You might not realize it from my blog, but my undergraduate work was not in economics, public policy or statistics. I did my undergraduate work in American History. I primarily studied the history of race and slavery in America. I did my undergraduate thesis on Coalition Politics and Civil Rights in Atlanta, Georgia.
Consequently, my early support for Barack Obama for President (which began precisely one minute after he walked off the convention stage in 2004) was derived from my deep seated belief that an African-American President could both unite the narrative of America with the narrative of Black America and provide incentives to African-Americans to embrace the American system as efficacious. Thus, the election of a Black president could at once affect white America's attitude toward the socioeconomic disadvantage of blacks and black America's attitude that they had no role to play in the American dream. In other words, that the election of a black President would mean that the bootstrapping American dream was finally approaching reality.
The libertarian argument to this would be that it should not take the election of a black President for blacks to finally embrace the American dream. This argument can be dismissed with a simple rhetorical question. Put yourself in the shoes of an inner-city impoverished black student in a southern city (where a majority of black Americans live). What possible reason do they have to believe that they can achieve according to their ability and work ethic. They are surrounded by parents whose parents lived in the same housing projects and went to the same shit schools. The only African-American elected officials were elected from majority black districts. What evidence is there to believe that the opposite is possible?
Wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if the narratives of black America and white America finally converged. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we finally became the nation that won the Cold War and World War II and oppressed an entire race of people in the forms of slavery and segregation. We are the nation of John Coltrane and Johnny Cash. We are the nation of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan; of Jay-Z and Garth Brooks; of Michael Jordan and Johnny Unitas; of inner-city slums and white picket fences; of The Wire and 24. This is the true definition of America.
We have always been capable of awesome accomplishments and nasty ugliness. We are the nation that won the Civil War, put a man on the moon, stormed the beach at Normandy, and outlasted the soviets. Now, we are the nation that elected Barack Obama. Hopefully he will live up to his promise, but his election is cause to reflect on our story.
We live in a great country - be proud of it.