The Week We All Became Americans, Again
The last time the world sympathized with Americans, the tallest buildings along the Eastern seashore came crumbling down. Instead of channeling that sympathy into a powerful but positive force to unite the world and usher in the new century, President George W. Bush turned his back on his campaign promises and gave in to the Neo-Conservative’s Project for the New American Century (PNAC), dividing Americans and creating a wedge between America and the rest of the World through the use of powerful but overwhelming and indiscriminate force.
In the seven years that followed, what ensued was the most devastating period in American history, resulting in:
- Two wars that killed nearly 5,000 American soldiers and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi and Afghani civilians.
- Violation of the Geneva conventions with examples of human rights abuses and atrocities in Abu Ghraib prison along with lurid stories of torture in Guantanamo Bay.
- Failure to come to the rescue of thousands of mainly African Americans in the wake of the Katrina hurricane natural disaster in New Orleans.
In the past year alone,
- A housing crash that spiked foreclosures and created hardship for millions of Americans.
- A financial meltdown that has evaporated 50% of people’s retirement money, rivaled only by the Great Depression.
- Last but not least, the highest unemployment in nearly 15 years.
- Perhaps worst of all, over the long term, was the damage done to America’s reputation and standing in the world.
Undoubtedly, George W. Bush’s Presidential terms will go down in history as the Decline of the American Empire. This statement by of itself speaks volumes for two reasons:
First, that is “terms” in plural, which suggests that a majority of America’s electorate felt that his first term was not disastrous enough to merit a new leader.
Second is the realization that many around the world actually cheered on America’s fall from grace and decline, not because of what America stood for, but for what America had done this decade.
With power comes responsibility and accountability. As such, it is very important for Americans to understand how much America’s standing in the world fell in 2004 when they re-elected President Bush to a second term. While historians will note that this was a result of Karl Rove’s bring-out-the-vote strategy of appealing to the Conservative Right; in the world’s simplified view, Americans re-electing Bush signaled their approval with his policies and his politics. As a result, not only did the world respect America less, they suddenly wished it harm.
While America’s heavy-handed and plain foolish reaction to 9/11 eroded the world’s support, the Bush re-election took the disdain for America one giant step. Overnight in November 2004, the world’s sympathy shifted away from the victims of 9/11 to the very same agents of Islamic extremism who lashed out at ordinary Americans and wished them harm.
But this week, four years later from the battlegrounds of Ohio, that all changed, forever.
Suddenly, the clash of civilizations that the neo-conservatives and Republicans were pushing for the past decade evaporated with an Obama victory:
After all, how can “Radical Islamists” try to instill hatred for America when the President was born to a Kenyan Muslim who immigrated to the United States, married a White Christian American, and along the way paving the path for their son’s improbable journey?
Obama’s nomination, let alone election, is a game-changer, not just because he disarms America’s enemies, but because he brings back onto American’s good side those citizens of the World who lost hope and respect along the way.
It is said Americans vote for the candidate that best makes up for the shortcomings of the incumbent. In this case, President Bush’s lack of worldly curiosity and ineloquence all but guaranteed a victory for Barack Obama.
With that victory, comes redemption for America. The redemption comes not just for the excess force and arrogance towards Muslims and Arabs over the past eight years, but for the past three centuries of injustice and racism towards Blacks.
On this point alone, it is worth noting that everything about Obama’s win was unbelievable. For his white grandmother to pass away the night before, as if to serve as a reminder for “White America” that Obama was indeed biracial, born to a White mother, could not have been scripted any more aptly in Hollywood. Surely for news networks to flash images of Obama’s white grandmother on the eve of the elections might have played a role in tipping North Carolina and Virgina - Virginia! - over to Obama’s column.
Barack Obama didn’t simply cruise to victory on the electoral map, his percentage gain in the popular vote was nothing short of breathtaking, as well. When was the last time that the Under-30 crowd outvoted the Over-65 demographic? Obama has been nothing short of transformational, and thanks to the fact that he is entering the White House at one of the lowest moments in American history, the stage is set for a resoundingly successful first White House term.
By winning 52.5% of the electoral vote, he far surpassed former Democrats Jimmy Carter (1996, who won 50.1%), Bill Clinton (1992: only 43% after Ross Perot splintered the vote with 18.9% and 49.24% in 1996). But he also surpassed the vote garnered by George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004: in 2000, President Bush got only 47.9% of the vote versus the 48.4% that Al Gore obtained (Mr. Gore lost, because President Elect Bush won Florida’s 25 electoral votes, earning him 271 vs. VP Gore’s 266). In 2004, Bush earned 50.7% while John Kerry earned 48.3%.
With one casting of their votes, the American people showed that while imperfect, they were no longer becoming the rogue nation of the world, evidenced by the images of Katrina and Abu Ghraib, but in one fell swoop managed to overtake the world as a symbol of hope and beacon of tolerance, as it had over the course of its history.
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