It was an odd time to hit adolescence, both physically and politically: in the middle of the Iraq war and the subsequent re-elections of both the parties who perpetrated it. In the United Kingdom, cynicism was loud in 2005. The Bush/Blair master-and-poodle meme was rife even before the weight of the realisation had dawned on most of us. Our governments had lied to us. Innocent men and women died because of those lies.
Today, Tony Blair’s Labour party has never recovered from the mere association with the current President of the United States. That party’s demise in 2009-10 is inevitable.
But what of America? Citizens suffering similarly the abuse of civil rights, the projected fear of terrorism, what would they do? What precedent would they set for, not just the U.S, but the world? This question became increasingly important when news of the primaries first trickled into public consciousness. A woman and a black man running for President! Surely this was an opportunity for American citizens to oust the guilty Government as stylishly as possible.
As the primaries have gone on, however, the reality of the opportunity in Americans’ hands has grown more poignant. I shall hope to shed some light on the issue in this diary.
The distinction between the Americans and we in the rest of the world is important. We, out here, whether in the United Kingdom or anywhere, are mere observers. As much as the elections held in the United States affect us, our families, and the face of the entire globe – as evidenced by the Iraq war and the complicity of my own country - we have no say. Ultimately we cannot contribute our money. On different shores, we cannot campaign for votes. In the most important election to one of the most important seats of power in the world, we must simply watch, wait and hope.
Doubtlessly, this is of increasing frustration to the more observant of we outsiders. Especially as more information has emerged, as the race simultaneously narrowed until only two Democratic candidates remained and, no less, the original transformative figures that helped to make this a thrilling start to a primary season. But when one of these transformative figures turned out to be transformative only in the sense of gender (hardly in policy, not on record, not in campaign style or in rhetoric) and the other candidate seems to embody a movement from the old in every second of his political existence, it hurts to think that this opportunity is one that I can’t affect.
The opportunity, by the way, is enormous.
Even in the United Kingdom, a nation as closely related to Northern America as they will come, anti-American sentiment is ubiquitous. Fat, lazy, ignorant people are the yanks, according to us. Certainly in the Middle-East and in Muslim sects, Americans are viewed poorly. With the help of eight years under George W. Bush, the United States has damaged its reputation if it ever had one.
Enter Barack Obama, a man with an understanding of and family ties in the world beyond the U.S. He pledges a reversal of the aggressive foreign policy loathed particularly by Europeans. Even by his appearance, his election to the White House would signal to the world a less close-minded America. The harm caused by aggressive interventionism, CIA coups and experimental meddling in the Middle-East needs far more than a face and a funny name to reverse. Faced, however, with two candidates who voted for a war (one of whose whole candicacy is based on his war-like heft) and then one who does not? Well, there is an opportunity an American citizen might be better off not passing up. But to some, perhaps, the world’s opinion of one’s nation is not enough to buy a vote.
From a purely political perspective, this year's election is also an opportunity to solve one of politics’ greatest plagues. Lack of participation, turnout, care and interest in the political process is a uniquely disappointing aspect of our western democracies. Among the adult population and increasingly in younger generations, politicians are distrusted, politics considered boring and the attitude of many has been that voting doesn’t matter. Politics will always be politics to a significant portion of our populations, and it will move along with or without their help. In the United Kingdom, for the best part of the last century, parties have been elected with large majorities and subsequently booted from office after a number of scandals weakens the party to the point of no return. One pattern within this pattern is the arrival of the new government claiming, "We must solve voter apathy" and, when that government is inevitably forcibly removed from power, the apologetic: "The one place we really failed is in solving voter apathy." Fortunately, Americans have also been blessed with a significant boom in voter turnout for primaries alone.
One dreads to imagine the effect it would have on first-time campaigners to allow the candidate in second place to win via superdelegate coup. To see this newly energised force neutered, to see another generation jaded by the same distrust and cynicism which have marred our systems previously, would be a tragic waste of an opportunity. Make no mistake: this is an opportunity to prove to your citizens and a generation of Millenials that voting, democracy and caring for the way we are governed is rewarded, real and tangible. Once again is it in America’s hands to make sure that in this moment, shining with potential for democracy, we do not let the uniting candidate with all his vigour (and his message which has evidently answered some of the UK’s governments alleged voter dilemmas) fall to the agents of status quo.
I doubt that my intentions in this diary could be more transparent. I wish for Barack Obama to be made the Democratic nominee for the above reasons. Reasons which are of vast importance to the progression of our societies beyond the dismal turn they have taken in terms of war, civil rights, voter apathy and political media spin. But this last argument that I will present is very personal. Not as an outsider or as an analyist but as a member of the human race do I say that Barack Obama’s presidency is of great importance to the 21st Century. When one man up for election, despite all sleazy methods levied against him by both peers and enemies, refuses to lower his standards to any other than his honesty, forthrightness and positivity, that is an opportunity. When that man says no to "saber-rattling", when that man embodies opposition to ‘World War 3’ as pursued by modern Republicans, that is an opportunity.
Now is the time for unity. The longer we let those in power exploit us, the longer we allow them to profiteer from their elected positions, to lie to the electorate, to set a standard of corruption and slander, the more bleak the story of the human race becomes. I believe that Barack Obama represents progression to a better kind of politics. His campaign, his speech on race, show his qualities and his intellectual prowess, furthermore his ability to make his message manifest. I am deeply sorrowful that I cannot be in America when this opportunity has arisen.
I appeal to any American reading this, to any enlightened DailyKos diarist, to note here only a few of the things that are at stake should anyone but Barack Obama enter the White House. I can't campaign for him, but maybe you can. You could do everything in your power to ensure your nation is a leader for change, for unity.
The opportunity is in your hands, after all.