The cheering from Democrats near Capitol Hill became a roar on Tuesday evening
as the state of Virginia, the heart of the old Confederacy, declared for
Barack Obama. Washington DC, a black majority city, held a long night’s
party as crowds gathered round the White House to serenade President George
W Bush with a mocking chorus of the old Steam/Bananarama hit: “Na, na, na,
na. Hey, hey, hey. Goodbye.”
The day before he was gunned down 40 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, the
black civil rights leader Martin Luther King prophesied: “I have seen the
promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know,
tonight, that we as a people will get to the promised land.” Black
Americans’ long march from slavery, through segregation, to full civil
rights and then to the White House has proceeded at a snail’s pace. Now they
are there.
Before I was born, my father, then working for Esso, travelled to the south in
the 1950s to visit the refineries of Baton Rouge. He began to board a ferry
across the Mississippi with an Indian colleague who was rebuffed with a
curt: “Whites only.” Mortified, my father got off the boat in protest.
Of course, he knew many prejudiced British people but never before had he
encountered a colour bar upheld by law. It made an indelible impression on
him. My father died an admirer of the United States, but others not so well
disposed despaired of the gap between the republic’s ideals and its practice.
In the old days presidents of humble background prided themselves on being
born in log cabins. It meant that everyone had a chance. The symbolism of a
black man becoming president, with the powers of a monarch as well as a
prime minister, is an inspiration for today.
But let’s be realistic. The waters may have parted for the new Moses in
Virginia but much of the south resisted him. Lingering racism? Perhaps. But
just as the country has accepted the president-elect’s bona fides that he is
a post-racial leader, so he understands that there are more conservatives
than liberals in America and that moderates in the centre hold the balance.
Wisely, in his acceptance speech in front of the crowds in Grant Park,
Chicago, Obama reached to those who voted for his opponent, John McCain. “I
will be your president, too,” he said and deftly reminded his supporters
that the first president from his adopted state of Illinois, Abraham
Lincoln, the emancipator of the slaves, was a Republican.
Soft-headed sorts on either side of the Atlantic seem to think Obama can do no
wrong, as if he were a younger version of Nelson Mandela or King. This is a
form of inverted racism that does nobody any good. Obama is a man, not a
plaster saint. King was no infallible prophet either. In fact, the civil
rights leader was acutely aware of his limitations, ashamed of his marital
infidelities and often laid low by spiritual depression. Those shortcomings
made his achievements all the greater.
Obama is more interesting than his admirers portray him. True, he is one of
the few genuine intellectuals to make it to the White House; his
autobiography, Dreams from My Father, is well turned and thoughtful. Among
his friends are some interesting legal minds and behavioural economists such
as Cass Sunstein, the co-author of Nudge, which became the new Tory bible
this year. But the record of intellectuals in American politics is mixed.
John F Kennedy’s best and brightest and Bush’s neocon advisers beguiled
their masters into military adventures.
The president-elect is also a practical politician who must be judged by his
deeds. To get to the top of the Democratic political machine in Illinois
demands steel, even ruthlessness. This was glimpsed on the national stage
when he broke his promise to rely on federal funding alone for his campaign
after his team began to rake in huge contributions from big and small donors
alike.
Although his friends from Chicago University are pragmatists, Obama’s ties to
the unions as a former community activist and his fierce campaign rhetoric
have left business leaders fearful about his real intentions.
Many of his triumphant Democratic allies in Congress are far to the left of
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. For instance, they propose to abolish secret
ballots on union recognition at the workplace. Instead, a union official
will go to workers’ homes and tick-box their views, an invitation to
chicanery and intimidation. Even George McGovern, the most left-wing
presidential candidate fielded by the Democrats, is appalled.
Obama plans tax cuts for the many, not the few. But if he clumsily raises
marginal tax rates on businesses, individuals and working couples, the
economy will suffer. One executive in high-tax New York wailed to me: “I
already pay an effective top rate of 49% what with state, city and social
security payments.” Americans have to learn to live within their means, too.
Like the British, they must learn there is no “right to buy” a home if they
lack the funds. Many Democrats don’t appear to get it.
The president-elect has called for renegotiating clauses on “labour standards”
in trade deals with foreign countries. This language is usually code for
protectionism, a policy all too popular with congressional Democrats.
Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel, a tough-nosed former Bill Clinton adviser,
as his chief of staff, however, bodes well. Emanuel will argue in language
laced with expletives for moderation.
Obama, like King, has imbibed Reinhold Niebuhr, a theologian liked by atheists
who are sceptical of those who would build a heaven on earth. Niebuhr urged
America to fight fascism and communism but to be aware of its own
shortcomings. Off the cuff last year, Obama gave a summary of the pastor’s
work: “There’s serious evil in the world and hardship and pain. And we
should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things . .
. We have to make these efforts not swinging from naive idealism to bitter
realism.”
So no grand, unilateral projects about transforming the Middle East or ridding
the world of evil in the discredited manner of Bush. But, hopefully, no
swing to isolationism or large reductions in the size of the armed forces
either. Violent Islamic fundamentalism will have to be countered, but it
won’t be presented as a simple fight between good and evil.
Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate, caused a panic when he predicted that an
“international crisis” would quickly emerge to test the mettle of the new
president. Unfortunately, he is likely to be right. It’s the nature of the
job.
Democrat presidents such as Kennedy and Jimmy Carter were faced with ferocious
challenges all too soon. Their enemies thought they were pushovers. Kennedy
consequently was forced to confront the Soviet Union over Cuba. Carter’s
presidency was mired in despair over the Iranian revolution and the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan.
Russia has greeted Obama’s election with a snarl. Moscow announced that
nuclear missiles would be sited on Poland’s borders. President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad of Iran gave him a guarded welcome, but rhetoric alone will not
stop his country’s programme to get nuclear bombs. Obama’s stated wish for
more Nato troops to help a surge in Afghanistan may fall on deaf ears.
On the plus side, Obama’s popularity in the Third World can do nothing but
good. A change from the people who gave us Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib will
help the new administration to build bridges in the Arab world and Europe. A
White House that is prepared to listen to its allies and even to potential
enemies will also mean that Washington can take the leadership on green
issues.
Like the crowds in Harlem, Washington and Chicago, the West rapturously
greeted the new dawn in America on Wednesday. Sure, we like his style, but
let’s judge him by his substance. Anything else denies him the equality he
so convincingly embodies.
