Arnold Bertram

No one could have written the script exactly as it has unfolded. Some had dared to hope that Barack Obama, the son of a black Kenyan and a white American, both of working-class origins, would emerge as the candidate of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States. When he did, others began to dream what before had been the impossible dream. However, only a seer could have predicted the unfolding of the events which have made the Republican Party irrelevant and reduced John McCain to being an angry white man. The present reality is that with less than three weeks to go before the elections, the odds are that Senator Obama, an African-American, representing Abraham Lincolns old state of Illinois, will be inaugurated in January 2009 as the 44th president of the United States.

It is significant that his African ancestors were left in Kenya and not taken with the millions of Africans to be enslaved for nearly two centuries in the Americas. Another factor in the formation of his personality was that living with his mother in Hawaii shielded him from many of the inequities and cruelties of a segregated society which continued well into the 20th century. It is perhaps for these reasons that he brings less of the victim mentality and more of the audacity of hope to his perspective on politics. He is just not an angry black man.

face to face with challenges

Politically, he belongs to the liberal tradition in American politics, and his arrival at centre stage brings him face to face with challenges as formidable as those which confronted Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who went on to become one of Americas most celebrated presidents.

Like Abraham Lincoln before him, Roosevelt reached the highest point of achievement after recognising that only a new birth of freedom and the liberation of American enterprise from the firm grasp of a privileged minority could give real meaning to the American vision of government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Lincoln was the first American president to build a national alliance of liberals in order to rescue America from the degradation of slavery. His campaign for the presidency in 1860 developed an excitement unprecedented in American politics. In the midst of the prevailing racism, Lincoln was able to identify the strength of the liberal tradition in American politics and to pin his faith on the capacity of the liberal alliance to share his vision, as well as his strategic plan for a free America.

Lincoln, the tactician, waited for three years, until he had won over members of the opposition, to create a bi-partisan two-thirds majority before presenting the bill for the abolition of slavery. As he told Congress, a month before the passage of the Abolition Act: Unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is almost indispensible.

REALIGNMENT OF AMERICAN POLITICS

Roosevelt, who served a record four terms as president of the United States, began his first term of office in 1932 in a period not dissimilar to that which Obama will face, should he win. With the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the United States had gone on to experience the most severe economic crisis in its history. By January 1930, the number of unemployed had grown from 492,000 to 4,065,000.

By 1944, Roosevelt had restored economic prosperity and had also come to the conclusion that only a realignment of American politics could secure the future. In a conversation with Judge Rosenman, he outlined his vision. I think the time has come for the Democratic Party to get rid of its reactionary elements in the South and to attract to it the Liberals in the Republican Party. Wilke is the leader of those Liberals.

We ought to have two real parties one Liberal and the other Conservative. Im talking about long-range politics, something that we cant accomplish this year. But we can do it in 1948, and we can start building it right after the election this fall. From the Liberals of both parties, Wilke and I can form a new, really Liberal Party in America. Wilke was enthusiastic about the proposal, but died before the elections, and five months after the elections, Roosevelt was also dead.

Men do not make history as they choose. They are limited by the objective conditions of their time. Obama, despite his brilliance, is no exception. A major contributing factor to the environment in which Obama has emerged is the fundamental change in the outlook of the African-American intelligentsia over the last quarter century.

During the decade of the 60s, Martin Luther King carried the integration movement as far as he could and Malcolm X ran out of options. Both were assassinated. Liberals and radicals, both black and white, were successful in their demand for campus reform and the introduction of Black Studies as a part of the university curriculum. Simultaneously, blacks and whites made the ultimate sacrifice as the same liberal alliance confronted the racist South on the issue of voter registration and later brought the establishment to its knees over its demand for an end to the sacrifice of American sons and daughters in Vietnam.

Despite the advances reflected in Lyndon Johnsons Civil Rights Bill of 1965, the liberal alliance had begun to flounder. By 1968, both the separationists and the integrationists within the black struggle were at a cross roads, and with no clear road map to the future, and white radicals and liberals after all their blood, sweat and tears, watched Johnson relegated to the dustbin of history, while Richard Nixon led the Republicans back to the White House in 1968.

