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Barrack Obama’s campaign is a position of a nationalist. His campaigns are based on national issues that affect all Americans regardless of whether they are whites or blacks. In as much as he is taking the advantage of his family origin as he conducts his campaigns, he is advocating for equal opportunities in both the white and the black communities (Baldson, pp 12). His manifesto addresses issues affecting all Americans like health, education, employment, security, and natural calamities such as global warming effects among other issues. In America today, there are two kinds of nationalism that seem to catch the ears of most of the campaigners. There is the issue of civic and racial nationalism. Civic nationalism is the belief that to become a truly American one must believe and adhere to specific ideological tenets. For example, men are created equal and the country is about freedom.
Racial nationalism is taken as a belief that only a certain group of people are capable, perhaps because of certain ascribed qualities that other groups are excluded not because they cannot do better than other groups but because of who they are (Larson,11-45). To me, it seems that the two strains of nationalism are present in Obama’s presidential campaigns. This can be justified by the recent speech Obama made concerning the race in America and his candidacy in general (Baldson, pp 12). Many are the people who are ascribing his characteristics as, black, he is half white, he is not white enough, he is not black enough and he can straddle the racial divide. His candidacy too mere often gets to racial matter. Obama has also opened up possibilities for his campaigns based on primarily civic nationalism. He argues that he has the capability of bridging the differences in that he will put the race on the table and to have the hardest conversations will be the best demonstration of commitment especially to the belief that unites all the Americans (Larson,11-45). Bill Richardson appealed for this in his endorsement of Barrack Obama.
Obama’s campaigns are based on the idea that he is seen to understand the American as it is currently, majority of the Americans see him as intelligent, compassionate, a visionary leader for the future, and a leader with the ability to unite all Americans regardless of their skin color. It is quite ironic, and sarcastic that arrack Obama a presidential candidate who vows to end racism in his campaigns owes his majority support among the blacks as a continued strength and power of African-American nationalism. For more than a century now, black nationalism has provided the main ideological challenge more so to the social and liberal democratic sensibilities that have continued dominating in black politics (Baldson, pp 12). To many, it is believed that if were it not for black nationalism’s ideological impact, Senator Obama’s support among the black Americans would have remained divided between him and Hillary Clinton. Black liberalism is seen as a political ideology that usually emphasizes support and backing up of individuals rights is generally pro-capitalist (Larson,11-45). As Obama falls under this liberal ideological camp, the developing black movement in support of Obama’s campaign has some black nationalism markings in it (Gordie, 2008).
During the early campaigns of Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the two were dividing the black votes. This did not go for long because the majority of the Blacks came to support Obama especially with Iowa’s caucuses and the South Carolina and New Hampshire primaries (Larson,11-45). The main reason for this change could be the feelings the black Americans had at the beginning of the year. They were a bit skeptical than the whites about Barrack Obama’s capability to win the votes of the white Americans and secondly many of the blacks were unfamiliar with Barrack Obama himself( Barrack Obama U.S. Senate Office 5-24). It was the attacks by the Hillary Clinton campaign and its surrogates like Andrew Young and Bob Johnson against Barrack Obama that first saw a massive black outrage and developed into broad black American support for Senator Barrack Obama. The solidarity of the blacks for Obama’s campaign should not be viewed as a nationalist response. His support especially after primary in South Carolina evoked hints of nationalism (Baldson, pp 12).
The life of Obama portrays the very essence of nationalism. He is a son of a black East African Kenyan father and a white mother who hailed from Kansas. He was raised with the help of a white grandfather and grandmother. Obama went to one of the best schools in America and also lived in one of the poorest nations. Obama has married a black American, a daughter to a slave and a slave-owner. This means that he is a relative to many brothers, sisters, nephews, cousins, nieces, and uncles of every race and has scattered all over the world (Gordie, 2008). His image has been compared to a cultural Rorschach test especially by his supporters and his critics too. He is viewed as a neutral persona on whom individuals can emulate and project personal aspirations and their histories. Obama is also taking advantage of his family origin while doing his campaigns. As a matter of fact, in 2004, a magazine described him as an “everyman” image. His political career was not based on participating in civil rights movements used by most black American politicians. Even though many people view Obama’s candidacy as through a racial lens, Obama throughout his campaign has been preaching peace and unity for all Americans whether black and white. Obama has won on many of the white predominant States during the recent primaries (Larson,11-45).
