Wright may be wrong…and bitterness
Sure some of the American people are bitter...
Let us stop beating around the bush on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright matter and use the term that Senator Obama, Lanny Davis and other detractors of his rhetoric is called: Liberation Theology. The main components of this school by which Rev. Wright interprets the existence of a deity is an amalgamation of two components the social gospel of Jesus Christ with the inculcation of critical thinking skills.
Rev. Wright represents one end of the spectrum of the Black community, as does Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharton, and John Lewis each have their message, whether we agree or not, and each have an important role to play to help both the Black and white communities struggle with solutions to institutional racism and perceptions.
How does a school teacher get the attention of their students, by the use of set theory. One of the methods employed by this is to use hyperbole designed to elicit the class’s attention.
Rev. Wright’s rhetoric can be viewed as the employ of such an approach. His exaggerations were designed to arouse the attention of his congregants so they would understand both the gospel message and the disparity between the message and reality.
As Senator Obama said in his speech “we must do unto others” what about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What about the overt and covert operations undertaken in Latin America in order to undermine the Latin American Liberation Theology movement? The results, perhaps not the actions themselves, received the support of the Catholic Church. Movement central figures and its tenets have been excoriated by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. While as Senator Obama articulates the role of liberation theology and the obligations of Christians is to “love one another, lift up the poor.” The bible and liberation theological perspective fuses “survival, freedom and hope.”
It also inspires a new politics or becomes a part of the new paradigm of politics that Senator Obama and others, like me, are trying to fuse.
Lanny Davis is a crony of the old politics which is manifest by Senator Clinton’s campaign. She needs division for division not unity is the basis of the old coalition the old governing consensus of us against them.
As early as 1968 there were those of us who talked about the neo-colonization of the ghetto and the development of the modern structures of racism: the criminal "justice" system, welfare and educational system. Great Society programs created both a black underclass of recipients and a Black middle class of administrators . The same held true for urban Hispanic communities. Consequently, it became concomitant upon the administrators of the system to ensure the continued existence of recipients , which, as Sen. Obama noted, “Helped to create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect?”
Many of today’s leaders in the Black community grew out of those Great Society programs. In point of fact, racial gerrymandering too, the result of the Voting Rights Act, is responsible for the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. Davis and I agree that Sen. Obama should have spoken out publicly about Rev. Wright’s statements, not doing so at the time they were made shows bad judgment on his part. His words were needed to temper those of his Pastor’s. By his silence he has allowed his faith-based community, Afro-centric Liberation Theology and the United Church of Christ to become mischaracterized by the media and misunderstood by the public. What he gave us ex post facto is the most important political speech of the last half-century; but the Wright incident should not have been its’ catalysis. His speech is a cogent critique of race relations in America and stands alone in this regard.
What is a bad judgment of Mrs. Clinton’s: her support for the war in Iraq; the racist tactics used by her husband in South Carolina; the remarks of Geraldine Ferraro; the release of a picture of Sen. Obama to the Drudge Report? Does Senator Clinton disown her husband; my God she has had plenty of reason, or Mrs. Ferraro; or overzealous aides?
These issues and others will dog Mrs. Clinton in a General Election, as no doubt the unscrupulous attempts to Swift Boat Senator McCain.
Will they work? With some voters they will. Will this election turn on Rev. Wright or the economy, the Iraq War, health care, mortgage foreclosures; and of primary importance, will it forge a new consensus in America? Does Rev. Wright have a right to participate in this dialogue? Do radicals on the right? If a presidential candidate has a relationship with a person of the right or the left does this exclude them from running? Let’s ask John McCain about Rev. Hagee.
(Joe Garcia is a Miami, Fl-based political consultant.)
