migrant Workers…

I did all three in a more idealistic portion of my youth.

Read up on H. Rap Brown for a synthesis (and origin) of the Liberal race guilt fantasy.

Funny thing about that Camaro – it was an “every mans sports car”.

You claim – Since the Democrat ideal of social justices is rooted in civic equality and not economic equality its effect is to keep the average African American community in lower economic affluence.

Which is interesting in light that the very same “Great Society” which existed for exactly 8 years under Kennedy and Johnson, while being thoroughly repudiated and submarined by Rethugly Presidents holding office for 28 of the last 40 years…

Should have such a death grip hold on conservative imaginations.

Especially in light of the fact that by almost every statistical economic measure, black folks have made the largest economic transition in the history of this country over the past 40 years…

And despite the fact that the leading negative economic indicators (unemployment and poverty) go up during each and every conservative Presidency.

And as you will recall, if you go back to your old site and pull up a few of my posts from 2-3 years back…

I predicted that conservatism would result in the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression.

If Liberal Paternalism is the common cold, conservative incompetence, ingrained racism, and pigheadedness is AIDS for black folks in this country…

As well as the non-black ones.

Black folks will bear a disproportionate burden of that failure as that great invisible black middle class appreciably shrinks, losing their principal investments. Exactly the same thing happened after Raygun and Poppy’s misguided Administrations.

What part of conservatism as economic policy is a failure is still hard to understand?

As to “Social Justice”, you already know my position is that the only equitable thing is to frogmarch every one of these chicken-fried Rethugly SOBs who sold their country down the river to the nearest light post…

And hang ‘em.

Never let it be said that BT isn’t compassionate!

When has there ever been any single person or event that resulted in immediate or significant (within a short period of time) changes with regards to inequity? The civil rights movement was gradual. The Black Power Movement (Huey Newton, Angela Davis, Black Panthers, etc.) lasted for over a dacade… and although there were key players in these instances, no one person was singularly responsible for immediate gains or progress. Everything involved community and was gradual, or generational.

Should Obama be viewed any differently?

The primary difference of course would be that those people are entertainers and Obama is a (the most) powerful politician. So, substantive change may come in the form of legislation that would or could potentially deal with systemic inequities, say, in housing or the law. We’ll see.

Or better yet, how will we define a succesful Obama presidency for us?

That is a systemic issue.

We have to remember that for years Black folks have been visibly running things in all sectors. CEO’s, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell and more. This has done nothing to materially change the very slow growth in our position here in America. I have no reason to believe that Obama’s election will be any different.

The reason for this is we live in what is called by some a global / corporatist / instrumental world. Meaning that the primary morality is the ability to make a profit, and the primary evaluator of an individual is his / her ability to be productive in a corporatist environment.

Because of historic racism, Blacks as a group are the least productive, therefore Black instrumentality as a group is low, meaning we have less value and access to the system. I don’t think the election of 1 Black man can change that system because it is a global system now.

That however doesn’t mean that he doesn’t benefit us in certain ways.

As for Obama’s part in changing things from a systemic or institutional perspective, that can be better determined in another couple of years. I think he’s off to a good start – through many of his choices for various cabinet positions – but no one can know for sure until well after Jan. 20th.

Generally, I do believe that there are no absolutes in either party – Dem or Repub, and the way to move forward would be to take the best ideas from both philosophies into consideration. Although the evils of extreme liberalism are highlighted in the essay, we’ve lived through the evils of extreme republicanism for the past 8 years.