Sunday, September 26, 2010

Another Hope Dope is starting to feel hopeless


Add Greg Smith to the growing list of Hope Dopes who are starting to realize that the Hope and Change flavor Kool Aid is starting to wear off.
New York Post: The day President Obama announced he was running for the White House was the happiest day in our household. On that day, Feb. 10, 2007, I became a volunteer for the campaign.
I knocked on doors in my neighborhood of Kensington, Brooklyn. I started talking to strangers about Obama on the subway. I told people they needed to pay attention to this guy and read his book, "The Audacity of Hope."

After The Post ran a story about me, Obama called me personally and asked me to tell my story at a New York fund-raiser.
At his Cooper Union speech on March 27, 2008, Obama hugged me and said, "This is my guy in New York."
I went to volunteer full time for Obama and was soon hired as an organizer for the campaign.[…]
Two years later, I'm living a more sober reality.
My life is not better. I'm a college graduate and I still can't get a good job.
I'm back working as a doorman at a Manhattan hotel earning peanuts because my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and I need the health insurance again.
I share the same sentiments of Velma Hart, the woman who confronted Obama at a town hall last week, saying she was tired of defending him. The idea of leaving New York is even on the table.
Obama has let professional politicians take over the White House -- and our dream of change.
I know it's childish to expect solutions to happen overnight. Obama inherited a big old mess, and I don't expect him to have everything figured out after 18 months.
But we're only human and we want to see some visible change.
I'm trying to keep up my hope -- but I'm afraid that instead of being that guy who knocked on doors in Denver, I'm now the person who needs convincing. 
I suspect Greg Smith was one of the millions of blacks who could not bring themselves to look beyond the color of Obama’s skin and really examine Obama’s record (or lack thereof).  So many blacks I know pulled the lever for Obama simply out of racial simpatico and not because they knew what the brother was pushing. Perhaps these brothers and sisters thought that electing a black president would somehow translate into a Golden Age for American blacks. 

Unfortunately, the sad truth is, the color of any president will have little to no impact on us, instead it is the policies of that president that will affect us the most. Greg Smith and Velma Hart about to learn this truth the hard way, by having their hopes and dreams smashed against the rocks of reality.

5 comments:

Ron Harp said...

You knocked it out of the park on this one. I too voted for OHB, and discovered only too late that I was voting for socialism... Democrats making government the new god.

I can only hope that the votes in 2010 and 2012 will somehow correct what I stupid mistake I made in 2008.

Alpha Conservative Male said...

They really thought that a Community Organizer truly cared about fixing a private sector based economy? They need to replace Hope & Change with "Lesson Learned" instead.

Clifton B said...

Ron Harp:

Welcome to ABC. I thank you for your honesty in admitting your mistake. Knowing you made as mistake is the first step in correcting it.

I have great faith in Americans like you who have seen the light and taking steps to correct it. Sadly, I am not too sure about Velma Hart or Greg Smith. Why they lament the lack of change, they have not crossed that Rubicon that tells them there never ever ever was any change.

Clifton B said...

Alpha:

America is about to learn a year lesson. Hopefully, many of those Obama supporters will see the light so we won't make this mistake again.

Janelle said...

No sympathy from this quarter. His record was out there for anyone who cared to look;voting present over a hundred times in the Senate, his association with Bill Ayers and the first three campaign speeches were enough for me. Now he wants to guard the change......I say change the guard, more than a few and frequently. I've seen this movie before and never liked it.

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