Obama articulates values of the past

WASHINGTON — Whether Barack Obama goes on to become president of the United States or whether he loses out along the way, he did something great and historic for America last week in Iowa.

He showed us that, far from being only a vehicle for “change,” he may well be a vehicle for a regeneration of America. He has the potential to be a political figure who can return us to a morally updated version of our traditional values.

“They said this day would never come,” the junior senator from Illinois told his enthusiastic backers in the Iowa caucuses that magical Thursday night. But it had come, and that was all that seemed important, as the country internalized for the first time the fact that an African-American man could be elected president.

It is curious how Obama’s life story parallels the political voyage America has traveled since the 1970s, when so many things seemed to go awry.

It was after the ’70s — after the failure of the Vietnam War and the misappropriation of the civil rights fight by multiculturalists — that both political parties became dominated by their radical wings.

Rather than learn from the costly mistakes of Vietnam, the Democrats fell under the control of their McGovernite wing. Political correctness and multiculturalism were the order of the day, and the right to equal opportunity was supplanted by the supposed “right” to equal outcome. It couldn’t work and it didn’t, and it all ended with the half-victories and half-failures of the Clinton administration.

Meanwhile, the Republicans, too, moved toward their radical fringe.

The Bushes

Most Americans saw the administration of Father Bush, George H.W. Bush, as a high point of good and rational governance by the Eastern Establishment, and then voted into office George W. Bush, expecting a continuation of the values of that establishment.

But instead of the thoughtful, well-mannered behavior of Father Bush’s team, America was saddled with a combination of vulgar personal behavior on the part of the W. corps and of an aggressive foreign policy that went out of its way to demean the rest of the world.

Against the backdrop of this new and unnerving America, this unusual young man — son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, raised partly in Indonesia and partly in Hawaii — was finding his way. As it turned out, a very new way.

Partly because of the uniqueness of his upbringing (largely by his white grandparents), Obama never thought he had to accept the predominant fashions of either end of the political spectrum. He never “spoke multicultural.” He never accepted the “race card” idea that power is gained only by playing the races against each other. He never embraced George W.’s use of anger and hostility to “inspire” people. Rather, he sought to unify people and bring them together to solve the problems that faced us all.

The pathways he traveled were extremely interesting ones.

Whether it was as editor of the Harvard Law Review, or as a Saul Alinsky-style community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, or as state senator in Illinois, his actions bespoke the very best part of the American Establishment, which we had lost along the way and he was determined to rejuvenate.

‘Universalist’

Some called him a “universalist” because of his unusual upbringing, and there is truth in that. He seems able in remarkable degrees to empathize with others’ feelings and needs. But when he addresses them, it is always in terms of how to deal rationally with their core reasons.

One can imagine Obama using military power, if really necessary, but one can never imagine him exulting in its use, as does George W., and seeking out ways to use it more broadly.

One also can see Obama letting white Americans off the endless guilt trip they have been subjected to since the beginning of the continuing civil rights fight. And one can see him letting black Americans off the endless retribution trip.

Universal Press Syndicate