Political Bandstand

A coalition comprised of media factions and his opponents have measured Barack Obama somewhere on the scale between the outlandish face of Reverend Wright and whatever they believe is wrong. It is now well established that Obama and Reverend Wright had close social ties. It is also well established that Reverend Wright expressed some opinions and made statements that were potentially inflammatory. If we really intend to weigh out a presidential candidate, we first have to consider why this controversy has surfaced. Second we have to determine exactly what message is being delivered. Only then can we determine if the matter is even deserving of controversy and how we might measure it by our own standards.

The media has a vested interest in fueling the fires of controversy, because conflict increases ratings and higher ratings lead to the allocation of more funding to specific programming. Because news made up of purely facts is considered dull and boring to people who commonly subject themselves to the bombardment of stimulus offered by regular entertainment programming, news networks feel obligated to provide interpretive content that often overstates or exaggerates the significance of facts.

The Clinton campaign is highlighting the Obama/Wright connection for obvious reasons. Associating him with a far out zealot who is seen as having criticized groups of people who are central to the core values of America can certainly shatter Obama’s standings with mainstrean Democratic voters. Clinton’s desire to win is so strong she’s willing to force feed American voters with whatever she wants to believe. We’ve seen evidence of this based on some of the lies she’s told on the campaign stump. Take a look at the Think on These Things website for concrete proof.

Now, considering that we have two biased sources, I’m going to urge people to weigh out the significance of this with an intellectual bias. As Wright was a high profile pastor at Obama’s perish, there’s no question their relationship would have been close, but because their relationship is clearly documented the question becomes how much of Wright’s ideology Obama actually believes in. The answer to that is easy. We have to look at the ideas Obama promotes in his own interactions with the public. We have to look at whether or not he’s been consistent with his message. Most importantly, we have to look at his record in politics. Obama has spent a great deal of his time as a politician fighting special interest. He has also devoted a good deal of effort toward passing ethics legislation. His record is not at all reflective of his challengers charges against him.

People also need to put themselves in his position by thinking back throughout their lives and considering if there has ever been anyone whome they had an obligation to respect that expressed views and ideas or opinions they personally disagreed with or even condemned. I’m going to go so far as to say that every one of us has known a Jeremiah Wright at some point in our lives. He could have been a friend, a relative, a family friend, a neighbor, a teacher, a coach, or any other potentially influential figure in a persons life. Does this mean everyone agrees with that type of person’s beliefs? If their ideas aren’t agreeable, do others have an obligation to publicly condemn them? We can’t hold Obama to expectations any higher than our own on that matter. Or else each of us would be condemning a lot of friends, relatives, and neighbors over the years.