Bad Time for Black Superstars in sports or politics

Troubled by a recent surge of negativity directed at one of the nation's most talented superstars? Me too.

But I'm not referring to last week's reaction to Lebron James, the lethal, shot-maker who was recently condemned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and others as a conniving ingrate for relocating to Miami without saying a decent goodbye. I'm talking about the attempt by several Republican senators to taint the memory of the late Thurgood Marshall, the elegant Supreme Court bench-warmer, while opposing Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice two weeks ago.

John Kyl of Arizona said Marshall's judicial philosophy, "is not what I consider to be mainstream." Alabama's Jeff Sessions called Marshall, who died 17 years ago, "a well-known activist." Asked if he would have voted to confirm Marshall, Oregon Sen. Orrin Hatch, responded, " Well, it's hard to say."

Even some conservative Republicans questioned the senators' decision to attack Marshall, who helped end an era of racial segregation in America as an NAACP attorney with a landmark victory in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case. “I cannot imagine who mobilized this,” says Michael Greve, an American Enterprise Institute scholar. “It makes your jaw drop."

It's baffling, indeed mind-boggling, how easily so-called 'learned' men will lope around in lunacy. This group of leaders do it, unashamedly, for one reason: to bring down a presidency. Sad to say, the GOPs racially- charged strategy seems to be working.
Consider this:

Six out 10 Americans now say they have lost confidence in President Obama's ability to lead the nation; the job market remains stagnant, and though the Democrats control the White House and Congress, they have yet to muster the votes necessary to extend payments to the nation's unemployed. Top that off with an out-of-control oil spill that already has caused serious ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico and destroyed sea-life and the livelihoods of thousands of Americans in that area. And though BP says it's close to sealing the leak, the devastation to the area and its inhabitants will linger, probably for decades. Because it happened on Obama's watch, the incumbent shares the blame for all that goes wrong, even for those things he can't control.

Days before Obama became the nation's 44th president, Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio talk show host, gave the Republican Party its marching orders with these words: "I hope Obama fails." He has continuously stoked the flames of hatred and bigotry in his 15-to-20 million listeners and inspired many of them to show openly disdain and disrespect to the man elected to serve and occupy the office of the President.

They wear guns - tied down - at protests/political rallies and display racist caricatures of the president. During a health care protest in Washington, D.C. , they spat on an African American congressman and yelled racial epithets at others, as several Republican congressional members cheered them on. The media's reaction, for the most part, has been restrained. One wonders if such restraint would be shown if groups of blacks attended political rallies with guns wrapped around their waists.

Since Obama's inauguration, Republicans have worked overtime to make Limbaugh's dream a reality. They have voted "NO," on every major proposal presented by Obama solely because they see value in keeping the people disenchanted, angry, frustrated. They want Obama to fail, even if it means the country suffers, the country fails. By following the Limbaugh doctrine, they expect to reap a measure of victory in the mid-term elections and they probably will.

The GOP senators' slap at Marshall was more about pleasing their 'we-want-our-country-back' constituents than it was about whether Kagan is fit to sit on the Supreme Court. They know that if their base is joined by a nice-sized chunk of discontented independent-minded voters, the GOP will rise again.
But any strategy formed in deception and anchored in greed and bigotry is evil. Ultimately, it will fail.

If the economy continues to falter for the next two years and the GOP stays in lockstep with the Limbaugh doctrine, Obama will be a one-term president. The people will let him know well ahead of time if he should step aside in 2012 --- and help prepare President Hillary Clinton to take those 3 a.m. calls for the next eight years.