My cynicism takes a brief interlude

“Everybody knows the dice are loaded, everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over, everybody knows the good guys lost.”
- Leonard Cohen

I have in recent months criticised the simply abominable focus on race that both the American and British media are responsible for as per the US elections. However, even I have to admit, in the early hours of the day we Brits celebrate as Guy Fawkes Night, it was difficult not to be overawed with the American historical significance as for the first time in their history, the most powerful country in the world elected a black man as their leader.

The USA has always struck me as something of a missed opportunity. I am an admirer of the values it was founded upon, the contributions it has made to literature and the arts, and that it has always ostensibly stood for “something better.” But slavery and civil rights disputes always hung over what should have been the standard bearer for fairness and liberalism. It is one of the cruellest paradoxes in history that Thomas Jefferson, to whom so many of us owe our freedoms directly or indirectly, was a slave owner. And what of Lincoln? Anyone with a more concise view of history than “Lincoln freed the slaves” would be all the more cynical about America if these are arguably its two greatest presidents.

Then we had FDR. And the 60s, of course. And Dr King. But by the time of the Bush regime, through which the US has stumbled and its reputation cheyne-stoked painfully, the best we had to hope for was their promise of a post-Reagan compassionate conservatism (a promise that was never delivered on). It is ridiculous to mention the next president in the same revered or reviled tones as these men and I do not announce Mr Obama as a great president-elect. However, the significance of his victory cannot be undermined. The next day when the BBC chose to splice violent clips from the Civil Rights disputes with Jesse Jackson’s tears of joy at the announcement of Barack Obama’s win, it was impossible not to feel a certain euphoria.

This is not to say John McCain is a bad guy. His campaign has been criticised on one hand for not doing enough, and on another for being too negative (Christopher Hitchens, whom to my delight the BBC hired for their panel on Tuesday night, described it as something like disgusting). This is one of the reasons I predict that in 10 years if not before we will be talking about Rovian or post-Rovian politics, so it was refreshing to see that McCain and his allies, whilst not running the best or most gracious campaign, seemed to ignore almost every filthy tactic Karl Rove employed on behalf of George W. Bush. The fact McCain lost and Bush won, however, might serve as further endorsement of the ethics of the evil piggy-eyed shithead who has dictated US politics over the past decade. It is terrifying to combine this fear with the thought Sarah Palin is expected to run in 2012.

But, and this is the only time I will endorse this behaviour, let’s not allow cynicism about the future to cloud politics. My friend Pvt. Steven Hildreth supported John McCain and has vehemently opposed Obama (even denouncing him as a Communist), and on his blog can be read “R.I.P. the United States of America: 1776-2008.” In a way I agree with that epitaph. The racial debate may be far from over, but the United States have finally come full circle symbolically by doing something none of the white-dominated so-called European intelligencia countries have done: put their fate into the hands of a man from a minority. There is an oneiric quality to the fact that this has taken place so soon after 9/11, which some foresaw as the beginning of the end of multiculturalism.

Perhaps Barack Obama will not be able to deliver on his Achitophelian rhetoric. Perhaps he won because he is black, and we have traded one form of racism for another. Perhaps he has won on the strength of a catchphrase, namely “Change.” But an ideological shift has often benefitted the nation before. And after over 200 years of bigotry, unspent potential and broken promises, this finally felt like the good guys had won.