Those who read my posts know that, although I am a nominal Republican, I remain somewhat uncommitted in this campaign. I have issues with both McCain and Obama and with each those issues include both ideological disagreements as well as more personal items. I am concerned about McCain with regard to his temperament and with Obama in regard to experience.
However one issue I do not have with regard to either candidate is race. I don’t care about the race, gender or orientation of a candidate. I care about character and ideology and ability and little more. If a half-black, half-Asian lesbian is running against a white man and I agree with her, then I vote for her.
I would like to think most Americans agree with me on this subject but I do recognize that there is a small group of voters out there who do retain the prejudices of a hopefully soon-to-be-forgotten era and use them against Obama. I will never understand nor approve of such viewpoints.
However I am equally perplexed by the reverse, those who are voting for Obama solely because of his race. If this were the 1950s or 1960s, I might understand the position. At that time, the idea of a minority candidate running for any office was fairly unique outside of minority communities. In addition, many minority voters were deprived of the right to vote, so I could see taking a symbolic stand.
But today it is hardly unique to see such a candidacy. Blacks, Hispanics or Asians running for public office is almost to the point of being commonplace. They serve in state legislatures, the halls of Congress and in City Hall. They are Senators and Governors, Cabinet members and business leaders. Certainly there are still areas where progress is needed but it is far from unique or unusual.
Even running for President is not entirely new. Colin Powell could have run in any of the last 3 elections and won with ease. In this campaign, a number of Hispanic and Asian Americans were mentioned as possible running mates for both tickets.
With this in mind, I find it just as confusing for people to support Obama based on race as I do for those opposing him because of race. It would seem to me that in a color-blind society you should rate a candidate based on the issues, not on skin pigment.
Indeed, if you look at groups like NAACP or SLC, they already routinely oppose minority candidates if they do not agree with the group on the issues. While I might disagree with the ideology, I certainly understand the position.
And yet that right does not seem to extend to conservatives who oppose minority candidates on the same grounds. If you are black and oppose Obama you are somehow a traitor to the cause. I do not understand this and find the vitriol attached to some to be amazing.
Perhaps we have not progressed that far yet.