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diggWill this man heal all wounds?
Anyone who thinks that this election has divided America as never before needs to dust off his history books.
A recent BBC poll indicates enormous enthusiasm for Barack Obama outside the United States. In 22 countries from Italy to Egypt he leads John McCain by about four to one on average, margins not seen since the last time a Democrat faced a Republican in an American election. It's one more warning to Mr. Obama's domestic supporters that he's not quite the phenomenon they think he is.
This foreign enthusiasm is puzzling. Recent liberal Democratic presidents have performed fairly poorly on security and trade, and if Mr. Obama had consistent positions they might well be protectionist. Meanwhile to many of his American supporters his appeal is less programmatic than spiritual; he will heal America of divisions that allegedly run as deep as any the republic has ever known. Why this prospect would appeal in, say, Singapore or France is not obvious, especially to people who don't like America very much. But in any case it is untenable because based on a false premise.
Barack Obama may be a healer, and the inauguration of a black president would certainly be good for America. The problem is simply that the premise that America is divided as never before does not withstand informed scrutiny. Not on race, not on foreign affairs, not on economics, not on anything.
Compare today with 1800, when the election of Thomas Jefferson prompted a leading member of George Washington's Federalist party, Fisher Ames, to expect "the loathsome steam of human victims offered in sacrifice." The Jeffersonian Republicans in return accused the Federalists of being closet monarchists possibly plotting to hand the U.S. back to Britain, and in 1814 the remnants of the Federalist party did make a politically lethal though otherwise feeble effort to take New England out of the Union. But after a short-lived "Era of Good Feelings," by 1832 president Andrew Jackson was threatening to hang his own former Vice President, John C. Calhoun, over tariff policy linked to states' rights and slavery.
Speaking of slavery, in 1856 Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner was savagely beaten on the floor of the Senate by South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks, to general Southern approval, in the lead-up to a civil war that would kill over 600,000 Americans, nearly as many as all America's other wars combined. And the man who saved the Union, President Lincoln, was himself subjected to extraordinary abuse in his day, including unflattering comparison to a baboon by a member of his own cabinet.
The Civil War was obviously the nadir. But how do today's divisions compare with Senator "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman's campaign promise to stab president Grover Cleveland, a fellow Democrat, over bank policy? From a resurgent Klan in the 1920s to Republicans washing their children's mouths out with soap in the 1930s for saying "Roosevelt" to McCarthy-era accusations of treason in high places to "Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?" and "Burn Baby Burn", persistent urban rumours that Nixon would put blacks in concentration camps and ridicule of Ronald Reagan as a senile warmonger, American politics is consistently rambunctious, with a dash of venomous paranoia at least as evident on the left as the right. Even the relatively placid Clinton era saw the president impeached as a wretched cad then acquitted on a bitter partisan vote.
I happen to think the United States has had surprisingly good government under this system, in part because issues get very thoroughly aired. And (speaking for the record as a hard-core conservative) I consider 2008 a fairly unimportant election in which a cranky mediocrity and a charming novice seek to replace a disappointing incumbent.
I can't muster any views more apocalyptic than that. Except that, based on the historical record, enthusiasts for Barack Obama consumed with hatred of George W. Bush are in part imagining and in part creating the very abyss of partisan loathing they claim their man can fix with a few ritual phrases and a laying-on of hands. As for foreigners, they don't get to vote and Americans mostly don't care what they think. Rightly not, judging by that BBC poll.
John Robson has a PhD in American History and is an Invited Professor at the University of Ottawa. He is a regular columnist for The Ottawa Citizen.
To be honest Letitia, I don’t know anything about Alan Keyes, but seeing what David Page wrote above I’m not sure I will be interested in him.
I understand your sentiments about abortion and I will respect them, although I may not agree with them.
But aren’t you zapping it up when you say 50 million Americans have died through abortion?
To draw it out further, one might as well say: every time a youngster has a nocturnal emission, or onanizes, some 20 billion potential children are wasted, after all that’s as many - or more - spermatozoa as he sheds.
Sorry, I don’t intend to prick your Catholic sensitivities but I could not have put it any better.
Letitia, Obama voted no on the born alive bill because fetuses born alive in Illinois were already protected by law. Jill Stanek knows this. For her charges to be true there would have to be a criminal conspiracy involving much of the hospital staff. Anti-abortion Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan was unable to substantiate any of her charges against the hospital. Stanek is just ‘swift boating’.
Letitia, is this the same Jill Stanek who published the article entitled ‘Michael J Fox is a Cannibal’?
adebowale oriku:
Sarah Palin was baptized Catholic, and her parent left the faith and became Pentecostal, yet her candidacy excites me and gives me enthusisam for the McCain ticket. I wish she were still Catholic but her prolife credentials are strong enough to make me an ardent supporter. She is a better example of her faith than her opponent, pro-abort Catholic Joe Biden Obama’s running mate.
I oppose Obama, not because he is black, but as a Catholic who is deeply offended that he supported a bill which would allow infants born during induced abortion to die without medical care. Nurse Jill Stanek was present at a late term abortion where a child like Trig Palin, Sarah’s son with Down syndrome, was born and left in a soiled utility room to suffocate alone. Jill cradled the baby for his last 45 minutes of life, and is now leading the charge to defeat Obama on this basis.
What kind of man would support such a law? Fr Frank Pavone asserts that a man or woman who supports abortion has NO moral character to be in a leadership position as president or even Congressman.
