An Election About Big Things

by Ron Giusti, Political Writer

Paul Greenberg, a columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has written the following about this year’s battle for the Democratic Presidential Nomination:

“You can feel the tedium by now. It hangs over the country like a wool blanket in August. Even if it’s masked by the kind of pointless commotion signifying nothing that only a hopeless political buff would stay interested in. Normal people tuned out long ago in search of something, anything, more intellectually challenging. Like Gin Rummy.”

Paul Greenberg seems to have trouble separating out real history from the noise of tedious everyday events. The fact is that this year’s looming election is huge and pretty much any adult American with the slightest interest in anything other than “American Idol” or reruns of “The Wheel of Fortune intuitively senses this fact.

When was the last time that the contest for one of the major party Presidential nominations came down to a choice between a woman or an African American? Paul should stop and think about what he is watching. Huge.

In all of modern political history, only three black people have been elected to the U.S. Senate. And now based on delegates freely elected by American voters, a black man is poised to be nominated by the Democratic Party for the office of President of the United States. I’m grateful that I have lived long enough to witness such a thing. It may not rank with the invasion of Normandy, but like that moment it is real history.

The simple fact of Obama’s nomination would permanently change the nature of American politics and his election would transform the country in ways that we can’t now comprehend. Voters of all colors intuitively sense this, the other day in Oregon 75,000 people turned out to hear the Senator give a campaign speech. In his prime, Franklin Roosevelt might have pulled off something similar. However in all of previous American Political history, I don’t think that many people have ever showed up for a political rally. These are NFL numbers.

And if Obama is nominated the resulting contest will pit classic older American ideals against some of the newer ones we have come to embrace. McCain with his war hero status will embody the old fashioned idealism of duty, honor, sacrifice and patriotism, while his opponent will reflect the newer emerging America of tolerance, openness and inclusion.

In addition, this election will decide if the era of conservative governance initiated by Ronald Regan in 1980 is to be continued. The economy is sliding and the average employee’s earning power is down. Will voters worried about the rising price of gas, food and health care turn toward a Democratic Presidential candidate who promises an activist government committed to helping average people cope with everyday survival issues? Or will independents and “swing” voters ignore these concerns and stay the course with John McCain, seeing him as the man who is strong enough, experienced enough and wise enough to protect them from the threat of Islamic terrorism? Will Obama be seen as too inexperienced, too new, and too much of an unknown to hold the position of Commander-In-Chief?

Will the next President continue the military effort to win the war in Iraq, while drawing a line in the sand for Iran, as John McCain proposes? Or will a President Obama begin the process of bringing U.S. troops out of the Middle East?

The next President will be forced to tackle the problems of a staggering national debt just as millions of boomers begin to make their tremendous claims on both the Social Security System and Medicare. The two parties differ sharply on who should pay these costs and the coming election could end up determining how much responsibility individuals will have to take in providing for their own retirement.

And if Barack Obama is nominated and loses in a close race against John McCain will we as a people know the real reason for his defeat? Will it be because we sincerely felt safer with the older, more experienced Senator McCain or will it be because the darker things from our shared past pulled some of us back? That would be a thing to ponder.

Voters sense that what ever happens this year’s election will make history. Like “the pass” from Quarterback Joe Montana to wide receiver Clark in the 1981 playoff season, this election might also end up being one you tell the grand kids about.