National Post editorial on Barack Obama's victory: A proud day for America
Posted: November 04, 2008, 10:38 PM by Jonathan Kay
Editorial, Full Comment
As Americans wake up on Wednesday, they will be making their acquaintance with a new country. We honestly do not know what kind of president Barack Obama will be, but we do know that just by attaining the presidency, he has breathed fresh life into the American project. The stain of racism — the original sin at the heart of the world’s pre-eminent nation — is now that much closer to erasure.
We know, we know: This election wasn’t about skin colour. To focus on the subject during the campaign was to implicitly patronize Barack Obama as a mere ambassador of his race. At the same time, broaching the subject served to implicitly disadvantage John McCain by casting him as an obstacle to history. But now that the election is over, the emotionally felt truth cannot be denied: Mr. Obama’s blackness matters. It matters deeply. And it matters most of all to those people — American patriots, but also foreign admirers — who are proud to see the nation take such a profound symbolic step on the path to realizing its colour-blind ideals.
Throughout much of American history, black pioneers always have had to be that much better than their white counterparts to make it. Jackie Robinson, for instance, not only had to endure a larger strike zone than his teammates, he also had to deal emotionally with the openly racist treatment he received from fans and opposing players.
In the case of Mr. Obama, his experience has been more complicated.
At the polls on Tuesday, he had to deal with racist attitudes among a minority of American voters. His popularity also was compromised by his association with Jeremiah Wright, a preacher with radical Afrocentric views that veered into anti-white bigotry. Among black politicians — particularly those working the Democratic political machine in Chicago — such associations are far from unusual. The furor that erupted when videos of Reverend Wright’s speeches hit YouTube served to demonstrate the massive disconnect that still exists between the mainstream brand of American politics and its usually obscure urban black niches.
At the same time — and this is where the racial analysis becomes complicated — Mr. Obama’s rise to the White House was undoubtedly assisted by the political celebrity he enjoyed as one of the country’s few nationally electable black stars. American liberals — and not a few conservatives — were elated by the idea of a black man finally winning the highest office in the land. In part, such feelings were animated by a sense of national hubris: An Obama victory would prove how far the country had come. But we believe the sentiment also reflected a sincerely felt sense of pride that skin colour is no longer an obstacle to advancement in America.
Here in Canada, it is difficult for us to understand the collective badge of shame Americans still labour under in regard to a slave-holding past that ended only in the latter half of the 19th century. Mr. Obama’s election will do more than any single event since the 1954 case of Brown vs. Board of Education and the 1964 Civil Rights Act to remove that badge.
Given all this, Mr. Obama is ultimately bound to disappoint. All presidents do — since the messy compromises of incumbency always seem less romantic than the soaring rhetoric of the election campaign. And given the special circumstances of Mr. Obama’s candidacy, this is doubly so in his case. Our bet is that Mr. Obama likely will never be as popular as the day he takes office.
That said, we do not share the cynical predictions of many conservative critics. While we take issue with some of his campaign planks, we were impressed by the sure-footed manner in which Mr. Obama managed the stresses of the campaign. In many cases — most notably, in his response to the financial meltdown that began in September — Mr. Obama seemed calmer and wiser than Mr. McCain, a military veteran with decades of Washington experience.
Moreover, unlike some of our op-ed contributors, we do not believe it is productive to continue dwelling on Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko or any of the other hot-button issues that popped up during the campaign. The Republicans hammered Mr. Obama hard on these issues and a dozen others — and the voters elected him anyway. After a political campaign that effectively has lasted two years, it is time to move on.
Writing as Canadian journalists, we must confess to feeling a certain surreal sense as we witness history in the making in the United States. The election is not ours, yet it is impossible not to feel a certain vicarious thrill as we watch our American friends experience this historic event. As political figures go, Mr. Obama arouses an unusual amount of admiration on this side of the border. Indeed, we’ve never seen anything like it.
Much of the rest of the world, polls show, feels the same way. And Mr. Obama can look forward to a strong honeymoon period on the world stage. Let us hope he uses that opportunity to recapture the moral capital that was lost in the latter years of the Bush administration. If he does, Nov. 4, 2008, will not only be marked as a turning point for the United States, but also the world itself.
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