What better way to manipulate the masses of people than to propagate lies disguised as truth, and to say nothing of substance in the name of being crystal clear. This is the double-speak by America’s latest well known cynical opportunist, Barack Hussein Obama. Indeed, it is being demonstrated yet again that, “America is like a melting pot. The people at the bottom get burned and the scum floats to the top.”

The superficiality and racism of white America is amply shown by its current propensity to equate real economic and political “change” with skin color. This is a fact, which for a certainty, does not escape Mr. Obama or his handlers. As a college-educated white woman - Barack Obama supporter - recently stated on national television, she wants to see the “color” component of “affirmative action eliminated ” because after all (according to her) there is now color equality in America, and she made it quite plain that she felt justified in her racist quest because, as she proudly asserted, she is after-all, “voting for Barack Obama, a black man” for US President.  In the very name of supposedly empowering the people, Barack Obama and many of his supporters are actually about the business of disempowering people, most especially Black, Brown, and Red peoples.

Does anyone remember Condoleezza Rice? She is, by the way, biologically Black, and she sure as hell does not represent economic and political “change” in the vein of truly empowering the people. Oh yes, and what about that biologically Black man Colin Powell? You remember him, don’t you? The first biologically Black US Secretary of State, who went to the United Nations and told the entire world the big lie that Iraq “possessed weapons of mass destruction” that, in turn, provided political cover for the colossal debacle of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. It must be reiterated that equating genuine and much needed economic, social and political change with skin color is absurd, cynical, and enormously dangerous. Yet, this appears to be an important part of what Barack Obama and his handlers are cynically counting on. They know that a significant portion of the American people, including many whites, want real change, so why not give them clean-sounding superficiality instead of truth, coupled with a huge dose of double-speak. This strategy serves to please and engender trust of the corporate backers while confusing many potential voters, especially young and/or first time potential voters. It might be an effective strategy but it is also a cynical and dishonest one.    

Then of course, notwithstanding the huge dose of political double-speak, there is the Obama-disguise of rhetorically cloaking himself as a candidate of peace when in fact he is a candidate of war who has indicated that he favors “unilateral” US military actions in other nations - supposedly in “pursuit of the real terrorists.” In other words, he favors unilateral, state-sanctioned terrorism in order allegedly to pursue individual and/or organizational terrorists in other nations. While such simplisticly cloaked militaristic rhetoric on the part of Obama might make for tasty media sound bites, it is the stuff of cynicism, betrayal of the people, and madness.

For over seven years now, George W. Bush and clique repeatedly have illustrated the folly of such a dangerous policy, both at home and abroad. Yet, Obama, a so-called candidate for “change,” is simply repackaging the same old, dangerous and failed US foreign policy with shiny but perilous rhetoric. He is not a candidate of peace. By his own admission, he is merely desirous of waging war “the right way,” i.e. with a more effective killing machine. Of course, he has never personally been in mortal combat in this nation or outside of its national boundaries, where limbs are broken and life is snuffed out. He has never been confined and tortured in US prisons as have some of his own Black constituents who were tortured by members of  the police department in Chicago, Illinois. There is no “right way” to wage war. War is not antiseptic. It is not clean. It is bloody and it is horrible; the only “right way” to wage it is to avoid it, and most especially the use of “unilateral” US military force.               

The Democrat and Republican parties long ago divorced themselves from promoting, in any real sense, the interests of the vast majority of the people. The politics of these parties continue to move America, as a nation, from the frying pan straight into the proverbial fire. For Black, Red, and Brown people in America and throughout the world this must be and is of particular concern.

Ironically, the one serious candidate of the people who is outside of the joined-at-the-hip Democrat and Republican parties is former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who had the guts and integrity to leave the mire of the Democratic party and declare her support for the national "Power To The People Coalition," which in turn supports her candidacy for US President. For this, she has been outright ignored and/or repeatedly attacked by the US corporate media. Much of America, collectively, even in the 21st century, simply cannot abide integrity, only hypocrisy. Nonetheless, real change and real power/empowerment must come not from cynical, corporate and shiny insubstantial rhetoric that is, in reality, callously pimping and manipulating the “hope” of people. Rather, it must come from systemic change that begins with the people - who are fed up with the machinations and hypocrisy of the Democrat and Republican parties. No matter what occurs in the upcoming and ongoing corporate media circuses referred to as caucuses and primaries throughout the United States, and no matter who the big corporate media presents as the so-called “front runners” in these circuses of, for, and by the Democrat and Republican parties, justice and integrity can never emanate from an intrinsically unjust, amoral and hypocritical US system. Moreover, when viewing the candidates of these parties, including the candidacy of Barack Obama, it behooves all of us to remember and apply the age-old African adage: “Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes.”

This is the year 2008 and it is time to truly analyze, organize, educate, and liberate ourselves and our brothers and sisters. It’s time to keep it real. Onward then. The struggle continues….

BC Editorial Board member, Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.