A nation whose Constitution enshrined slavery has elected an African-American president within living memory of days when blacks were denied fundamental human rights—including the right to vote. Hyperbole around elections comes easy and cheap, but this is a moment—a year—when even superlatives cannot capture the magnitude of the change that the country voted for last Tuesday. "If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer," Obama told an adoring yet serious throng in Chicago's Grant Park. He alluded to the historic nature of the victory only indirectly. "This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations," he said. He did not need, really, to add anything to that: that he was saying the words was testament enough.One of the most interesting questions going forward is: "Have we overcome"? Or, well ... can Michelle Obama now really be proud of her country?
I think so, but then the left won't have anything to rail against.
5 comments:
I think there is tremendous significance in the election of Obama -- but the real lasting impact will depend on how he chooses to handle race as president. If he continues the mantra that "all things are possible" than we may have turned a page on the grievance politics that have defined race for the past 30 years. If he reverts back to his radical roots, however, embracing Acorn and a "reparations" agenda that continue a focus on the past, he will squander his historic victory for the Al Sharpton model.
Obama has a chance to say definitively to blacks that there is no longer a blanket excuse: it IS possible if you choose to accept the responsibility for your own life. This would truly be a valuable and lasting legacy for him to achieve as president.
We shall see if he will have the courage to do so.
It's tremendous, alright Ken.
The left will find new campaigns against the right, of course.
Well I guess newsweek has to romanticize this election as part of the story but Meachum's history stinks. Unless anyone he knows was alive in 1870, the year the 15th amendment was passed giving blacks (technically) the right to vote. Oh well, most reporters are notoriously lazy.
It is good that a Black man has won the office, but it's a crying shame that it is that particular black man.
Here is a sad thing for the future though. When Obama botches it, as he will, future black candidates who will be much more competent, will have to deal with his negative legacy. It will be unfair to them.
Maybe the media thought they were fighting against racism when they softballed questions to Obama and ignored many of the concerns that were raised about his paper thin, wispy past, including his unwillingness to deliver an original birth certificate.
I think they did him, the entire country, and especially African-Americans a disservice by treating him as a weak candidate, unable to withstand the pressures of investigation and hard questions.
The Democrats always think compassion is a soft, cushy thing, but in the end, it does more damage to the recipient (welfare, abortion, locking kids in failing schools, etc).
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