Rice

THE TURNING POINT

A turning point for the black intelligentsia came in 1969 when Arthur Lewis expressed his views in an article for the New York Times entitled The Road to the Top is Through Higher Education not Black Studies. Lewis, who was then professor of economics at Princeton, had achieved first-class honours from the London School of Economics at 22, a PhD in economics at 25, and a full professorship at the University of Manchester at the age of 33. Such was his breadth of public service and scholarship that his views could not be easily dismissed.

Any Afro-American who wishes to become a specialist in black studies should be absolutely free to do so. But I hope that the proportion who want to specialise in black studies may turn out to be rather small, in comparison with our scientists, our engineers, accountants, economists or doctors. These colleges are the gateway to leadership positions in the integrated part of the economy, and what they can best do for young blacks is to prepare them to capture our 11 per cent share of the best jobs at the top one of every nine ambassadorships, one of every nine senior directors of engineering laboratories, and so on.

attack

Another towering black intellectual, C.L.R. James, responded with an attack on Lewis. How does, he, Lewis, think somebody is going to get some black man to become one of the nine vice-presidents of General Motors? It was the devil himself to get into the trade unions. I have known Lewis for many years, and that he has descended to this is completely beyond me, because Lewis knows better than this.

Barack Obama was only eight years of age when this debate took place, but there is no doubt that by the time he graduated from Harvard in 1991, a profound change had taken place in the perceptions of African-Americans as to their possibilities in the world.

Condoleezza Rice had just celebrated her 15th birthday and would soon enrol at Denver University for a degree in political science. Some 19 years later, both would take more than a passing interest in the elevation of another African American, Colin Powell, on October 1, 1989, to preside over the worlds most powerful military complex as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Powell

Before Powells term of office ended, Obama had completed a law degree at Harvard, become the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review and had returned to Chicago to practise as a civil-rights lawyer.

A political career was clearly beckoning. Condoleezza Rice for her part, after her stint as professor of political science at Stanford University, had gone on to a six-year tenure as the universitys provost with responsibility for a US$1.5 billion annual budget, as well as the academic programme involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students.

ROLE OF GEORGE W. BUSH

Perhaps the two most important contributions to the rise of Barack Obama have been made by George Bush. In 2001, Bush promoted Colin Powell to be secretary of state, the third most powerful position in the US administration. Next, on January 28, 2005, he personally attended the swearing-in ceremony for Condoleezza Rice as the 66th secretary of state.

The opportunity created by Bush for white America to observe two African Americans demonstrate their capacity to carry out effectively the duties associated with two of the most powerful positions in the administration, and protect Americas interest in an increasingly complex and globalised world, has made no small contribution to the embrace of Barack Obama by white America.

At another level, Obamas increasing popularity is directly related to the deep crisis being experienced right across America, which has resulted from the unmitigated failure of Bushs foreign and domestic policies.

The run-down physical infrastructure, the poor delivery of social services, and the continued export of American jobs have created a sense of hopelessness not witnessed in America since the economic depression of 1932.

Simultaneously, the military adventure in Iraq has left the United States more isolated in the international community than at any previous period in its history. The growing demand for an end to the war evokes memories of the nationwide opposition to the American military presence in Vietnam during the 60s.

OBAMAs TURN

During the election campaign, Obama has been entirely consistent in his determination to turn Washington upside down and liberate the opportunities for enterprise from the selfish grasp of a privileged clique.

As the campaign intensifies, it is becoming increasingly clear that Obama will be hard to beat. His selection of Joe Biden as his running mate is a home run, and with the Clintons active, he has an excellent opportunity of bringing the social conservatives within the Democratic Party to his support.

Some 86 per cent of the international community would like to see him represent America in an age of globalisation, and 81 per cent of young Americans, not yet of voting age, want him to be their next president. When last have we seen an individual attract the spontaneous and emotional solidarity of such a large part of humanity?

The big question is: Will race supersede economics on election day? Simply put, will large numbers of white Americans temporarily shut their eyes to the embarrassment of McCain, the shallowness of Palin and their own economic hopelessness and vote for race? Or will they embrace the promise which Obama brings for a fuller realisation of government of the people, by the people and for the people?

Arnold Bertram is CEO, research and project development. Feedback may be sent to redev.atb@gmail.comor columns@gleanerjm.com.

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