What President Obama Means

Las Vegas, Nevada - My good friend Micah Sifry framed this historic day perfectly right about noontime. "The hands that picked the cotton are the hands that are picking the next President of the United States."

Barack Obama's election tonight is laden with so much significance it seems an impossible task to even attempt any systematic unpacking. But this much is for certain: the full impact of the Oval Office being occupied by a black man has yet to hit home. This single fact alone overshadows every other facet of his campaign and of this election.

Call it a cliché, but it is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime. Some of my friends, as recently as midnight last night, still didn't believe it possible. But here we are at a moment of national redemption. And it's a victory that conservatives and liberals, right and left, should claim and celebrate with equal pride.

This is no longer the America of forty or even of twenty-five or as few as ten years ago. Things do change and, sometimes, for the better. Racism, ignorance, bias and prejudice have neither evaporated nor been abolished. But anyone who believes our boiler-plate political discourse emerges intact from this stunning moment needs to be dispatched to the same pasture where John McCain will listlessly spend the rest of political eternity. No longer can it be said that a black child cannot dream of becoming President. No longer can it be said that Americans are but some TV-doped sheeple, easily managed and manipulated by some sort of right-wing media conspiracy. You thought that nothing would ever be the same after 9/11? Well, how about after a black man, his black wife and two black children move into the White House?

It's unimaginable to yet measure what impact a President Obama will have on the way America is seen around the globe. It will be as confounding for others to think about us the same way they did a year ago as we did about ourselves. And, if I might say, just in the nick of time.

Perhaps History itself demanded that we pass through the pain and humiliation of the Bush era in order to merit the relief granted by this election. We have been forced to suffer through the most vile of administrations, one that has shown total disdain for the constitution, for the rule of law, for basic humanity. And this is the second most important takeaway from the election. After nearly three decades in which the power structure pandered to, exploited, refined and capitalized on all the worst of our collective base instincts, along comes a candidate who speaks only to our most humane and compassionate side. That says something striking about Barack Obama. And says it even more about the American people. One more victory we shouldn't hesitate to claim.

Third, this is a generational change that makes not only good headlines and easy reporting narratives, but which also serves as a great gift to our children and theirs. The election of Barack Obama liberates a new generation from the now-dreary debates of a self-obsessed Boomer generation - be they wilting flower children or graying warriors of the right. I might be quick in saying so, but Obama's landslide also effectively buries the most vicious of American political gargoyles - the culture war. If not to Siberia, well then to the wilds of Alaska, have been exiled those who have so cynically divided and polarized us on the bogus issues of Gays, Guns and God. Good riddance.

I make no predictions as to where this tectonic shift will lead us. As McCain himself said recently, "Nothing in American is written." The future, thankfully, is finally in the hands of a new generation. And at the very moment I write this sentence, I see thousands of young people around me in this ballroom explode in ecstasy as NBC officially projects Obama as the 44th President of the United States. What a moment! I, too, am overcome by emotion as it all seems at once so unreal and yet so well-earned by all of us. I can only compare this to the sensation I felt exactly twenty years ago at 3 am once October morning when Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet lost his own self-engineered plebiscite and was voted out of power. Throngs poured into the street and strangers embraced and cried and danced just as they are here, this very moment, in the Brasilia ballroom of the Rio Hotel.

Just like that night Santiago , no one knew what loomed in the future. It was enough to know, in fact, that once again a future was impossible.

Tonight we know that a black man whose middle name is Hussein has been elected president. The ghosts of Jim Crow and Bull Connors have been exorcised from the most tenebrous shadows of American life.

We know that we have witnessed the collapse of entire political era based on the narrowest and greediest principles of social Darwinism.

We know that Americans resisted and rejected a puerile campaign of fear commenced, at first, by Hillary Clinton and shamelessly escalated by a doddering John McCain.

We know that Americans are capable of repudiating those who would impose upon us a politically illiterate huckster as a vice-presidential candidate.

We know that Americans can no longer tolerate the exercise of torture in the name of freedom.

We know that Americans will soon demand the shut down of Guantanamo.

