Recall George W. Bush’s controversial election in 2000. He didn’t dazzle anyone with his presence, and his pedigree was more impressive than his resume. And there was that matter of having fewer popular votes than his opponent.
And yet, the partisan backlash — from the racist e-mails to the scornful rants of right-wing talk-show shills — seems more pervasive in reaction to the election of Barack Obama than it was eight years ago.
Enough.
Can’t we all take one for the home team right now? Party prospects and political careers have never been so immaterial. And that includes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now doing a posturing, public two-step about repealing Bush tax cuts and dredging up an investigation of those fired federal prosecutors.
We are at a pivotal point in our republic’s history. Obama inherits an economic and foreign policy challenge of unprecedented proportion. His is the Damoclean Sword presidency.
He is also heir to several generations’ adoption and application of the American Scheme: entitlement as a divine right, self-sacrifice as an anachronism, the short term as the only term, dysfunctional amusement as popular culture, informed voter as an oxymoron, pandering press as First Amendment bastion and jingoism as patriotism. If his isn’t a successful presidency, all those parallels with the Roman Empire look that much more ominous and self-fulfilling.
Time is of the essence. President Obama obviously has none to squander placating the foiled opposition or the spoiled Pelosi. Not with the economy needing stimulation, foreign policy needing reorientation and the American psyche needing restoration.
“Yes we can” is no longer a campaign slogan. At least it better not be. And “we” cannot be allowed to reference GOP stereotypes of Obama voters — black “socialists,” national security milquetoasts, fiscal utopians and generic kumbaya types. “We” must mean all of us – across the demographic and ideological spectrum. Hard core libertarians to career cynics.
Much of the world still counts on the U.S. Our footprint is too big and our ideals too universal.
They see a new president who looks much like the rest of the world – and appears to have an anti-Bush mandate. They see an African-American president and wonder if the U.S. will now figure out where it fits in the world before it’s too late — and whether it can still be the ultimate force for good. They see a new U.S. president unbeholden to the usual fetters on policy change. They see Obama as someone who, while protecting America, doesn’t think the rest of the world just “doesn’t get it.”
They hope.
We hope. A sense of bi-partisanship and unity isn’t just preferable. It’s a prerequisite if America is to move beyond parlous times and fulfill its deferred destiny.
A sense of renewal must be more than rhetorical. If Barack Obama embodies anything, it is that the American Dream is more than alive. Momentum is there to be seized.
But if it’s business as usual, “we” all lose.