Race, Culture, and Politics

It’s probably understandable that liberal Americans, after enduring eight years of international disapproval because of the politics and policies of the George Bush presidency, after just electing their first black president pat themselves on the back in amazement and relief and then crow, “See? We’ve proven it again. Only in the USA!”

“Only in the USA” is one of the most fundamental of American national myths, which I guess is why it inevitably got the standing ovation whenever it was trundled out in either Obama’s or McCain’s campaign speeches.

But it’s pretty discouraging when Canadians whose politics I respect, agree, especially as it’s certainly untested and probably untrue.

I wouldn’t, in any way, attempt to belittle the Democrat victory, or President-elect Obama’s role in it. He and his team ran a brilliant campaign. It will spawn much learned analysis, many articles and books, and it will, without any doubt, become the model that will define American political campaigns for the next 20 years. The lessons, both learned and perceived, will percolate around the world, and will infect democratic political campaigns everywhere.

But that’s the thing: Obama is an exceptional political talent, a transformational politician the likes of whom we haven’t seen take the leadership of a western democracy in a very long time, who was spotted, groomed, and promoted years ago. He came up through a system. He didn’t win because of his colour, or sexual orientation, or brilliance; he won because he was the right candidate at the right time, with the right organization, in tune with an electorate that wanted to believe his message.

And he won because he’s of the right class. During the campaign his back-story and funny name became irrelevant for the vast majority of voters, but could anyone think, all else being the same, that if his educational resume had been as slim as Sarah Palin’s any Canadian would be holding him up as a model now?

Not a chance, I say. And that’s why I think that, while his achievement is historic, to assume that it couldn’t be repeated elsewhere is mere chauvinism. It's like assuming that only Jamaica could produce a Usain Bolt, or Austria a Sigmund Freud or Wolfgang Mozart.

Not to mention an Adolf Hiltler.