Election night was an exercise in appreciating the passage of time—that ability that most distinguishes us from other living things. As Kivunimers gathered in front of the big screen set up in one of our classrooms in Jerusalem, our anticipation melted away. We ceased to project and speculate; we lived in the present. This was a very significant change, after months (if not years) of accrued imagination about the election. We watched the electoral tally shift slowly, then more rapidly, and then dramatically in Barack’s favor. At a certain point, even before he was declared the winner, the idea of an Obama presidency reached new heights of all-but-inevitability. Counting on California, and recognizing that he only needed another 20-or-so electoral votes in addition transformed anxiety into a will to savor the passage of time. As far as we were concerned, one could basically go to sleep at this point (4:30am), but if the outcome was so certain, would one really want to miss it?
At 5:59 we counted down as we had at the top of every hour all night long, as the news channels prepared to release the last wave of tallies. Expecting to have the west coast called for Obama and then the eventual election itself, we instead witnessed the big picture fall into place immediately. Even as prediction had become a thing of the past, the election ended with a projection to end all projections—a future so certain as to dictate the present (certain enough to put MSNBC’s journalistic reputation on the line).
At 6am in Jerusalem, Barack Obama was the projected winner of the 2008 presidential election. For the first time since the beginning of the campaign, Obama supporters didn’t need to reserve a piece of their largely confident and optimistic belief in the man’s candidacy for cautious sensibility. Like scarred lovers, we had protected ourselves for months with rational reasons not to put ourselves in the position to be hurt again if he lost. Granted, we hadn’t been so taken by a candidate like this in a long time. But now fear of emotional vulnerability was completely overshadowed by sheer emotion. We were past infatuation. In fact, America was done dating the man—on to the honeymoon! (I hope we can regain our composure soon enough so as not to make decisions we regret down the road, but as New York Times columnist Frank Rich articulated with a similar metaphor in mind on November 9, “It still felt good the morning after.” And if Barack’s relationship with Michelle is any indication, this should be a very healthy and successful time for the relationship between Americans and their president.)
The room was electric. Some exploded into tears. Others imploded into silence, absorbing the moment. We held each other and felt the energy. We felt each other realizing individually and collectively what had just happened. The present had just become history. Fantasy had just become fact. Hope had just become certainty. The impossible now seemed that it had always been inevitable—without detracting from how hard we had worked for it. Any shadow of a doubt was crushed as Obama’s electoral count climbed to 338 and beyond. John McCain conceded graciously, with dignity. As dawn poured over the Holy Land, heralding the birth of a new reality, allowing us to look on the world with fresh eyes, we waited for our new president to emerge.
When he took the podium at Grant Park in Chicago, he was more than the leader of a dream, of a group of political junkies out canvassing on a Sunday morning, even of an entire political party and its convention. The American people, as John McCain stated, had spoken clearly. Of course we must not generalize as we move forward, for the fact that many still do not subscribe to Obama’s leadership is the nature of democracy. But he stood before us in that moment as more than just a figure of possible change, unity and hope. He was a historical phenomenon whose vision and promise would finally be allowed to flourish. He was the president-elect.
For many of us who supported Obama during the campaign, his election represented something very powerful in how he suddenly belonged not just to our group, but to the entire nation. His commitment to change was no longer an insurgent movement; that night we saw change embraced as the status quo. I felt safe. I felt people all over the country and the world leaning on one another and sighing in relief. I felt the American spirit healing. I felt the world watching. I felt students doing their homework because Obama would want them to. I felt men and women doing right by each other because Obama would urge them to. When Michelle, Malia and Sasha came out to join him, I felt the American family take a deep breath. I felt myself laughing convulsively, and then I felt tears running down my face.
Now almost a week later, I have caught up on sleep, I’ve read the news and talked to all kinds of people. I’ve watched Obama’s first briefing as president-elect. I find myself repeatedly re-experiencing what happened on Tuesday night. I find myself taken aback in a new way each time, but what’s always most shocking is how current and real the Obama presidency is. I will be the first to admit that we do our share of idealizing about Barack, but what he represents is more real than its ever been. It’s so powerful to be able to think about all that he stands for (as he has this whole time), not in light of the inspiring possibilities for the future, but in terms of the vibrant state of progress in the present. In other words, the core nature of Barack’s mission has not changed (ironic?), but the focal point of Barack’s energy is no longer a date in the future; we are still working towards a better tomorrow, but now we live in today.
