President-Elect Obama, Race politics in America and the long road ahead
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008As I had in my gut, Obama wins by a landslide, almost 2:1 on the electoral college votes. With the Dems picking up additional seats in the Senate and House, it ended up being a sweep on almost all fronts. With a few senate races still being decided, it looks like the Dems are also close to a 60 member cloture AKA filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Even if they come short, I’m pretty sure that at least a handful of Republican senators would be willing to go along with a very popular president Obama and cross the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship.
Watching Obama’s acceptance speech late in the evening I was reminded again at how race is a powerful symbol and source of emotion for Americans. I can’t recall ever seeing so many people swept with emotion over a politician before, crying in the audience, shouting for joy. With the historic anecdotes of how he is the first black president, this was a theme that kept coming up again and again throughout the long campaign. This is evident in conversations with African-Americans about Obama, more often then none there was a kind of competition to who owns him so to speak, based on how they identify with him racially. Too often it seemed that the one-drop rule of black identity trumps all others. He is the nation’s first black president, with no alternative analysis or perspective shall apply.
The reality is that his upbringing is very different than many blacks in this country, being that his mother was white American from the midwest, and his father was from Kenya, not an inner city section of an urban American center. He also spent time growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, which would give him a southeast asian as well as a melting pot multicultural experience at a very young age. He would then go on to be one of the only black kids in a mostly white private school in Honolulu, which would serve as a spring board for his higher education in Occidental, Columbia, and Harvard Law School. From there he was a community activist in southside Chicago, and a Law professor at the University of Chicago. His ties to black America really began when he went to college, and then later on in his career paths and life. This doesn’t minimize his own racial identity, but it just adds a perspective that is not just black and white, no pun intended.
To me his unique background is a strength, not a weakness in perspective that he brings to the table that could unite many Americans from all walks of life. For me, I actually see him as a truly multicultural American both in his upbringing and ethnic background, blending black, white and asian experiences. I still to this day challenge the label of Asian-American for Hawaiians of Asian descent on the basis that many people growing up in Hawaii grow up unexposed to the politics of race relations in America until they leave home for college. This would also apply to a hapa-haole popolo kid growing up in Hawaii in the 1970s, and I have to think that Obama sees race in America as something more than just black and white. Unfortunately all of this has and will continue to be disregarded and he is going to be seen as an African American president, and nothing else. To me this is just sad, and just another wasted opportunity for real change on the front of race relations in America.
There is also another very serious danger of this dichotomous thinking is that his claim to American history will forever be a double edged sword in that any mistakes he makes will be blamed on not just him, but the entire black race. You could see rumblings of this throughout the campaign, with the controversy about Rev. Wright, supposedly anti-American comments of his wife, and a whole lot of racist statements from both his supporters and his opponents alike. Similarly how Hillary decided to run as a woman candidate, and would’ve been judged for this and this alone had she won the primary, Obama has made that decision to run as a black man, and he will be judged on that first of all as he goes on as president-elect.
I have to admit that there has been a little bit of voter remorse initially to not have voted along with many of my peers. But looking back on my reasoning and assessment of the entire 2008 campaign from the primaries almost 2 years ago, I can say that I stood by my principles and voted accordingly. I think it also helps when the candidate that I voted for has the tenacity to call BS when a media talking head tries to divert an election night interview about corporate corruption of American politicians into a race-baiting distraction. Time may tell, but for now I’m more than willing to wait and see just how much of president-elect Obama’s campaign promises come to light and how much of it was just fluff and inner beltway business as usual. So for now I’m going forward in good faith in his victory speech late in the evening, that he will be reaching out to those that didn’t support him this time around with the hope that he’ll make good his promise of “change” and fix some of the very bad policies of the past 8 years.
The start of a long list would be some key public policies that should be reexamined, and others that should be outright repealed. The USA Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act would be close to the top, as well as our recent embrace of policies allowing the kidnapping and torture of foreign enemies and spying on Americans. Our foreign policy in the middle east needs an immediate overhaul, starting with ending the war in Iraq and the rejecting the Bush doctrine of preemption. Domestically the biggest challenge Obama will be facing is the out of control spending and entitlements time bomb looming overhead. However most importantly would be one of the most difficult for a popular president inheriting unprecedented executive power, which would be to scale back some power of the unitary executive and bring us back closer to the separation of powers that is in our constitution.
That last one would be the ultimate test, could and would a man elected to a position of great power be willing to give up some of that power that was unjustly given to him by his predecessor, or will he want more? The racial identity and symbolism that he has assumed, combined with an utter disgust for the republican party and the outgoing president has given Obama potential dictatorial powers over America. Time will tell which path he will choose.