by Ron Powell

I have been posting materials that tend to show that resistance to President Barack Obama is racially motivated. By now it should be clear to most, that many of the debates and the town hall meetings have had little or nothing to do with the discussion about health care. What they have been in many cases are expressions of concerns and fears about the state of the nation under the stewardship of the country's first black president.

To be fair, I must say that not all of he people in attendance at these meetings were there to choke off discussion or disregard the rights of others to speak and ask questions of their elected officials. Indeed, many were in attendance with legitimate questions and concerns about the proposed changes in health care and health care insurance. But these are the folks that we are not seeing and hearing much about.

What we are seeing and hearing about is the continuing effort by some folks to disrupt or destroy the democratic deliberative process. There are entities and individuals who stand to loose a great deal if the system is changed and the Republican Party is still reeling from the stinging defeats of the past election.

The powerful forces of the moneyed interests in in the health care system and the skeletal remains of a Republican party in disarray have combined to mount a smear and fear campaign against the President, his policies and administration, the likes of which are simply unprecedented and heretofore unseen in American political history.

The willingness of elected officials and purportedly responsible journalists and commentators to spread lies, half-truths, falsehoods and rumors about the President and his plans is, in a word, despicable.

These people are desperate to regain control of the reigns of the government for one reason and one reason only, MONEY. They are interested in nothing else.

In their effort to regain control of the government and get their hands back in the tax-payer's cookie jar, they have shown that they will stop at absolutely nothing to accomplish their aims and goals. For decades they were able to play on the fears and anxieties of white Americans and succeeded, for the most part. in getting white voters to vote against their own self interests.

But this time the economy got in the way of what had been a winning political strategy. The lid came off, the cover had been blown.

For the first time the average voter was able to see what had been happening. The country was being robbed blind and the Republican Party was the culprit, complicit in the decimating of the American Dream. Hence, the success of the candidacy of an unknown black man in an impossible rise to achieve the impossible dream.

Primarily as a result of the collapse of the financial markets/systems and the damage done to the economy, Barack Obama, African-American, was elected 44th President of the United States.

Now, in an effort to get it all back the Republicans, their henchpersons, their minions and their moneyed supporters have gone all out. They are engaged in a campaign to discredit, destroy, and divide. They are refusing to participate or cooperate in the legislative process. They have determined that while Obama was "elected" President but they don't have to let him "be" president.

They have gone so far as to suggest in variety of ways, that because they can refuse to acknowledge his legitimacy he can be somehow eliminated or removed by whatever means, including assassination. They know that there are groups and individuals, who under the right set of conditions and/or circumstances, would not hesitate to make a attempt on the President's life. Some are counting/betting on this prospect.

The lunatic fringe is being stoked, goaded and encouraged by smarter people who know better but have more to gain by eliminating Obama than they do from working or cooperating with him.

It has been a staple of the American political/social psyche that when a white woman is caused harm or distress of any kind as the result of an encounter with a black man, white men are obliged and entitled to seek and secure swift and certain justice for the purposes of protecting and defending the honor, dignity, and sanctity of the offended accusing white woman in particular, and white womanhood in general.

Nothing arouses the white American male visceral or emotional reflex to anger and violence more than a hysterical white woman pointing an accusatory finger at a black man. This has been the stuff of mob rule through murders, lynching, and capital punishment in this country from day one. It is as true today as it ever has been...And now the target of that visceral anger and violence happens to be a black man who is President of the United States of America......