Progress?
November 6, 2008So, either there isn't a god, or Sarah's god agreed with her and picked Obama in a massive landslide.
Obama's victory speech was fantastic. Here it is. You might find it stutters a bit. That's because 900,000 people have watched it so far and I think YouTube is a little overwhelmed:
"It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day."
What America does matters, so, of course, I'm filled with hope. I'm filled with hope not because Obama is a black man or a Democrat, but because of his policies and from what I have seen of the content of his character. Those who carp on about the colour of his skin are missing the point, and I think this is Obama's point too. Even this "redneck", called "Cupcake" gets the point:
"It's not a matter of race, it's a matter of what's going to happen, it's a matter of beliefs: he believes in the same things I do. Black White, Chinese, Mexican; I don't care who they are, as long as they can run our country. If they can run our country good and they're willing to take that job – if I was there, I wouldn't want that job – I give the man props: he wants to have this job. He's black and guess what, he's going to get a lot of crap about it, but guess what: he's got a good heart… I have a lot of friends who are ignorant: they're not going to vote for him because he's black and I tell them that's your own ignorance. If you're going to vote for someone because he's black or white, there's no reason for you to even vote."
Democracy favours short-term thinking along voting cycles, but Obama's rhetoric has consistently concerned with a long view over generations. It's comforting to see that the USA now has a leader who at least talks the talk about thinking through policy. I don't think he'll spend his first year playing golf like his predecessor.
Of course I'm concerned that Obama's got a massive hill to climb, as big as anything since FDR: war, economic catastrophe, an electorate undergoing massive social, economic and technological upheaval, a battered infrastructure and an abysmal standing in world affairs. Part of the reason he's in is because he's got the usual Democrat job: he has to sweep up the mess of a Republican administration.
He knows he's got to do this and recognises that everyone will have to pull together, hence the oft-repeated line about there being no red states, no blue states, just the United States. In this spirit, McCain's concession speech was magnanimous. It is a shame that the crowds who booed Obama at this concession have not yet realised that they're all in the same boat. It's also disturbing to see lots of gloating already by "liberals". You've selected a leader who preaches reconciliation and unity, but you're ignoring the message to score points.
There's clearly a lot of healing to do along the liberal/conservative fault-line. But please don't for a second think that this is the end of the racial fault line.
Obama won the popular vote across all Americans by roughly 52% to 46%. Looking at the BBC's demographic coverage of who voted for Obama, it's interesting to see that there's a split amongst whites that's similar to the popular vote split. The split amongst Hispanics was roughly 65% to Obama, 25% to McCain. The split amongst African Americans was a staggering 95% to Obama, and 5% to McCain.
Are African-Americans letting the issues be the issues, or was this a plebiscite of colour? Either way, there's a massive gulf. If the vote was divided by colour, then that tells us that things haven't moved on at all since emancipation. If the vote was divided by other issues, that implies that the socioeconomic makeup of the African-American demographic is vastly different to that of the white and, to a lesser extent, the Hispanic segment.
We can't pat ourselves on the back just because a black man has won the Presidency. There's still a very long way to go.
For me, this event is important because it starts to close the book on September 11th, an event that made a huge impression on me. I've always felt that Bush squandered the good will of the world and presided over a USA that was a parody of what I'd grown up respecting and admiring. Obama's message and demeanour represent a decision by the American people to return to that ideal of progress, consideration and a rational America. This is why I am deeply moved by what has happened.
But on the same day that we celebrated a black man winning the election as a big step forward, let's not forget that a big step backwards was taken too.
Looking back at the 1967 civil rights case of Loving v. Virginia, which ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States, it's hard to reconcile the progress that people are heralding with the election of the first black president of the USA, with the vote in California on the very same day, to ban same-sex marriage. Obama's speech acknowledged that, gay or straight is still American, so it was sad to see Proposition 8 passed. If race-based discrimination is unconstitutional, why should discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation be permissable?
Apart from the horrendous physical legacy that eight years of Bush has left him to clean up, Obama has an even bigger task ahead: he need to teach his nation to respect and embrace its diversity again:
[...] chose the candidate, I believe, who best fitted into a national narrative about unity and progress (interesting thoughts from Ciaran on this here). And the narrative is that things get better if you are sincere and work hard. We Brits savor our [...]