The United States
has entered the final countdown to November 4th, the day
when Americans will vote not only a new President into
power, but also a third of the Senate and the entire House
of Representatives, in addition to electing local officials
across the nation.
November 4th is not just a key date in the US calendar;
it is also a watershed in the history of American politics,
because whichever presidential candidate wins, whether
Democrat or Republican, will create a very important
precedent.
An Obama-Biden Presidency would shatter a longstanding
racial barrier in the United States, marking the first time
in history that a black man or individual of African descent
has attained the office of the President in the White
House. A McCain-Palin Presidency would also create a brand
new precedent, smashing the social-cultural barriers that so
far have prevented women from reaching the highest office in
the land.
Both cases herald a departure from the traditional and
familiar, but both cases also reinforce the US Constitution
in the best possible light, rather than deviate from it.
The Constitution gives any American citizen (under very few
conditions) the right to be elected to power, regardless of
their religion, gender, or ethnicity. These rights are
enshrined in other beautifully worded constitutions around
the world, but reality often stops at political will and
constitutional objectives have so often been obstructed by
national customs or traditions.
This is also the case with heaven-sent or divine guidance to
mankind, where we often witness a big difference between the
content, spirit, and messages of sacred texts and the
practices that are generated in their name!
Barack Obama’s nomination for the Presidency was the
result of many long months of a popular selection process,
pitting him in tough competition against other Democratic
party candidates, most notably Hillary Clinton. His
candidacy -- a call for change by the general population --
was not a decision made (or vetoed) by a single person or
the most senior individuals in his party, as occurred with
the selection of Vice Presidential candidate for the
Republican party, Sarah Palin, who also represents a change.
In other words, millions of black and white Americans
actively chose Barack Obama at the polls to be their
candidate for the US Presidency, encouraging the development
of a new understanding of the meaning of democratic
participation and national involvement. At the same time,
it crossed a psychological barrier, putting behind Americans
a tradition of racist and unjust discrimination between
fellow countrymen.
Several challenges continue to face this new ‘phenomenon’ on
the national scene and Barack Obama’s road to the White
House. There is a deep sense of racial prejudice in
segments of American society which are distrustful of
Obama’s African roots and hostile in questioning his
religious identity, due to the fact that the father he
barely knew had Islamic roots. Other factors challenging an
historic ascendancy would relate to Obama’s political and
social policies, which contradict much of the ideology of
the Religious Right, which holds sway over approximately one
fifth of Americans. In addition, there is a traditional but
widening political divide between ‘Democrats’ and
‘Republicans’ and each side’s adopted health, social, and
economic political program. These programs directly affect
the interests of giant US corporations and dictate the
activities of corporate lobbyists in Washington, whose
leverage with politicians affects American lives because
they influence US lawmakers.
Some important new elements that have emerged for the first
time have had a positive impact on this presidential
campaign and have benefitted Obama. Firstly, there is the
organizational power of the student generation, many of whom
are volunteers or activists in the Obama campaign; secondly
there are new immigrants to the U.S. who typically have
avoided involvement in political elections, but see in Obama
a model for their children to emulate of genuine
participation in American society and affairs. Barack Obama
is the son of an immigrant to America born in Kenya.
The third influential factor is the large number of
Americans in general and specifically black Americans, who
have traditionally avoided exercising their constitutional
right to vote or becoming involved in fighting for the right
to vote. This has always diminished their influence with
the candidates and in the electoral process, because, as
they saw it, whichever candidate has won the presidency has
rarely changed their lives or living conditions for the
better. Many now have hope that Barak Obama will represent
them in the highest decision-making office of the land.
Many see in him a direct comparison with the late President
John F. Kennedy who, as a Catholic also belonged to a
minority, in his case religious, and who also attained the
Presidency in his early forties and used his time in power
to work for political and social change before his
assassination in 1963.
Barack Obama’s strong appeal and support among Americans
comes at a time in US politics when there is widespread
discontent with President Bush’s Republican Administration.
The US economy is experiencing a series of crises from
which it might not recover. The war in Iraq has proven
Obama’s political judgment correct with regard to calling
the war a mistake and having no relation to a “War on
Terror”; rather it has deepened America’s economic problems
and created many new negatives for US foreign policy.
Obama Campaign supporters have been asking a lot of
questions about John McCain’s candidacy since the Republican
convention. The Republican Party message shifted its focus
to “Change and Reform,” but it does not criticize the
current Republican Administration of President Bush, nor its
actions at home or abroad. It is almost as though the
incumbent presidency is not Republican nor even exists.
With regard to Iraq, the question that needs to be asked is
not what is happening now, nor how long will it take for the
US policies there to succeed, but why was there a war in the
first place? What results has this ‘mistake’ yielded in
terms of the loss of many human lives, the economic losses
in the hundreds of billions of dollars that is undermining
the US economy, and the loss of political credibility and
policy options? There was either gross negligent political
incompetence, or outright deception, to justify a war that
was such a huge mistake. This carries its own consequences
on the political scene.
Before its Convention, one of the Republican Party’s top
priorities should have been to review the reasons it lost
both the House and the Senate during the previous election
cycle in November 2006. This is when the Democrats won a
majority of both legislative houses, sending a resounding
public message to President Bush’s Administration and the
Republican Party, which had dominated before the ‘06
elections. This message, which the Democratic Party adopted,
indicated clear dissatisfaction with the ruling Republican
Party; however, this did not mean automatic allegiance to
the Democrats. Public opinion polls conducted just before
the November 2006 elections showed that a majority of
Americans distrust Congress and its members from both
political parties. It is now the ‘Independent voters’, who
do not belong to either party but tend to lean towards the
Democratic camp, for whom both parties are competing
fiercely.
November 4th will be a decisive and important day not just
for Americans but for the whole world. The Bush
Administration’s track record and its key supporters in
terms of corporate and lobbyist interests and extreme and
racially-prejudiced religious movements, have made the
upcoming election a choice between the American Constitution
or adherence to a number of decaying tribal customs and
traditions, and between electing governance on the basis of
a healthy concept of citizenship and national participation,
or self-enclosure within isolated groups. It is a choice
between hope for a better future for Americans and the
world, or the continuation of the Bush Administration’s path
which has transformed the ‘American Dream’ into one long
nightmare.
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*Sobhi Ghandour is the Founder and Director of Alhewar
Center (the Arab-American Dialogue Centre) in Washington,
D.C.
http://www.alhewar.com