Politics

Is It Time for Obama?

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ November 3, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Every major pollster seems to think so. The Economist thinks it too. In fairly rousing language, it claims “America should take a chance and make Barack Obama the next leader of the free world.”

I have maintained in the past that McCain is better for India. And I still maintain that Obama’s economic policies are certainly more irresponsible than McCain’s. The Wall Street Journal – an economically conservative publication – concurs. Yet, the bulk of public opinion is in Obama’s favor. And I am forced to reassess my opposition to a candidate that seems to be all fluff, eloquence, and little substance. Yet, the alternative, as the Economist points out, has been found even more disappointing:

That, however, was Senator McCain; the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance” now embraces theocratic culture warriors. The campaigner against ethanol subsidies (who had a better record on global warming than most Democrats) came out in favour of a petrol-tax holiday. It has not all disappeared: his support for free trade has never wavered. Yet rather than heading towards the centre after he won the nomination, Mr McCain moved to the right.

But Gary Younge of the Guardian carriers a much more emotional argument for Obama.

The day we brought my new-born son home to our Brooklyn apartment, an article in the New York Times pointed out that “a black male who drops out of high school [in the US] is 60 times more likely to find himself in prison than one with a bachelor’s degree”. These are the kind of statistics I often quote in my work. But this time it was personal. Looking down at him as he snoozed in the brand new car seat, I thought: “Those are not great odds. I’d better buy some more children’s books.”

…If there is promise in [in Obama's victory] for my son, it is not so much that he is capable of doing anything he wants – I am his father and it’s my responsibility to teach him that – but that white people won’t necessarily stop him. What that does for his odds of finishing high school or going to jail remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’m off to the bookshop.

If Gary, an Obama cynic too, can claim the symbolism of Obama’s victory to be reason enough for his support – perhaps it is. Perhaps it is more important to get American optimistic again, than it is to maintain a budget surplus. As someone that has lived in America and Europe, I have found the former to be a lot more tolerant, on the surface, of minorities, yet stubbornly resistant to the kind of deep change of attitude that would even the odds for African Americans or Latinos. If Obama can help, that is a good reason for Americans to elect him.

They may still be unpleasantly surprised by what else he and a single party state bring. But the need for self-confidence is a powerful compulsion. The world needs America just as much as America needs the world. As Gary said:

Symbols are too important to be left to the symbol-minded. By that time, my thinking on Obama had evolved. Not so much because of the man, but the moment. The atmosphere during this campaign has been unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a western country. To see so many people – particularly young people – engaged and hopeful about their political future after eight depressing years is inspiring. The last time I saw it was in South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994.

Walking down Sumter Street during Charleston’s Martin Luther King day parade, watching white volunteers chant: “Obama ‘08! We’re ready. Why wait?” gave political voice to an America I never doubted existed, but had yet to see. Among them was a young man who was “so depressed” after Obama’s New Hampshire defeat that he had dropped everything he had been doing in Guatemala and flown back to help out. Local African Americans lined the sidewalks, cheering encouragement. Obama’s victory in Iowa had proved that a black candidacy was not a pipe dream.

It was a moment. Fleeting and maybe even fatuous. But nonetheless a political moment that produced hopeful human engagement. Within half an hour it had evaporated. The white volunteers went back to the office and black people went back to their homes in the poorest parts of town and waited for change. But that didn’t mean it didn’t happen or that it couldn’t happen again. Nor was there anyone else who could make it happen.

So, perhaps it is the moment that will bring Obama victory. Let us hope that Obama will use it well.

Tags: mccain, obama, Politics, US elections