Sixteen Days Later
Americans have finally gotten beyond our racial past, and we picked a black man to pick up our mess. ~ Bill Maher
Things finally seem to be settling to the bottom. At least, that’s what seems to be the case in the grand world of cable television networks. This marathon of election season has gleefully subsided, and with the woes of a still downward skidding global market place hanging in the balance, it almost appears as if the media, the population, and the rest of the world are all holding their breaths, waiting to see what happens next. Even comedy shows are starting to feel the winds of subtle change; an overly used and perhaps banked-upon word these past few months. Saturday Night Live, who has made their money for the past twenty years mocking our Presidents, may find this one a bit harder to make light of, considering the amount of, dare I say, hope that rides upon the office. Even ol’ Jon Stewart is taking his last swings at a lame duck President who has been his “daily” bread and butter for the past eight years. Yup, it seems that things may return to civility, even in the world of sketch comedy. But now that the dust has settled a bit, I figured I should weigh in a tad.
Meanwhile, I’m certain that you, faithful reader, have noticed that an election has slipped by without so much as my batting an eye or typing a word. I had my reasons. First, it seemed like band wagonning and sensory overload towards that time period. Further, a large number of people (or at least the large number of people whom the media decided to report on) remained determined to discuss obvious observations to particularly irrelevant ends and points… so I refrained from making my own lest I be lumped in with them. Secondly, I did not write anything because of the sheer jubilation of Obama supporters. As always, I attempt to remain candid, unbiased, and original in perspective, and there was simply no ear for even potential nay-saying at the hour of trumpeting. And thirdly, my trial version of Microsoft Office is about to expire, and I can’t spell check until I get my key code in the mail… and that’s a bit discouraging for everyone involved, I think.
But to catch us up a bit, I will say that this whole election had me nervous. I could go into my anarchist chaos theories of doom and gloom, but I’ll hold back. What I will say is that we are certainly at a major turning point in American history, whether or not the average American understands it or not. And it’s not a crisis or a surrender of American values; at least, I don’t think so – it’s a return to them. The storm that would destroy us will break based upon whether or not Americans can still remember what it means to be Americans or if we have sunk so deep into our self-entitlement, political correctness, and paranoia to recover. Time will tell.
What was interesting to me in the election was how the states themselves played out. The no-brainer round tables on CNN and FOXNews were awash with numb-nut analysts pointing out that southern states went to Senator McCain, and that what this meant was the south was not ready for a black president. I’ll address the race piece here in a minute… However, while it was nice to see that the ol’ Mason-Dixon Line is still alive and well (except for North Carolina and Virginia thankfully), what I was more surprised to observe was our electoral college at work. I’ve often marveled that while America has made it its mission to plant the seeds of democracy around the world for the past sixty years, it has never offered an electoral college to any other country but our own. Why is this? Could it be that the Muslim Arabs have the ability to understand the completely foreign concept of democracy, but they are unfamiliar with the idea of a weighed end to population-driven sub-states? No, I think not.
It was a bit clearer to me as the states results began to pour in. As the east coast became lit up with a blue north and a red south, I looked at the electoral number tally just off to the side of my screen and realized that one candidate was well in front of the other. Seemed odd, but the fleeting thought that I had was, huh, that’s one way to insure that the South will not rise again… at least not electorally. Just food for thought…
Now then, there was the rampant running of the mouth about that matter of race, and as always, I was disgusted by the out-dated mindset on both sides of the divide, despite what I considered obvious numbers. From the whites, I heard the boorishly trite prattle about southern not excepting a black president. From the blacks, I heard the same thing fired back at the whites – that racism was alive at well in America. Before, I agree or disagree, let’s look at this as a contemporary issue, not some aged civil rights movement against Jim Crow Laws. Those arguments needed to dry up on November 5th when every minority who had been blaming “The Man” for their troubles and misfortunes had to realize that they now were “The Man”. However, if you want to look at racism, take a look at the ‘new majority’. Whites, regardless of any demographic other than race, voted 53-45% in favor of President-Elect Obama. Blacks, on the other hand, voted 93-5% for Obama. Paying just a rare moment of Devil’s Advocate, could you imagine if whites had voted 90% or higher in favor of McCain? Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton would still be screaming.
