THE magic word ‘change’ and the magic number ‘270’ have both finally clicked. Change with a capital C. Wednesday’s mid-morning news bulletin announced that Barack Obama’s electoral college votes had crossed the winning figure of 270 while votes of some states were yet to be counted. What was more, he had upset predictions for some traditional Republican bastions. After eight years, 3 trillion dollars in war expenditure, economic meltdown, demonstrable futility of the policy of countering terror with terror and nearly four thousand American body bags, the voters have taken the right decision. Common Americans, like the common people everywhere, do not want war, although they can be faulted for their unthinking consumerism and uncaring attitude towards the wide world as long as cheap oil (‘gas’, as they call it) and cheap food are ensured. This time they have learnt that you have to fight for these things also.
This was not a closely fought presidential contest as in 1960 and 2000. As the election was approaching the result was becoming more and more predictable. But predictability did not take away from its excitement. Some US presidential elections and election campaigns were more interesting than others. This year too the contest was more exhilarating than a mere leap year event like the Olympic Games. The record turnout in this election shows that common Americans are not as apolitical as generally thought. An important reason for the high turnout may be that a higher proportion of African-Americans voted than usual. There was a time when they were too afraid to go to the polling booth. And the youth were less indifferent this time. Muslims may also have participated in greater numbers. A call was made from mosques upon the Muslims to exercise their voting right, without promoting any individual candidate. Hispanic Americans too were traditionally less enthusiastic about voting. Immigration, a hot topic among Muslims and Hispanics, is very much on the agenda of Barack Obama, the son of an immigrant.
Anything unconventional easily draws attention and in this unconventionality is packed global political and economic implications which are almost impossible to entirely foresee and gauge. We can leave aside the comic element introduced in this highly serious affair in the person of Sarah Palin, who came in suddenly from nowhere and seemed not to know a thing or two about politics and election and America and instead lent some hilarity to the tense atmosphere. It is unfortunate that the first female vice-presidential nominee in US history should prove herself to be a bull in a china shop.
It can be argued, of course, that it is vain to be too effusive about Barack Obama because, after all, from the point of view of the policy on arms race, the Middle East and oil interests the difference between Democrat and Republican candidates in all elections has been just as much as between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Will it be different this time? No one should forget that here is a president who has promised the Zionists that undivided Jerusalem shall be the capital of Israel. Then is it justifiable to hope for a new turn? True, but sometimes the style not only matters but even makes an impact on the substance. And the political process can somewhat chasten politics itself. In foreign relations Obama’s emphasis has all along been on engagement and dialogue, words which were an anathema to George W Bush who was continuously threatening that he had ‘all options on the table’ (including military strike against non-complying states).
The election was mainly fought on economic platform at the time of meltdown. Honesty and candour in a different situation would have created sympathy for a candidate but at this time of meltdown it did not help McCain to confess that he is not knowledgeable about economics. And Obama is known as the most left-wing senator. High taxes and high public spending can be a viable option now. This may bring Obama in conflict with corporate interest. Record amount of money has been spent by both sides in this election. (Around $2.5 billion in total). Those who donated large amounts have axes to grind. McCain too is a Republican without being a neocon and he too would perhaps not toe the neocon line but then on economic matters he is a self-confessed ignoramus. Besides, the anti-incumbency factor acts even more strongly in times of economic downturn. Some have seen this election as a referendum against Bush-Cheney rule. Fortunately for Obama, the election took place at a time when George Bush’s popularity rating had sunk abnormally low (26 per cent).
Race and religion are still live electoral issues in the world’s strongest and second largest democracy. Forty-six years ago the Catholic John Kennedy had to face the religious question just because before him all presidents had been WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant). That rigidity has been broken. The new president has part Muslim genealogy. Not that the racial question was entirely muted. According to a recent survey conducted by Stanford University, Associated Press and Yahoo as cited by the Indian columnist MJ Akbar, some 10 per cent Americans are irredeemably racist and another 6 per cent are unconsciously so. Some dirty racial tricks were also played to stoke up prejudice. (In Pennsylvania, a ‘swing’ state, they planted a young white woman who alleged that she had been molested by a tall and muscular black man who also branded her face for opposing Obama. Her story was even televised before a further scrutiny was able to call the bluff and she herself acknowledged having been planted. As election prank the drama could have been amusing but for the fact that it is deeply racist in form, content and flavour).
There is no disputing that racism persists but there is another way of looking at things. The fact that surmounting all the odds an African-American is entering the White House is itself not only a positive change but one with revolutionary import. The glass of race relations is not only half-empty, it is also half-filled. The American media, which made itself contemptible by its servility to the establishment and acquiring the epithet ‘embedded’, played a commendable role in this case by not letting the race issue surface. Not only will the global media see a new face, everyone hopes the new face will be less arrogant. No one can question that the USA is, still, the world’s most powerful state, but powerful entities are not necessarily arrogant which unfortunately and unnecessarily George W Bush made his country appear.
During the campaign both the candidates said they would include persons from the opposition in the government. Is it an attempt towards national unity in a time of financial crisis? Massive challenges await the new president. He opposed the Iraq war, opposed the surge in troops and has pledged to end the war. To oppose the war before it had begun was easy; to disentangle his country keeping its interest intact and bequeathing peace to the Iraqi people is not easy. He will reduce taxes for the poor, give more attention to healthcare, bring drastic changes in education and limit dependence on energy. Also, he will resolve the immigration issue.
It will be wrong to find significance of the change by contrasting the new programmes only with the eight inglorious Bush years. If we look further behind, fifty or sixty years, it will be clear that a sea change has come about. Racism persists but is denied any public space. A presidential candidate was branded a socialist by opponents and yet he sweeps the polls, non-whites, immigrants and the poor feel empowered. All this could be accomplished through a slow and democratic political process. The world can still be made a better place. What Obama will achieve remains in the womb of the future but for the present this election has brought considerable prestige for the US. By prioritising education the Harvard trained Obama addresses a growing deficiency in the quality of American leadership. George Bush’s ignorance was proverbial, his father’s running mate vice-president Dan Quale caused a storm through America by failing to correctly spell the word ‘potato’, the other day Sarah Palin could not name a single American newspaper. Hope Obama can successfully play his part as an early agent of this change.
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