Well done, America. Very well done, America. Friends of the United Stateshave spent ten years tearing their hair in despair. We have been through athousand cries of anguish, apologies, murmured curses and pleas that theWhite House of Bill Clinton and George Bush "is not all of America, youknow." Tuesday's elevation of Barack Obama and the manifest joy of hisunited nation shone through the current gloom as a stab of joy. It was thedreamed-for moment.
The late Arthur Schlesinger used to say to all skeptics that theAmerican constitution contained hidden within it a secret self-correctingmechanism called the ballot. However chaotic the ride, it would take thecountry to the brink of disaster -- be it pre-war isolationism, McCarthyism,Bush paranoia -- yet somehow find a means of retreat. Hope would never quitedie. The constitution was sound, indeed a work of genius.
I have endured many arguments over recent years at which I haveproffered that thesis, with diminishing conviction. The mendacities of thewar on terror, the idiocies of the war on drugs, the final assault on whathad been unshakable American liberties, all required an ever moreimplausible act of faith. That faith has had its epiphany.
The rise of Obama is rightly presented as a symbol not a process.Electorally his victory was no more than a pendulum shift back to theDemocratic Party after the Republican ascendancy. But democracy is a mix ofsymbols and processes, of words as well as deeds.
Obama is a symbol and a word without precedent in American history.To those of us who read his memoir long before he ran for president andimagined a future for this extraordinary man, the moment is sweet indeed.Not since the 1940s has the world so needed confident, liberal-minded,Rooseveltian leadership. It needs guidance out of the morass of westernintervention in the politics of islam. It needs clear thinking through thecollapse of world financial markets. Above all it needs the confidence tosee the past decade as an era of correctable error, not original sin. Thetangled web of democracy and the risks and tolerances of liberty needreasserting. While Obama's speech was mostly a sprucing up of familiarclichés, it left no doubt of one thing. Here is a president who understandsthe job required of him.
America's leadership has bullied, insulted and misruled the worldfor long enough. In doing so it has damaged the sacred covenant of freedomwhich, with more than a touch of smugness, it has long abrogated to itself.Obama may yet prove a disappointment. The task asked of him by hispredecessors, by all of us, may be too great. But for the moment that is ofno account. American democracy has delivered, and done so spectacularly. Itis a moment not just of satisfaction but of exhilaration. Well done,America.