Beacon of democracy
PARAMITA SEN
A little before midnight on November 4, I checked my blackberry. There was an email from Barack Obama. ‘Paramita’ it read. ‘We just made history. And I don’t want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign — everyday you knocked on the doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends and neighbours about why you believe it’s time for change.’
I knew I was participating in a historic grassroots movement, intended to reach out and touch the lives of millions of ordinary Americans. Old-fashioned community organising, combined with the speed and efficiency of high technology, had created a machine that raised millions in donations from small donors and supported a veritable army of volunteers across the nation. These volunteers laid the groundwork of an extensive campaign by making phone calls, knocking on doors, distributing flyers, and registering new voters.
Obama’s powerful rhetoric of hope and change found an enthusiastic audience in Americans angry at the failures of the Bush-Cheney administration and outraged at the Iraq war. In Obama they found a candidate ready not only to move past the Bush era, but also to turn a page on the nation’s divisive and shameful history of race.
America speaks
His candidacy was embraced by forward-looking Americans, comfortable living in a diverse nation, and intent on restoring America’s reputation in the world.
As election day approached, and voters registered in record numbers, it became apparent that this election was not just a reaction to the economic crisis that had befallen the nation. Unprecedented numbers of Americans were voting to wrest their country back from the morass the Bush administration had mired the country in. The U.S. was engaged in two wars overseas, the economy was in tailspin, healthcare inaccessible to many and costly to most and yet the Republican candidates thought that this time too, name calling and attack ads would do the trick. By the time the final tallies were counted, Obama’s 349 electoral votes to Mccain’s 163, the electoral map had undergone a sea change. Karl Rove’s famous 2004 prediction of a permanent Republican majority, and the traditional red state-blue state divide had all but been smashed. Obama built a majority across a wide expanse of the electorate that included Hispanics and other ethnic minorities, young people, African-Americans and highly educated white voters. In the tidal wave of change that swept the country, Democrats picked up at least 18 seats in the House and five in the Senate, giving them control over both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The real winner
With Barack Obama to be inaugurated as the first African-American President of the United States in January 2009, one cannot but pause to think of another great son of Illinois, the man who paved the way for Obama to be elected President a century later. It was Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and prosecution of the civil war that ended slavery in this country, and on election night Obama invoked the spirit of the great Republican president, to appeal to the better angels in all of us. I feel invigorated by our victory, in which we, the real winners, can be a beacon of democracy.
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