Although Obama agrees that racial campaigns have played part in his campaigns, he does not advocate for that, in fact, he has denounced his campaigners who use race to campaign for him. He dismissed them as wide-eyed liberals with intentions to purchase racial reconciliation. He even denounced his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright who used incendiary language to portray a racial divide. To him, such comments were not only bad ones but divisive especially at a time when unity among all Americans was needed most (Gordie, 2008). His campaigns also aim at solving challenges like, terrorist threats, health care crisis, falling economy, and devastating climatic changes (Problems that confront blacks, whites, Latino, and Asians). As Obama continues to campaign, he thinks that the elected leaders could overcome the political imbalance of the nation’s black communities as they (leaders) could lead the community out of the unrealistic politics-integration assimilation. Barrack Obama’s political vision was natured in the 1980s by his job as an organizer in the far south side communities of Altgeld Gardens and Roseland from the racial nationalism and the civic nationalism, Barrack Obama is using economic nationalism to campaign for his presidential candidacy(Larson,11-45). After few weeks of the primaries and caucuses, economic issues have now shaped the campaign strategies for the Democratic presidential campaign Barrack Obama and have focused on what the political analysts and economist would call it an economic nationalism. This idea of economic nationalism is not a new strategy in most of the presidential candidate’s campaigns (Baldson, pp 12). The oratory Barrack Obama is every other day talking about including many and renowned economists in his government to address the issues of the economic crisis in America. He aims at uplifting the economic standards of all Americans.
In Barrack Obama’s manifesto, he is promising all Americans to enact health care policies that would cater to the health care needs of all Americans regardless of whether they are black or white (Barrack Obama U.S. Senate Office 5-24). Obama also aims at turning around the economic status and uplift the living standards of the poorest Americans of all races (Gordie, 2008). He also aims at addressing issues dealing with drug addicts and abusers. This problem has affected youths of all races in America. A nationalist campaign of Barrack Obama is also promising to address the issues concerning climatic changes more so the devastating effects of global warming that is affecting every American whether White or Black or an Asian. Rivers are drying up, pollution of the air due to the greenhouse effect, water levels are increasing due to the high rate of melting of the ice bags, increase in temperatures, and low agricultural productivity among other effects that are affecting the Americans (Gordie, 2008). The security issues like terrorism are affecting Americans of all races and religions. Barrack Obama is vowing to address the issues of war in Iraq where the American soldiers who constitute both the Blacks and whites are suffering. The climatic conditions are unfavorable for them and are being killed by the Iraqis with bombs. By him promising to address these problems during his campaigns, Obama is indeed taking his campaigns to a nationalist kind of position. Another nationalistic view of Obama’s campaign is the issue of Latin America the “backyard”.He argues that the Bush administration concentrated on the issues of the Middle East and the war in Iraq and neglected their very own region. Obama promises to consider the region’s challenges and also have their policies addressed at Washington (Baldson, pp 12).
In a general conclusion, Barrack Obama’s campaign strategies are based on a nationalistic position where it addresses all issues pertains the welfare of all Americans regardless of their race. He has promised to address issues regarding national security as a threat to all Americans, uniting both the whites and the blacks has been his main objective during his campaigns. In addition to these, he has promised to deal with issues concerning the American economy that is felt by most economists to have fallen. Challenges of health care systems that are workable in America will be addressed to reverse the current health crisis. Obama has also promised to upgrade the education system in America. These are just but a few policies Barrack Obama has promised to implement when he gets to the white house. These ideological policies aim at benefiting all Americans whether white, black, or Asian. thus a nationalist campaign position( Barrack Obama U.S. Senate Office 5-24).
References
Baldson, Timothy. Barrack Obama a Nationalistic leader ,Saturday Times (UK) 2007.
Gordie, Chuck. Obama and the Latin American leader WJLS-TV, 2008.
Larson, Christina. Reactions to Health crisis in America Washington Monthly, 2008.
Obama to unite the blacks and the whites. Associated Press. Barrack Obama U.S. Senate Office 2007.
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