He said, “If Osama Bin Laden were running for President, would you ask him about his tax policy?”
50 million Americans have died at the hands of abortionists since Roe v Wade, far outtripping the wildest dreams of murderers like Bin Laden or Hitler. Yet we debate the merits of electing a morally bankrupt man like Obama?
This is a disgrace.
Alan Keyes won every debate he had with Obama in the Sentate election, he is a wonderfully prolife leader, but he lacks the corrupt and powerful Chicago machine backing Obama. He is also a bit harsh and lack’s the smooth talking stlye of Obama. Style is all that matters to many in our nation. It’s frightening.
Thanks Mal. Yours is a voice of reason.
Leticia Velasquez said: “I want our first African American president to be Alan Keyes, a fine intellect and devout Catholic. He would bring honor to his faith, our nation and to his race.”
When Alan Keyes found out his daughter was gay, he stopped paying her tuition, threw her out of the house, and threatened to disown her. He has since tried to soften the story but that’s how it played out. Keyes is a Christian Dominionist and so denies the separation of church and state. Keyes ran against Obama in the 2004 US Senate race in Illinois and was defeated three to one. In fact, it was the size of that victory that gave Obama national recognition. Keyes will never be President of the United States, and it is precisely because of his extreme Christian views that he won’t be.
I believe that in saying ‘I want our first African American president to be Alan Keyes, a fine intellect and devout Catholic’, Leticia Velasquez was making the point that she would vote for a candidate who shared her values irrespective of the colour of the candidate’s skin. Nothing wrong with that.
It is true that some white women will not vote for Obama. It is also true that some black Americans will vote for Obama. We could also take it for granted that many in the left will vote for Obama and that many conservatives will vote for McCain irrespective of how good or bad the candidates are.
I would like to add that many POWs will tell you that they would have preferred to be out fighting alongside their comrades. Some of them suffered as much, if not more, than some of those who were not captured.
Whoever wins the race has a tough job ahead. It has always been the case. If the country is to be healed then it is imperative that its real illness be indentified by the citizens. Since healing is an internal process it must start with the American family. Otherwise, the illness will get worse!
...and there is nothing new with sleazy ads. I believe Jackson’s opponent made posters accusing Jackson of the the murder of two British citizens whom he mistakingly hanged as spies during an unauthorized and embarrassing incursion into Florida. What would have happened if they had televsion?
David,
I thought the mixture of metaphors would show the sentence for what it is. I meant the prisoner-of-war/courage bit only in a rhetorical sense. Being a prisoner of war does not in itself confer courage, it only demands courage as an expediency. A wimp may easily survive as a prisoner of war as he only needs to ingratiate himself.
Leadership is not just the courage or willingness to do soemthing. It is, as Mr. Page said, a skill that requires the courage to know when to act and how to act - as best as one can possibly know that. I hope I captured the spirit of Mr. Pahes’ comments.
Sen. McCain’s record of leadership:
- Understood that the Surge would work and was vindicated
Whether you agree with the war or not; even Sen Obama has admitted that the Surge has turned things around.
- Sounded the alarm on Russia and its threat to neighboring states for years
- 2005: pretty much predicted the Fannie Mae fiasco but could not find others brave enough to act on it. Even former Pres Clinton ackonowleded that some Republicans were sounding the alarm during the past two Administrations.
- Screaming about earmarks and Congressional pork for years.
Attacks on Sen. McCain can be met with some substantive responses. You may not agree with his past actions or decisions but they are there for the record.
Sen Obama? Appears to be a cult of personality. People are still waiting for some real examples. That is all I am saying.
adebowale oriku said: “McCain wears the red badge of a prisoner of war, so he has the courage to lead.”
George Bush had the courage to lead and look at the mess he led us into. Leadership also requires judgment and foresight. Think of it as a game of chess. How many moves ahead is McCain capable of seeing? Will he be taken by surprise by each new crisis? How many crises will he blunder his way into? A McCain presidency will be the presidency of unintended consequences.
Like Martin Luther King and Sherye above I hope for the day when people will be judged and votes cast ‘not by the colour of their skin but the content of their character’.
November election’s will be very interesting though…
Let’s see
Amen to that, and to the comment below me, why is it when someone has something critical to say about a black mans political points… and in no means judging their race… why is it assuming racist? Get over it we are in 2008.. segregation is over. People are now merely judged by views as a human being, (this IS politics) not by the color of their skin.
Dan Hoffman said: ‘Mr Obama is a bright fellow who appears to follow the tide rather than have the courage to take the lead.’
Why not simply say ‘Mister Obama is a bright fellow...’ This would have further located the sentence within the timewarp it belongs.
And how in the world do you know that Obama does not have the courage to lead? Well, McCain wears the red badge of a prisoner of war, so he has the courage to lead. Doesn’t he?
And what has McCain been doing since he lost his millennial ‘maverick’ mantle? He is now almost lost in the tide of GOP shallow politicking.
And by the way isn’t gallery-hugging the stock-in-trade of every politician?
Obama may not heal all wounds, but he might just stop the bleeding.
Leticia Velasquez said, ‘I want our first African American president to be Alan Keyes, a fine intellect and devout Catholic. He would bring honor to his faith, our nation and to his race.’
There is nothing wrong in wishing someone from a certain race to be president of the US. But isn’t it implied in the above statement that Obama will bring dishonour to his nation and race simply because he is not a Catholic?
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