Obama Dreams of a Better America

Thank you for visiting! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to this Blog's RSS feed or join the Forum for exclusive articles, updates, stories, news, tips, and useful information for ameteur and professional writers alike.

There is a widely held truism that black immigrants from all parts of the world tend to do better in the United States than their African-American counterparts because they actually dare to believe that, “yes, we can” succeed despite the odds. The same is arguably true of African-Americans in England, for example, who as outsiders can bypass the “historical baggage” and are often preferred in the marketplace to the home-grown variety of ethnic minorities as a result.

If any one thing comes out of Barack Obama’s historic nomination as the first black man to lead a major American party in its bid for the White House, it will be a new understanding among African-Americans, and the American people in general, that frankly anything is possible if you truly believe and prepare yourself wholeheartedly for the task at hand.

No one who understands the history of America and the fight for civil rights will have failed to comprehend the magnitude of any prospect that in November a black family may move into the White House; a property symbolic of the world’s foremost superpower; and built on the backs of enslaved Africans. That Mr Obama should give his stirring acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of that famous speech in which Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamt of a day when his children would be judged, not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character, is even more striking.

The 2008 Democratic convention will rightly be remembered as Barack Obama’s moment in history. As someone who works on a daily basis with language and understands its implicit and explicit effects, I was riveted by his words, not so much for the lofty idealism I had grown to expect but by the lack of it. My political mind in fact wanted more–it was bracing to finally see Obama throw some hard punches–direct, specific and targeted jabs–at the opposition and offering up a detailed diet of domestic spending promises on health, education and the environment, alongside individual and small business tax cuts.

The initial Republican response so far indicates clearly, I think, that they have NO serious comeback for the blows that Obama has dealt them. The choice of Sarah Palin - an obscure and inexperienced Alaskan governor as McCain’s running mate to try and win over the female vote - should be a huge insult to every Hilliary Clinton supporter. The idea that just about any woman would do is simply laughable. It indicates that the Republicans have not even listened to what their rivals had to say at the Democratic National Convention and were unable to respond with anything other than a pro forma script.

One of my favourite commentators echoed the same idea: he said it sounded as if the Republicans were caught off guard by the detailed content (beyond the expected grace and power of the language) and fervour of Obama’s salvo at McCain. At least “for one brief, shining moment,” it appears that Obama has overcome the reality that he is still seen as a black man, rather than as simply a man, for the majority of white Americans. Nonetheless, when asked who should be the next US-president in Britain, Barack Obama is five times more popular than his Republican rival, John McCain, according to a recent Guardian/ICM poll.

We Brits may not be able to vote in the forthcoming elections, but on this side of the Atlantic, at least, we are watching and hoping that the Democrat’s forward momentum continues, and that Mr Obama will be more aggressive in dealing with the oppositional forces in his wake, if he truly intends to be the 44th president of the United States of America.

Related Reading:

American Story, An: The Speeches of Barack Obama: a Primer

Miami and the Seige of Chicago (New York Review Books Classics)

The Selling of the President

Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme

Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W.Bush Presidential

Popularity: 24% [?]

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...