GENE DAMMON; What if it’s really close?

The Port Arthur News

April 17, 2008 12:38 pm

— Consider this scenario:  The Democratic Party selects Obama as its candidate for the Presidency of The United States of America.  Then the General Election in November, Obama vs. McCain, is really close – a repeat of the 2000 contest between Bush and Gore.  After several recounts, it appears that a federal judge will declare McCain to be the winner.  There are widespread demonstrations; rioting breaks out in all the large cities.
Would Watts burn - again? 
Would the demonstrations and unrest affect the determination of the winner of the election, if the results are very close?
Would Obama’s supporters take to the streets?  Remember, we’re talking about a constituency including many voters who believe that the AIDS virus and illegal drugs were part of a plot engineered by the white race to keep the black race down.  It is not such a great stretch from such thinking to being convinced that any election results other than those that favor your candidate are due to unfair practices.
Think of the national tragedies we have endured over the last half-century: assure one another that if a Lee Harvey Oswald came along again, and it happened under an Obama presidency, our nation would be brought together, as before, rather than torn apart. 
The acrimony between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, can be divisive past the point of good sport;  add the factor of perceived racial injustice, and as the man said, “we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
I’m told that it is difficult for someone who is not black to really appreciate what it would mean for the nation to elect the first-ever black president.  I have no doubt that is true, but it seems to me that expectations of what a black president could do for any one group could easily exceed reality.  Congress, not the president, makes laws.  That’s not to say that he (or she), as chief executive, is powerless in matters of policy and programs, but Congress tends to get really stubborn when too much pressure is applied.
It is interesting to consider the ramifications of having a black president in the White House.  While I have serious doubts about Obama’s qualifications for the job, he would probably not be the least qualified ever to take the office, and he does seem brighter than some who have gone before him. But beyond the race for the nomination, and even that for the presidency, there is a larger picture looming in the background.
Surely we are seeing now a foreshadowing of America’s future:  what was once a homogenous pool of roughly similar people, with roughly similar ideas and ideals, seems to be becoming a splintered association of peoples who happen to have chosen to live in proximity with one another, mostly for economic reasons. 
The reality of  “e pluribus unum” - the ability of our nation to forge a strong union from among very different peoples – has always been an experiment in progress.  The factors that once held us together are fading, with our permission, into obscurity:  language, religion, social mores, and political philosophy.  Not that we ever all agreed on these things, but our differences were of such a nature that we still had common ground that lent itself to alliances.
The American Civil War stands in stark contrast to our history of ability to voluntarily yield to the political process to settle our differences.
So the great melting pot has simmered away, and when the internal pressures became intolerable for any group, we had open frontiers to serve as a safety valve. We have outgrown that luxury now.  We are now forced to have to live together and get along.
Toward that end, I hope the coming election is not an extremely close one.  
Gene Dammon of Port Neches is a contributing writer to the Port Arthur News. His e-mail address is: gene-san@sbcglobal.net.

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