In the mid 1980s, best selling author and television producer James Burke produced a history series for PBS entitled "The Day The Universe Changed". His premise was that history was a series of linked events, each of which pushed the history of the world in a new direction than the one for which it seemed to be destined. These sometimes-subtle events formed the foundation of the next iteration of society. Then that society produced another universe changing event that led to the next, and so on. And each of these events, at the time, was usually not fully appreciated (at least immediately) even when it was deemed "important".
As important as the election of Barack Obama was, its importance has already been misunderstood and underestimated because Tuesday was a day the universe changed, but not for the reason that you think.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 the United States of America elected its first black President. But that isn’t the interesting part. Nor is the fact that he ran a flawless campaign, nor that he has restored the Democratic Party to power in a meaningful way.
The big news that everyone seems to be missing is that we elected a community organizer. We elected an honest to God, straight-up leader who actually knows how to motivate, communicate, set goals, measure results, and think in the grandiose ways of those who have always led this country out of the darkness and back into the light.
But even more than that, Barack Obama has already shown that he isn’t all that interested in party loyalty, or egos, or even in who gets credit for what. He is interested only in results, and for all the talk of his "lack of experience", his twenty-month, hard-fought, and nearly flawless campaign has shown that he DOES know how to get stuff done! He has proven that he is a capable executive for that is what it takes to guide a huge organization with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars to the successful fulfillment of its corporate goals. But, he is also a Constitutional Scholar, in fact a Constitutional Professor! AND, he has a diverse multi-national childhood. These unique characteristics mean that he will lead this country in a completely new way. In fact, he has the opportunity to greatly affect the course of WORLD politics.
So the really interesting part is what is about to happen as a result of the election.
The really big change will be in the WAY he leads. Egos and drama will not be tolerated by this administration. Instead of bi-partisanship, I expect we will see non-partisanship. Party loyalty will be replaced by loyalty to the people of the United States and dedication to duty. People will be applauded not for the political points they score, but for the goals they achieve. Power will not be stolen. It will be restored. Rights will not be abused. They will be respected. Enemies will not be feared. They will be converted, eliminated, or neutralized. And there won’t be any orange "terror alerts" during any of it.
This is going to be a completely new kind of leadership and it will be compared to Kennedy and Lincoln and FDR. But it won’t be any of those because this presidency is going to be about actually achieving results and making sure government actually works.
Sound exciting? You betcha! And it’s about time.