Making History

Watching with teary, beery eyes as the news came through early in the morning on Wednesday, November 5, that Barack Obama was to become the next president of the United States, I found myself thinking back 19 years.

I spent November 9, 1989, in a shared apartment in southern Germany, watching images of East and West Germans embracing across a monstrous concrete barrier that was soon to become history.

The party went on all night, and my apartment mates and I agreed that what we were witnessing was something we never thought could happen in our lifetimes.

Before this year, as an American who was born in 1966, I would have staked any amount of money in my possession that I would never see a black president of the United States. On November 4, 2008, I would -- much to my delight -- have lost that bet.

Obama's election has opened up major cracks in cultural barriers that previously appeared every bit as monstrously unbreachable. The president-elect based his candidacy on the simple notion of change, and it is no exaggeration to say that his victory has indeed changed both America and the world.

Watershed reconciliation

The election of Obama to the highest political office in the United States gives a positive trajectory to the story of African-Americans in the US -- a centuries-old narrative of man's inhumanity to man.

The mere fact of Obama in the Oval Office permanently buries the notion that the descendants of those brought to the country as slaves are somehow less legitimately American than any other of the country's citizenry.

Obama's election is not just a symbol, but a direct result of people's ability to overcome prejudice, fear and uncertainty. And though his presidency will not eradicate racism in America, Americans have every reason to be proud of themselves for the choice they have made.

In the end, the so-called Bradley effect was outweighed by the first of the self-evident truths enumerated in Declaration of Independence -- that all men are created equal.

Thomas Jefferson's words articulated an ideal when he wrote the founding document of the United States in 1776. Now, America has taken a major step toward making that ideal a reality.

Nothing wrong with style

Obama's critics have often accused him of being more about style than substance. In a sense, they're right, but that's not a bad thing.

Americans elect presidents primarily based on their sense of a candidate being the right person to head the state, not on the basis of his or her policies. Since there's no way of knowing exactly what challenges a president will face, it's reasonable to focus on candidates' style of leadership.

Over the past two years of campaigning, the picture of Obama that has emerged is of a person who prioritizes logic over emotion, discussion over confrontation and open-mindedness over blind faith.

For the past eight years, Washington has proceeded according to the principles of what might be called idiocracy -- the harnessing of populist religious and nationalist bigotry to support short-sighted ideological aims.

When Obama assumes office in January, that style of politics will come to an end, and the sort of enlightened democracy envisioned by Jefferson and the other founding fathers will have a chance to flourish.

W's legacy

Before George W. Bush, no president had ever led the United States into both an unjust war and an economic crisis of the current magnitude. But amidst the serious harm Bush did to his country and the world, he did initiate one positive change.

In nominating Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice to the office of Secretary of State, Bush gave the American public the chance to grow accustomed to the idea of African-Americans in positions of political power.

Indeed, Powell and Rice were often the most rational and articulate figures within cabinets populated by braying blowhards (Donald Rumsfeld) and malevolent puppet masters (Dick Cheney).

One can say a lot of bad things about George W. Bush, but he wasn't a racist. That was his crowning, if only, achievement -- one that, ironically, paved the way for his successor.

Thus, albeit unintentionally, George W. Bush played a key role in a historical watershed every bit as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Obama's presidency is bound to bring disappointments, just as reunited Germany did not immediately sprout the blossoming landscapes former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised in 1990. That's worth remembering in the months and years to come.

But most people say, and would still say, that the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the world for the better.

And in 2012, I predict, the same will be said about Barack Obama's first term in office.