Barack Obama Makes History. Now What?

Above: Senator Barack Obama’s victory speech after becoming the Democratic Presidential candidate for the 2008 election.

Dear Senator Barack Obama:

Congratulations.  You have made history.

You have become the first Black Presidential hopeful to be taken seriously enough (sorry Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton) to actually be voted in by your party as their Presidential Candidate.  It is truly a historic moment, not just for Black history, but for American history.

By becoming the official nominee, you have made generations of other Black people proud.  From elders who fought long and hard for Blacks to have the right to vote, to children who will now believe that they, too, have a shot at becoming Commander-in-Chief, regardless of what race they are.  Because of you, people will finally believe that the idea of having a Black person in the Oval Office isn’t so far-fetched.

All of that is great.  I just have one question for you, Senator:

NOW WHAT?

Now that you’ve clenched the nomination; now that you’ve made history… NOW WHAT?

This isn’t meant to take away from your recent victory, Mr. Obama, but it has to be asked.  Making history is great, but what are you going to DO to make this country great again?

The economy is in shambles, people are losing jobs, our relationship with foreign countries is in the toilet, and our reliance on Middle Eastern oil is causing millions of citizens financial trouble.  Assuming you were to become President, what is your plan of action to improve our current situation?

And I don’t want to hear the same rhetoric the Democrats have been throwing out there over and over again in every “Race for the White House” speech I’ve heard since I was born.  They tell us what’s wrong with our country – “4 years of Bush’s policies have hurt our economy” – and they remind us over and over again how poor most of us are – “An elderly woman in (name of random state) spent her last dollar trying to help me campaign, and she can barely keep the water on in her house to quench the thirst of her starving cats” - and all of that may be true.

But I don’t want speeches about what’s wrong with our country.  I want SOLUTIONS on how to fix them.  I want to know what and, most importantly, HOW, you plan on implementing your strategies for repairing this great nation once you get into the White House.

Truthfully, I don’t care about what makes you a historical candidate, or whether or not you can get White People to trust you enough to vote you into office (or Black people for that matter – after all, we have been taught not to trust our own kind) to become the first Black U.S. President.

All I care about are RESULTS.  Because, regardless of what race the person who ends up winning the election is, they are going to have a LOT of work ahead of them.  They are going to have to find different ways of fueling cars, repairing relationships with foreign dictators, figure out ways to create new jobs, and so on. 

And it’s perfectly fine if the person doing all this just happens to also be a historical candidate.  However, I don’t want so much focus being put on the fact that we have a “Black guy” in the office, we forget to analyze if what he actually DOES once he’s in office is beneficial to the rest of America.

Of course, you already know how much you’ll be scrutinized should you make it to Washington, Mr. Obama.  All Presidents are constantly watched over with the fine eye of the public and the media.  With you being of African descent, you should be well aware of how willing they will be to tear you down at any moment. 

You’ve already experienced this on the campaign trial – oops, I mean “trail” – with the numerous stupid things made into issues that didn’t really exist (see: “Flag Pin” controversy, “Reverend Wright” controversy, “Fist Bump” hoopla) – and being Black only adds to it.  It’s like that old saying every Black person has heard: you have to work 3 times as hard as your White counterpart to get the same amount of respect.

With that said, now that you’re the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, I hope you think long and hard about what you’re going to do come January 20, 2009 if you’re elected President.  Because once the cheers and historical commentaries of electing a Black person into office die down, and once the Inauguration ceremonies have subsided, the only question left on the mind of every person in this country – Black, White, Asian, Mexican, Native American, Indian, Canadian, and a plethora of other races – will simply be:

Now what?

-Aaron P. Taylor

You can see footage of Obama’s victory speech at my blogsite, www.emqtv.com/uncommonsense.