"Race Doesn't Matter."

Tomorrow is a big day.

It's time for us to turn the page on the past.

There is one candidate who can help us do it.

From Peter Wehner at the Washington Post:

...unlike Clinton and especially John Edwards, Obama has a message that, at its core, is about unity and hope rather than division and resentment. He stresses that "out of many we are one." And to his credit, Barack Obama is running a color-blind campaign. "I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina," Obama said in his victory speech last weekend. "I saw South Carolina." That evening, his crowd of supporters chanted as one, "Race doesn't matter." This was an electric moment. Obama's words are in the great tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. Obama, more than any figure in America, can help bind up the racial wounds of America. In addition, for the past eight years, one of the most prominent qualities of the American left has been anger, which has served it and the country very poorly. An Obama primary win would be a move away from the politics of rage.

Whatever you may think about your preferred candidate, you've gotta admit, a statement like that is powerful beyond belief.

Race Doesn't Matter.

Tears come to my eyes just thinking about it.

It truly does not and should not matter. I work in a field that is the definition of color-blind. But to see a political movement that makes this powerfully humanistic statement in a place where race has most definitely mattered in the most tragic way for hundreds of years, is something that gives me an irrational spark of hope that has been dead in my heart for a long time.

I've cast my ballot. And I've cast it for hope.

I've cast it because I want America to show its best face to humanity. After we have shown it our worst face for eight long years.

I'm as angry as or angrier than most because of what has happened to us and to our Nation.

But now I'm tired of anger.

I want the light of hope to be back in our hearts, and I want people around the world to see that light again, after this terrible period of darkness for our Nation.

Race Doesn't Matter.

•  However you vote tomorrow

  God bless you and our Republic.

  by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:32:45 PM PDT

•  Gosh, just by saying it, race doesn't matter.

  If only it were that simple.

  I cast my ballot for the person most determined to do the hard work required to restore the circumstances that permit us to hope.

  by Bensdad on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:48:09 PM PDT

  •  Obama is inspiring people to ACT

    He inspired a former staffer of Strom Thurmond to support his campaign in South Carolina.

    Words absolutely do matter.

    And I don't need permission to hope. If ever did, God help me.

    by modemocrat on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:52:01 PM PDT

    •  Finally someone Gets It

      Yep. Plenty of people can talk like Bubba.

      But he wore out his welcome with me after his hijinks in South Carolina. It was then painfully obvious, in his blunt comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson, that the Clintons see African-Americans as just another pressure group to satisfy.

      But get back down in that back seat, you know who's driving this bus.

      Thank you.

      by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:54:58 PM PDT

      •  Hijinks schmijinks...

        ..a reporter said "Hey, Obama's won two in a row" to which Bill Clinton truthfully replied, "Yeah, and so did Jesse Jackson".

        It's a rorschach test. Most people will see a plain statement that winning two isn't winning all.

        Others will inject race into a comment that is only "racial" because the candidate referred to is black. Now who's seeing race? You are.

        by Bensdad on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:37:01 PM PDT

        •  Bill: Obama /= Jackson.

          Sorry, but pretty much everybody who isn't living under a rock knew EXACTLY what Bill was saying.

          Get a grip. You're in denial.

          by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:44:42 PM PDT

        •  So stick with your candidate

          who is guaranteed to deliver another Republican to the WH. People will vote AGAINST Hillary. Actively. She ain't attracting ANY Republicans or independents.

          And her cohort dislikes young voters. In fact, I get the distinct impression after the New Hampshire vote that they don't like anyone under the age of 40. She and the DLC crowd will dampen the turnout of these new young voters, because their interests are not the same. There's a schism in this country between the Silent/Boomer cohort on one hand, who were all able to buy cheap real estate and have their Social Security retirement assured, and the Gen X / Gen Y / Millenials who can't pay off their student loans, can't afford a house anywhere near any of the meaningful job bases, and face an increasingly difficult job market.

          On a personal level, my pastor is one such person. My mother is another. (For the record, I'm 49.) Neither of them get it. They have the same frame of reference from 40 years ago. The world has changed.

          There is an orthodoxy in the Clinton camp that is just as noxious and self-serving as that on the Rethuglican side. Clinton's comments in South Carolina were a good if toxic illustration of it. I reject it. That's one big reason why I voted, worked for and contributed to Obama. And will continue to do so.

          Her organization also hates the grassroots. Ever hear of the DLC? She's pretty much their head. They wish people like us would go away. They hold DailyKos and the netroots in contempt. Are those the people you want to continue to run the Democratic Party?

          Because I want to win. Hillary has Loser stamped all over her.

          by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:58:01 PM PDT

          •  Hillary has had more trouble...

            ..reaching younger voters, but Barack has had a concomittant problem in reaching older voters. There are reasons for that. The schism in this country is not as you describe. Democratic boomers care very much about the economy and the way it has affected young and old. You and I both feel for people in their twenties who are not growing up with as much promise as you and I knew when we were there age (and we took it for granted). Hillary cares about those people, too, even though her Demographic skews a little older.

            Loser? She won the Senate seat twice after being one of the most humuliated women in history. Did she lay down and die? Oh, no. Not her!

            No one knows what horrors await the nominee...whether it's Barack or Hillary. Already, the internet is full of "Barack's a Muslim" (and people believe it) or "We can't have a dynasty in America!!"  It will get much, much worse no matter who our nominee is, and they seem to be already be ahead in the propaganda game.

            I don't think Hillary holds the netroots in contempt. She was the only one who came to the Kos convention. She was rewarded with your scorn. Is it any wonder, you reject her first? Fame, fame, fame, fame.

            Hope shmope. This is a fucking war. And she's a warrior.

            by Bensdad on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 10:23:35 PM PDT

  •  You think I'M that naive?

    Please.

    I'm certainly not naive enough to think the Clinton Machine will do that.

    by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:52:12 PM PDT

  •  say...

    Someone who gave up a high powered law career to teach communities how to organize, doing the hard work in the grassroots?

    Sounds good.

    by mattw on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:57:44 PM PDT

  •  It's not about "just saying it"

    I know you're not that ignorant.

    It's about a mindset change.

    by broui on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:10:07 PM PDT

    •  I'm still so angry about so many things

      and I can understand cynicism.

      But this time is different for me.

      I don't usually like to bare my feelings like that, because of the snide comments I can get. But this time I don't care.

      I just wish I could do more.

      by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:18:39 PM PDT

•  Race?

  What Race?

  :-)

  Remember to vote early and often.

  by Mr X on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:58:50 PM PDT

  •  Lol.

    I DID vote early. But as for the often part, I'll have to work on that.

    by The Lighthouse Keeper on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 09:03:33 PM PDT

•  Alas, race DOES matter

  I love your diary, felt moved by this entry & wish that what you said was true. I guess race doesn't matter so much any more between whites & blacks any more (though many still want us to believe it does). But it still seems to matter an awful lot amongst the African American, Latino, & Asian American communities. After all, they're fighting over the same jobs & turf. If only the world could be more like the Valley of Silicon, only less expensive ;^)

  by RussianRiverRattina on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 10:39:49 PM PDT