The Honeymoon's Over

The Honeymoon's Over

Labels: Barack Obama

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s a Presidential election in a little over nine months’ time. It sure doesn’t feel like the last time does it? You had to vote in the 2008 election, it was imperative for the direction of the country, it was historical. There was urgency for everyone to be part of this event, it was the thing to do, Barack Obama was trending and we all took note. Funny how four years tell a different story; the GOP is slinging mud around with an eye on Pennsylvania Avenue, while we’re our eyes on the sparrow Joneses, Kardashians, Carters and every which way but up.

There was a sense of accomplishment that came with voting on November 4, 2008; we had overcome, The Dream no longer deferred and we had stimulus checks as proof. Then a funny thing happened, we didn’t go back to the polls the next year and suddenly New Jersey had an offensive lineman as Governor and the following year the Democrats lost control of the House, but “My President is Black”!

We made so much of Barack Obama, Rock Star, that we forgot politics was a multi-headed dragon that has to be slayed year-after-year if we expect any sort of “change” to take place. President Obama drew us all in with his speeches, his charisma and his swag and we figured he would single-handedly turn the United States around. Why? Because he’s Black?!?

The failure of the 2008 campaign was that the people weren’t education about their continued responsibility of supporting the President’s initiatives and the direction he would steer our country. Your cousins were too busy flicking up in the voting booth to realize there was more work to be done and now they’re still on the wrong side of the unemployment rate blaming the President for their current predicament. In 2012, he’s Barack Obama, politician.

The novelty has worn off and the expected magic up in smoke, but we’ve still got President Obama’s back…plus he sang Al Green at the Apollo, so we have to vote for him right? The truth is, folks are gonna go out and vote for him in November because he’s Black, because his work is not done, because there has been some progress, because Osama bin Laden was killed and the troops were withdrawn from Iraq. Not to mention National Health Care is on the way (allegedly) and he hasn’t cheated on Michelle…so hell yeah we’re voting for him again!

But it won’t be in record numbers, the fervor just isn’t there. The curiosity has been solved and the best interest of some folks may be best served by Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich. The country has rebelled in the last couple of years and at this moment, the entire government is the enemy, so it will be interesting to see how the 99% handle the election.

I haven’t seen Diddy or Jay-Z (I guess he’s a little busy) stomping the yard for Obama. Ashton Kutcher has his hands full, BET is running “The Game” into the ground and Jeremiah Wright and Jesse Jackson are somewhere doing whatever it is they do. However, it’s still not summer yet, so maybe that’s when the push will come. We need to find a way to make this historical, to get people back on board, but it’s similar to Black movies…Black folks don’t even come back to Tyler Perry movies on the second weekend, so why do we think we can get them to vote in two straight elections? I guess because Michael Baisden said so!