We know we will no longer suffer the indignity of watching a President unable to speak in public and incapable of understanding and - uninterested in--the world around him.

We know we will have a new President who demonstrates an intelligence, a thoughtfulness and a seriousness that has long been a stranger to the White House.

We know that when asked if we could do it, we answered with a throaty Yes We Can.

And we did.

Comments

[UNCLEJOE]

excellent point.. Obama is a symbole of the unity of all races from Black to White. hallelujah!

[dhinds]

Cooper writing about "what President Obama Means" is rather presemptive, IMO. My vote and support for Obama had nothing to do with his race. He's got the native capacity, an understanding of the issues and the ability to TRANSCEND race, party and the rest of the elements that divide us, to work with both the grass roots and the institutions that have the power to institute the real and lasting change America needs to realize it's potential.

The next chapter of American History is just beginning.

[dhinds]

presumptive

[mizzday]

I think you are giving way to much credit to Americans because in reality, the hands that picked the cotton are dead. In fact, they died hundreds of years ago. The people remaining are people who are indeed the hope and dream of the slave and those who are the nightmare of the slave. Barack Obama isn't this precious character risen from the descendants of slaves. He is brown but in fact, he is the descendant of Whites who owned slaves and Africans who remained in Africa while "black Americans" of that time were in chains.
I don't doubt that he has had some of the same misperceptions of race projected onto him as a person of color. However, I do know that in many instances, he probably was not only thought of as a "n"word by ignorant whites but he was probably thought of as not black enough or a sell out by blacks.
I wonder how many times he was called a "white boy" throughout his journey.
I am happy that this Biracial man of color was strong enough to endure opposition from all sides and ascend to the highest office in the land. However, I wish people would open their eyes and see that he is the true meaning of the word "American." A mixture of all of the strength, intelligence, and motivation from both races and an example of what is possible when black and white is united.

[Craig Calvin Jones]

I agree with much said here, but I disagree with the comment that "the hands that picked cotton...died hundreds of years ago." It was not so long ago by any count.

I do think Mr. Obama's election was about Mr. Obama. Race was an issue, but our nation side stepped any discussion of slavery. That discussion has yet to happen, and perhaps with time it will, but it was not part of the 2008 election.

(nuts-n-bolts comment- I posted weeks ago with no result, seemed like this thread was struck in a void for a while.)

[thecanadian]

Marc. One of the most inspirational articles! Thank you. We are printing it off as a Keepsake. 84 copies - one for each in our group.

[Chris Savage - Huffpost Blogger]

Awesome essay, I really enjoyed this. I keep having "moments" where my eyes well with tears and I've been walking around for the past two days in a strange, highly emotional state. I think what is happening is that my mind is having a hard time processing the enormity of what has transpired so it digests in small chunks. Every time I "get it" a bit more, it's a time for tears.

Yesterday, standing in the parking lot of the Ann Arbor Obama headquarters, we were talking about how differently Obama would handle some particular situation compared with McCain. One of the young Field Organizers stopped right in the middle of the conversation and exclaimed, "Oh my God, he's the president now!"

Even those of us who have worked so hard on this campaign are still processing...

[Emerald1943]

Thank you, Marc, for a well-written piece! Yes, we did!

[BlogTalker]

Relevantly, as many influential experts and publications have repeatedly pointed out, Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Xers.

Here's a recent 5 minute GenJones video which features many top pundits specifically talking about Obama's membership in Generation Jones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk

[mrbadmood]

Well, in one respect I'll have to disagree with you: I never doubted that in my lifetime I would never see an African-American ascend to the highes office in the nation. What truly astounds me is that I always expected that candidate to come from the Republican side of the aisle-Colin Powell for example- for I never dared believe there would be sufficient white support for a liberal candidate.

I'm not fool enough to believe the problem of racism is no longer an issue for my country. Nor am I so zealous in my support for Obama as to believe the myriad of serious problems the nation faces are magically erased by his election. But I am certainly no fool to believe my country has demonstrated growth, reason and maturity above and beyond what I have been taught to expect of it, generally speaking.

Somehow tonight, it seems a little easier to dream.