My Reply to Cornel West’s Critiques of Obama

Cornel West’s 8 Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama’s Presidency

In his new book, West blasts the president for failing African-Americans and the poor. Link to article HERE

I think that West’s critique has some merit but it does a great disservice to his followers by leaving out the underlying conditions that make this the reality. It serves as a continuing trend in America of looking at the surface and basing opinion on that alone. American is far deeper than the ugly veneer that is apparent on the surface. I have and continue to respect Brother West for his knowledge and insight in most cases, but based on these quoted remarks I do have to express a departure with him.

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On his first point, African-Americans as well as all minorities and poor typically do worse under national economic crises. As witnessed throughout American history; look at 1920, 1880, 1800 and so on. With the Second Republican Great Depression in 2008 came a disproportionate oppression of minorities, middle class, working class, and working poor. This complete decimation of the American economy  lead to a widening of the divide between those that have and those struggling to obtain (in spite of a system that pushed all economic gains to the top 5% Obama has made strides, although not as much as American needs).

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On his second point, leadership in the African-American community has weakened due to lack of participation in the voting process other than presidential election. Bring up the percentage of actual minority voters and leadership void will be filled by those supported by the increased voting numbers.

On his third point, he need look no further than the adoption of Reaganomics in 1982 until now and the lack of populist legislation to reverse the devolution of Trickle-On-economics. A single president does not have the power to do this alone; he needs Congress. The decrease in the upward mobility numbers have been evidenced over the years till now after the Reagan Revolution (against the middle class).  I utterly agree with West that the upward mobility problem in America is vast and almost insurmountable, but it is not the result of the Obama presidency. I would add that if President Obama had acted more quickly and aggressively he could have done more to quell this depression. The truth is that this trend has continued due to an opposition party that have governed (loosely used when referring to Republicons) in a manner that is treasonous and at the very least “seditious”!

Know Yo Civics!

The RNCC (Republicon National Congressional Committee) and the Republicons in general, due to their relationship, have a need for some serious high school civics classes. The rationale for this assertion is their general lack of understanding of how our government allocates and spends money. This is a big deal because the Constitution of the United States has defined the course in which moneys are collected and spent by the government.

Every elected politician should have a firm understanding of which the branches may start the process of taxing, allocating payments, and paying debt. It has become increasing obvious that a great number of politicians either don’t know how government works or are completely comfortable with lying to and dumbing down the American people with their words. This is not ROCKET SCIENCE; this is simple elementary/high school, depending on the school that you went to, civics.

Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution states the following in terms of who has the right to raise and spend money; “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States…”. Only one branch of government that has been given the right to obtain money and pay bills and that is the Legislative Branch and the House of Representatives is where all bills have to originate; see Article 1 Section 7 Clause. These facts seem to escape the RNCC as can be demonstrated by their recent ad on spending, SEE!

@NRCC You know the coin doesn’t need to be made of $1 trillion worth of platinum, right?