I don't agree that America is "not the same place it used to be". I don't believe there has been a significant change in public perceptions in the last 4 or 8 years (or in the last week). Yes, the US is changing slowly as bigots age and die off, but according to the official results, Obama won by only 7 million votes or so. That's not a huge margin considering the fact that McCain is 72 years old, would continue all of Bush's failed policies, and chose a subliterate nincompoop for a running mate. If he'd been TRYING to lose the election I'm not sure what he'd have done differently. I think people's attitudes are basically the same now as they were four years ago. Obama's campaign simply did an awesome job getting black people to vote this time (which they historically are not inclined to do), and the imploding economy was a big wake-up call to many people in the middle.
In the end, people STILL don't give two shits about the shocking failure of the Iraq war, the million-plus people killed in it, the lies that got us into it, the torture, the illegal spying, the redaction of big chunks of the Constitution, the horrific neglect of those afflicted by Katrina, etc, etc, ad nauseum. People STILL DO NOT GIVE A SHIT! All they really care about is that jobs are disappearing quickly. They care about their pocketbooks, and their pocketbooks alone. Not their neighbors or fellow humans or their country or rights or principles, or anything that doesn't smack them in the face like a pink slip.
That said, I share the excitement of billions of other people in Obama's win. I think it's a tragedy, however, that Obama has inherited a very deep hole that he's not just expected to dig us all out of, but SOAR out, wings flapping, like an angelic supernatural being who can somehow magically make everything alright with a bright, charming smile and reassuring platitudes.
Not going to happen. Bush has RUINED our government, our economy, our military, and our international relationships and reputation. The only thing Obama is actually going to be able to fix is the latter, which is the least important problem on the list. Though it will likely take more than four years, it's conceivable Obama could make significant progress on other things, but it would take more than two terms just to get us back up to the level of decency and prosperity we enjoyed before George W. Bush took office in 2001.
As long as anywhere near half the voters in the country think that our economic woes were caused by Bill Clinton, or by Fanny/Freddie, or by the CRA or any of that nonsense rather than by the distinctly Republican Enronization of our banks and financial institutions, I don't see how we can make significant progress. As we celebrate Obama's election, our future is being robbed, and billions of borrowed dollars are being handed out to the same bank and financial institution executives who got us into this mess. And rather than using that money to fix the problems that they created (surprise!), they're giving themselves bonuses and paying out dividends to their shareholders. That's what's going on while America is anxiously awaiting to learn what kind of doggie the Obamas will bring to the White House with them.
We are still a country starkly divided, with half the population living in some kind of bizarro fantasy land, the product of the imaginations of propagandists like O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Hannity, and the other half trying to reconvince the first half that science can actually explain things, laws are not subjective, and education and reason are worthwhile pursuits. For Pete's sake -- over 50 million people voted for the Presidential candidate who claimed "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" while it was disintegrating, and a Vice Presidential candidate who thought Africa was a country!
But in one way, I suppose Bob Herbert is right. In the sense that black Americans (and the world) now know that there is a significant portion of us who care more about capability than color, the country really has changed. Perception is, after all, reality. That's exactly why I sincerely hope that the President Elect explains to the American people that we are in a financial crisis because the super-rich like to get richer and tend to take care of only themselves. It's really that simple. Even Alan Greenspan, who engineered this crisis, admitted as much in his recent Congressional testimony.
“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."Shocked disbelief," he says. Who could have imagined that allowing banks to write their own rules could ever have produced anything but favorable economic results? The only thing shocking about it is that it's permitted to continue. If I'm to be expected to hold onto hope, and carry it past the election right on through Obama's first term, then I've got to see that Obama gets it. He needs to demonstrate soon that he understands the economy isn't collapsing by accident, but as the direct result of the free-market dogma that has been producing a widening rift between the rich and poor for decades.
And thus begins another period of waiting, as the extra-lame duck waddles around aimlessly for a couple of months and we all hold our breath in anticipation of the magical, radical solutions Obama will bring in January to solve the monumental problems we face and repair the damage wrought by the last eight years of catastrophes.
The real hope is not so much that a great battle has been won against racism, but that Obama's election marks the beginning of a reversal of losses inflicted by classism.
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