What has always been inspiring is how Barack’s soaring rhetoric has been balanced with a pragmatic and down-to-business approach to leadership. Watching the president-elect give his first briefing on Friday night, listening to his policy plans, I found myself admiring how the very concrete and calculated process of transition of power is playing out in tandem with a renewed idealism here and in the rest of the world. American editorials and international perspectives pour in each day, and I see them with my own eyes here in Israel, as I chat with Germans in Jerusalem and Christian Arabs at the Bahai Gardens in Haifa. People everywhere feel that he is in some way their president too—not just the leader of the United States or even the West. Whether it’s his African father, his Indonesian upbringing, his Middle Eastern middle name, his impoverished childhood, etc., there seems to be a sense that this man has something to share with everyone, that America is connecting the world and is using its influence to push us all in the right direction.
People talk about the burden that has been put on Obama by people around the world, to solve all the problems of their respective countries and bring war, disease and poverty to an end. Certainly these are the kinds of expectations that Barack thrives off of, but, at the same time, his greatest strength and contribution has always been getting people to (re)discover their ability to solve their own problems and work with others in the common interest. I hope that what Barack stands for in America truly will carry into the rest of the world. One of the central impediments to the peace process in Israel has been a cynicism and lack of hope on both sides. Now, more than ever, we have an opportunity to get people to recommit to working towards establishing the world as it should be. Certainly, whatever he ends up doing, Barack’s election is profoundly historic because of the color of his skin and the magnitude of the problems he will inherit upon taking office, but what’s equally exciting is the fact that the historic nature of his candidacy was a product of the perfect combination of his talents as an individual and the environment that was so ripe for him. Indeed, he would not have been elected without the qualities he possesses that will allow him to act and to do justice to the importance of his election.
On August 27, 2008, in his address to the Democratic National Convention, former president Bill Clinton delivered quite a zinger about United States precedents when he said, “People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” This idea echoes the teaching of dugma ishit (literally, “personal example”) that we teach in Young Judaea to emphasize the importance of a leader’s responsibilities as a role model. Perhaps the best example of the “American example” that Clinton referred to is George Washington. As our first president, Washington is often lauded for his ability to set good precedents. Between saying the oath of office, forming a Cabinet, and, among other things, consciously relinquishing power after two terms, Washington had innate foresight, an instinct that allowed him to set some very healthy extra-constitutional precedents that proved to be strongly maintained and beneficial traditions. (Indeed, no president ran for more than two terms of office until FDR, even though the Constitution wasn’t amended to limit the number of presidential terms until 1947. We may think our post-monarchical system of government was what ensured the healthy transition of power that we’re seeing between Bush and Obama today, but really—until the passage of the 22nd Amendment at least—we owe it to George Washington.)
Barack Obama will also be a “first” president in a number of ways, and will have the opportunity to set many new precedents. It is clear to anyone who feels connected to the issues facing our individual and collective experiences that this is a defining moment in the history of a world as rich in problems as it is in potential to solve them. The next president, very much regardless of the color of his skin, will have to be different. Something that the people and president of the United States must keep in mind is the fact that our wellbeing as a unified and pluralist nation, our standing in the world, and our positive influence on it are not Constitutional guarantees. As obvious as it sounds, this is exactly what the opportunity for change during Obama’s presidency represents. As much as George Washington was a student of the United States Constitution (indeed, he oversaw its production!), who knew how to work appropriately and constructively with its inherent elasticity, we now have a president-elect who has been a professor of Constitutional Law for over a decade (not to be ignored is how sharp a contrast this is to Mr. Bush’s reputation for abusing Constitutional flexibility to expand the Executive Branch during the last years in a way that is unprecedented). It is Obama’s knowledge of the rules, cognizance of the traditions, vision of the possibilities to discard the bad habits, and instinct to improve upon them that likens him to our greatest presidents.
Of course only time will tell if we are about to live through one of the most successful presidencies in our history. Even George Bush’s legacy is not entirely set in stone. Much is yet to be seen about how Obama’s presidency will play out in reality. At the very least, Barack’s election is a statement of the importance of having the humility to see room for improvement, the confidence to greet the challenges, and the courage not to give up on oneself and one’s peers. His election is a tribute to patriotism, and to the constant capacity for progress and redemption if people are committed to it. We must not forget that; our ability to reevaluate, renegotiate and recover may be the most important American tradition. Dating back to the Revolution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression—challenging times that gave our greatest presidents opportunities to realize their potential, times when Barack Obama might have reminded us, “Yes we can”—we have always been victorious in rallying around what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman might call “nation-building at home.” Closing in on Obama’s inauguration on January 20th, we can be sure that we are setting a new precedent. Of course Obama’s inspiring persona and character will have to be integrated with some very concrete and revolutionary policies. However, the place where Obama’s policy and persona intersect transcends this distinction. Before long we’ll have a role model in the White House, and that in itself is a universal victory.
No comments:
Post a Comment