Our shameful legacy.

Seems to me that Barack Obama is a pragmatist. A man willing to compromise. Makes a liberal like me a little annoyed. Because I think he's selling out on principle. But then, I wonder if Obama is trying to teach me and others something. That life is a grand compromise. Full of give and take. Meeting people half way. I agree with such an approach. In principle. That is, up to a point. If I'm dealing with people that are totally uncompromising, hardly ever giving an inch -- well, that ain't fair. I turn out to be the loser. And the other side wins. Gets exactly what it wants. Instead, I want a deal in which both sides get something they want. But not everything. Yes, in my opinion, Republicans want everything. They refuse to compromise. Mainly because they don't want Obama to be perceived as a winner. They desperately want him to lose the 2012 election. Because they despise Obama. And if I were psychoanalyzing the Republicans that hate Obama the most, I'd conclude that it's solely because he's black. Yes, they are racists. They don't like black people, period. And they are livid whenever they see black Obama sitting in the oval office. In their Lily 'White' House. Some Republicans want black people to know their place. Subservient. Not all that far from slavery and Jim Crow treatment. If Obama were white, and advocating the same policies that he advocates now, he'd be accepted by these radical, bigoted Republicans. That's the difference. A simple white and black explanation. Maybe I'm wrong. But that's the way I see it. America was founded on a racist premise. That all men are not equal. Oh, our founders claimed all men are created equal. But in truth, equality was the farthest thing from their minds. That's why we had slavery. The height of immorality. Certainly, nothing to make Americans proud of their newly-formed nation. And it's a stain and a stigma lasting to this very day. Black people are not yet fully accepted by many, many of us. Especially by bigoted Republicans. Yes, it's a legacy of which all Americans should be ashamed. --Jim Broede