Democracy is not about math, it's about open conversations on public matters.
When we elect officials, it's not because we value the majority rules (50.00000...001) OVER the desires of the few, it's because we value the judgement of our neighbors. This is what twenty-first century America needs to reclaim and why Barack Obama is not being hokey or sentimental when he says thinks like "that's neighbor-ly"
This is also why the topic of race that has metastasized over the weekend IS....
...get ready for this...
GOOD news for Obama
Why? Please see below.
The topic of race - a topic has been newly re-established this weekend in analysis about the 2008 elections - should be embraced by agents of change and is benefitial to the Obama campaign for 2 very different reasons. The first is that a hard questioning of what is WRONG with an Obama candidacy is the first step towards realizing that what is RIGHT with the McCain camp is not enough. The second is that it keeps the topic of racism where it is: in race relations and the history of racism. As Nicholas Kristoff very succinctly argued this week, the issue of Obama's Christian or Non-Chirstian faith is just proxy for racial hatred in a campaign that feels it has no need to adress the issue of race.
To think that our country - not our Republican opponents, but all of us - has deserved the right NOT to confront the way that race will play in our decision to elect (and, yes, Obama will become the 44th President of the United States barring nothing) the first black leader of the free world, is not understanding what America is or who Americans are. I'm reminded of how Obama crowds durring the primary chanted "Race doesn't matter!" and how, while limited in its appropriateness, I knew that that it was hog-hooey to what what Professor Cornell West has said is time an time again the truth: Race matters.
Americans for change need to seize this opportnity to understand that this election is a national dialogue - we trust and value our neighbors - and Obama being looked at by all facets of American Life - especially after McCain's dubious and embarassing choice of Sarah Palin - by examining their own racial prejudices is a national step forward in the direction of Barack Obama for president. As President Bill Cnton said in his televised adress at the most recent DNC: "Barack Obama is on the right side of History."
Now the second reason for this post is a bit more speculative, but Nicholas Kristoff'a column in this Sunday's New York Times reiterates what I'm trying to say. Kristof writes:
What is happening, I think, is this: religious prejudice is becoming a proxy for racial prejudice. In public at least, it’s not acceptable to express reservations about a candidate’s skin color, so discomfort about race is sublimated into concerns about whether Mr. Obama is sufficiently Christian.
In other words, because race - a topic taught extensively even in conservative red-state high schools - is not being accessed by the Obama campaign, the results are the sentiments can grow displaced and wild in bigotted and hateful ways OTHER THAN THE TOPIC OF RACE.
Let's embrace the current dialogue on race - as it is familiar and truthful ground in so far as Americans has a history of racial discrimination - rather than assume this barrage of criticism is merely an example of MSM bias, or something like that.