Howard Stern, in all his astute political savvy, spent a few weeks prior to the election sending one of his female employees to the streets of major metropolitan areas masquerading as a reporter on the beat, and asking African Americans what they thought of then Senator Obama’s policies. The catch was that this woman would offer Senator McCain’s campaign platform up as Senator Obama’s and, of course, the average African American on the street gladly praised it as the way ahead and real thinking without actually knowing a single thing about their candidate’s actual stance on just about anything. One extreme dullard, when ask if he was okay with Gov. Sarah Palin as Senator Obama’s running mate, stated that he thought that this was just fine for the country.
Now, I’m sure that if anyone was so inclined that they could have taken a camera or boom-microphone and found similar levels of stupidity from white voters as well. I sleep soundly at night presenting myself with the illusion that hopefully these people were also too dumb to register to vote in the first place.
Nonetheless, if any one demographic should be labeled racist in this election it should be the African Americans. But even that is an unwarranted fight, I feel, which lowers us to weak and misappropriated levels of political correctness. There is nothing wrong with voting for a candidate because of his skin color or religion or creed… if you think that based upon that fact he (or she) will represent you and this nation in a more positive way than his (or her) opponent. America has been doing that since its inception! The Irish did it in New York as immigrants, so did the Catholics with JFK. New Mexico has a Mexican Governor largely due to a dense Mexican immigrant population… and obviously a legal one because they can vote.
What I’m getting at is that age old concepts of white verses blacks are truly fading. I’m not disagreeing that pockets of antiquated thinking still exist (I’m looking at you, Georgia), but the numbers don’t lie. Half of whites, regardless of political thought, said that it was okay to have a black president. Who knows of the other fifty-percent or so how many felt the same way, but didn’t vote for the President-Elect because of party or policy reasons. I don’t think that I can give the same gold star of unity to the African American community… not because they almost across the board voted for their man, I’m not hating on that. But because the next day, every black man or woman on television said at one point or the other how racism was alive and well rather than noting that it was as much the white vote that elected the next president as the black vote.
Luckily for all of us, President-Elect Obama does not seem to see things in terms of color. Or party lines for that matter…
One patron of my favorite local pub stated (nay, slurred) the other night to me that he liked the fact that Obama was so young and so unspoiled by Washington that he didn’t owe nothing to nobody. I thought, that’s very true, and then further wondered just how far that little difference will take him. So far, even in the planning stages, it could well be the ruby slippers than will carry him to the Emerald City.
Of course, the talk since the election has been on his choice for cabinet members. Speculation is abounding in all facets of the media as well as dinner tables and local bars alike. I have heard some intelligent comments and suggestions, but oddly enough, the ones that I think are the most far out there are not only going to be the ones that President-Elect Obama will pick, but they are also going to be the ones that work!
First things first: we need the Secretary of the Treasury AND Secretary of Commerce named and named yesterday…but honestly, I don’t know shit about this, so I’m going to skip it. Secondly, how now does the President-Elect deal with your ex-rivals as well as a disorganized and extremely bitter (though heavily marginalized) Republican Party?
The President-Elect understands the value of star-power. Just look at his rallies. They are more akin to a Rolling Stones concert than a political summit. Further, as I opened this blog stating, we have been invested in these candidates’ lives for the past year or two, and more so than I believe we ever have been in our current President. Therefore, I think that the President-Elect understands the need to maintain the name value of his past political opponents in order to unify and carry his agenda. Now, while I have heard Senator Hillary Clinton being thrown around as a consideration for the Secretary of State, I don’t think that’s as likely an outcome as some. One the one hand, she likely won’t leave her Senate seat for that, not with the Democrats now in firm control, and secondly, I don’t think that President-Elect Obama will offer it to her… I think later in his first term, he will offer her a seat on the Supreme Court… which offers the party more longevity on the Roe v. Wade issue as well as keeping Senator Clinton from running for President again. At least theoretically.
The most interesting thing that I watched on TV this week was the President-Elect meeting with Senator McCain, though the topics of the conversation were not made terribly public. I liked that, showed composure. However, I have a conjecture. Even as Robert Gates heaves a heavy sigh over likely staying on another year as Secretary of Defense, I suspect that President-Elect Obama is grooming Senator McCain for the post. Politically and militarily, its genius because it will strip the Senate of another deeply incumbent Republican controlled seat just a year prior to elections whilst giving the country a huge boost of brotherly love by adding your primary rival to your cabinet. Personally, I would love to see that happen.
However, the prospect that I am most excited about is Secretary of State. Predominantly because I think that the principal choice is clear: Oprah Winfrey. She practically does the job now, anyway. Republicans will love her because she has more money than God, and Democrats will love her because she is a hard line liberal. For some reason, I just think it would be perfect… now, would that make O Magazine a propaganda piece? I do hope so!
