I am fascinated at the level of passionate interest the candidacy of Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr for President of the United States is generating among Jamaicans. Almost every Jamaican I know strongly wants Obama to win, and the sociologist in me is asking, why?

Is it because he represents the Democratic Party and these Jamaicans intensely support the Democratic Party? Or is it that Jamaicans intensely dislike the Republican Party? I am not sure that the average Jamaican knows the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.

Campaign promises

Is the powerful support for Obama rooted in his campaign promises? Is it that we Jamaicans, far and away, prefer Senator Obama's education policies, health-care policies and military-spending policies, to Senator McCain's policies? Or is it Obama's foreign policy objectives that we like? Is it that we believe Barack Obama in the White House would be far better for Jamaica than John McCain in the White House? Do Jamaicans even know the difference between Obama and McCain when it comes to their domestic or foreign policy?

Are the many Jamaicans strongly behind Obama because we believe in change, in not allowing one party to be in power for too long? Obama's main campaign slogan is: 'Change you can believe in', while McCain (like Portia in our own recent general election) claimed that he is the change (away from George W. Bush/P.J. Patterson). Is it that we robustly believe in Obama's change over McCain's change?

Or, do Jamaicans support Obama against McCain because Obama is black and McCain is white? Would we Jamaicans really choose a political candidate just because of the colour of his skin, irrespective of what policies he stands for? Really? Would the 'race card' work in Jamaica?

Often, you hear that race is not an issue in Jamaica, class has taken over. But few keen social observers agree with this view. Race and colour remain serious topics in the undercurrent of Jamaica but are still not subjects for polite conversation. After all, aren't we 'Out of many, One People'?

Weighing morals

Suppose a Jamaican politician got up on stage and said, as Obama did on March 15, 2007: "I do not agree ... that homosexuality is immoral." What would happen, do you think? Suppose a Jamaican politician (or dancehall artiste) invited the Rev Andy Sidden, an openly gay pastor, to be on the platform with him, as Obama did on Sunday, October 28, 2007. What do you think would happen? Donnie McClurkin is an anti-gay gospel singer who has often performed in Jamaica. Would the average Jamaican vote for a guy who said: "I strongly believe that African Americans and the LGBT community must stand together in the fight for equal rights. And so, I strongly disagree with Reverend McClurkin's views." For those who don't know, LGBT stands for 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-sexual', and it was Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr who spoke those words (check out his website).

Now, don't get me wrong. I do not support the Republican Party, even though that party was formed in 1854 by anti-slavery activists. It first came to power in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, and it presided over the emancipation of slavery in the USA in 1865. Today, the Republican party is a warmongering party, based on a Christian fundamendalism which supports capital punishment, denies the scientific Theory of Evolution and is against gay marriages and the classification of homosexuality as an 'alternative life style'.

It seems to me that we Jamaicans are all mixed up. Our national sentiments and national ideology seem to fall with the Republicans, but we support Obama because he is black! Is this 'racism' or 'race consciousness', I ask you? It certainly tells us a lot about where we are as a nation.

My friend Motty Perkins always asks the question, and I think it is a good one: which would you prefer to be told? That the captain of the airplane in which you are flying is a competent pilot? Or that he is black?

Obama may well be the better candidate, I really do not know. Certainly, the world cannot take another four years of a Republican government like the one we have seen over the last eight years. But the last thing we should be doing is supporting someone for president just because he is black! Don't you think that our support - or lack of it - must be based on the issues? In the end, Obama is an American, and black or not, his election is not likely to mean a more Jamaica-friendly USA. I guess what American voters have to do is choose the lesser of the two evils.