The Obama Phenomenon: A Defining Moment

Whether or not Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, or the subsequent election, he has already changed American politics forever. Forgetting race for the moment, he has galvanized a rapidly expanding cadre of Americans who want to believe again that the policies and decisions of the US government can be liberated from the greedy grasp of corporate lobbyists and special interests. This is a hard sell among a dispirited and cynical public who have seen energy policy, the war in Iraq, illegal immigration, FEMA relief, health care and the economy held hostage to very narrow, corporate interests. Barack's political genius is his consummate ability to convince millions of people that special interests can be brought down as the arbiter of American policy, and to reconnect the younger generation to political activism.

But seeing a Black American gather tremendous support in states mostly made up of white voters is the real miracle of Obama's ascendancy. Tremendous gains have been made since 1960 in the ability of Black Americans to work their way into the middle class, through education and equal rights legislation. But racism persists in America, stifling the lives and futures of far to many young Blacks, and particularly the young Black men who fill our prisons, and the 50% who never complete a secondary education.

Obama wisely never plays the race card. But the startling symbolism of a young and relatively inexperienced young Black man, with a Law degree from Harvard Law School, turning the most exciting American electoral process in years on its ear, is a powerful, healing proof that the American dream lives on. One cannot imagine an election in any other country where a minority person could be so strongly supported by an overwhelming majority with excellent candidates from their own ethnic group.

As an American who witnessed in the Fifties and Sixties the fierce obstacles preventing Blacks from economic and political success, and the blatant racism that Black Americans faced in every aspect of their lives, I am thrilled to see the Obama phenomenon unfold. However it ends, his popularity is proof that a huge majority of Americans have moved beyond racial prejudice, so substantially that they can embrace a dynamic Black leader seeking the nation's highest office. In this is a reassurance that America is indeed, despite its flaws, the last, best hope for mankind.