The Resurrection of the American Dream

The caption to this post is the headline from an article in German publication Der Spiegel and it correctly captures some of what happened yesterday. Sadly, LGBT citizens are not included in the resurrected American Dream - or at least not yet. I truly hope that an Obama administration sets a new inclusive tone and in time may help change minds that still dwell on differences between people instead of our common humanity. In addition, an Obama presidency means that the likely coming vacancies on the U. S. Supreme Court will not be filled by those who would write some out of the constitution or seek the reverse the case law on the right to privacy - something which is crucial since I predict Proposition 8, if it passes, will be challenged under the U. S. Constitution. Lastly, Obama's win removes any near term likelihood of Bible Spice Palin becoming president (hopefully forever). Here are some highlights:

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Obama's tone embraces people, it doesn't exclude them. It's a tone of political romanticism. It doesn't solve problems, but it lessens the pain. Where Bush stoked fear, Obama spreads calm. The tone itself only accounts for half of his success, though. The surroundings determine whether it resonates. In the self-satisfied, successful America of the 1990s, Obama's tone would have been dismissed as too soft and too quiet. The victory over the Soviet Union had to be celebrated. America wanted to be loud.

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But in 2008 the economy is sputtering. To describe conditions in America today as "social inequality" is a blatant understatement. Almost 50 million people don't have health insurance. Around 30 million live off food stamps issued by the state.

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America has fallen silent, and Obama penetrated this silence with his message of hope and change. Conciliation, not confrontation is his message to an unsettled country. He doesn't use the word "compassion" with which German Chancellor Willy Brandt enchanted a generation. That word has lost its ring in America since George W. Bush described himself as a "compassionate conservative."

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Obama is America's offer of reconciliation after all those years of premeditated political provocation, of military action not backed by international law, of America's claim to be entitled to military pre-emptive strikes. The Bush doctrine was scrapped last night. The unilateralist stance of the Western superpower is likely to be over for now.

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As the new day dawns in Germany, America is once again dreaming the American dream. It will be a deep, soulful dream after all these restless, dreamless years of terror attacks, reports from the Baghdad front and the collapse of Wall Street. It's a dream about a world without poverty or fear, of a life full of opportunity and devoid of George W. Bush.