Election History

How Does Obama’s Election Color the Future

Tuesday, November 4 - I just went out for dinner after a long day working on a development proposal, and was treated to the finest acceptance speech I have ever heard.  The speech had not-so-subtle echoes of President Reagan and Dr. King, among others.  To be perfectly honest, I required the use of my handkerchief.  I took in the happy, hopeful smiles on the faces of the onlookers - both in Chicago and at the restaurant – and I listened to the words of this confident and poised young man, our president elect.  He delivered a message both grateful and admonitory, a message of triumph but also of need.   His command of our language, his sense of his relation to history, and his devotion to the nation were moving.  He moved me to tears, and I have been no great supporter of Barack Obama. 

            I am socially liberal to the point of libertarianism, and fiscally conservative nearly to the point of libertarianism as well, so I have always been a member of the unserved middle in American Politics.  I have always had to choose between a party that believes that Government should intervene in citizens’ economic life, and a party that believes government should involve itself in their personal life. It’s never been a fulfilling choice.  I’ve always felt screwed before the votes were even counted.

            This historic moment, though, got me thinking about the significance of this election, about what it says about us as a county.  We are a nation willing to give a man a chance – to elect a young man, a junior Senator, Commander-in-Chief.  We elected our first black President, a man whose features and name are but a generation removed from Kenya, exactly forty years and seven months after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He is the fifth youngest president ever to serve, and the fourth youngest ever elected (Teddy Roosevelt got the job after McKinley’s assassination).  He is the first to have used mass text messaging and Facebook as campaign tools. 

Barack Obama is articulate in a way that, though it is polished, transcends polish and comes across as a gift, probably a calling.  In a political system as unproductive and partisan-obfuscatory as ours, leadership through inspiring oratory and clear communication is probably the most important job our President has.  If he succeeded only in being a superb opinion-leader and figurehead, he would probably rival the effectiveness of every President in the last 20 years.  FDR’s New Deal and massive war effort could hardly have succeeded without his fireside chats.

The big payoff is that Barack Obama’s election, given his youth, his race, and his passion, provides a genuine, empirical renewal of the American Ideal.  The measure of the health of that ideal will lie in Barack’s degree of success in steering our nation through its most turbulent test since WWII.  His performance will be a measure of our collective commitment to being productive members of a representative democracy.  He won’t do well if half of us fight him, nor if we accept the same right-and-left unreasonability and pork from Congress that they are used to providing.  That means that this is a personal test for each of us. 

Am I willing to set aside my personal opinions and support this President in his efforts to fix things his way?  I’m a guy who has voted Republican more often than not, who owns guns and rides a Harley, says his prayers twice a day, and believes that freedom is worth fighting over.  What do I do?  I think the humble thing to do, the right thing to do, is to listen carefully to this new President, to lay aside my doubt about some of his political and economic convictions, and to lend him my support in his efforts to lead the country the way he sees fit.