Moral Leadership Rediscovered

In one sense, this is just too good. One almost has to ask himself if the election of Barack Obama as the [next] president of the United States is not the work of some genius communications councilor who came to America to restore her image in the eyes of the world.

One thinks: after eight years of President Bush, a loss of political and moral credibility without precedent (except perhaps after the Vietnam War, but then there was back then the USSR), after Guantanamo, after torture, after Iraq, after the haughty rejection of every effort [to recognize] global warming, it was as if America did not truly share the common conditions of the people on this planet. Yet, just this one election has changed the order [of things] and restored [America’s] moral leadership.

Because this does change the order of things: it is not in foreign affairs where Barack Obama has to restore America’s reputation. He will certainly change course, but he cannot erase eight years of political errors done by an arrogant administration nor revolutionize diplomatic proceedings. It is through what it is, not what it does, that America will rediscover its position as model and leader–and the very large center–of liberal democracies: on the topic of diversity and its inclusion of minorities in the fabric of its society.

Now, in addition to globalization, the age in which we live is one of identity. It was insufficiently pointed out that this American presidential campaign of 2008, like the presidential campaign of France in 2007, revolved around national identity, and was done in a very implicit fashion. What is truly French? What is authentically American?

Even if John McCain’s attacks on Obama during the campaign had stayed dignified, the rhetoric of the Republicans concerning “the real America,” or “the true America,” carried overtones of exclusion on the level of “they don’t look like us.” In France in 2007, “hexagonal tension” (Vincent Tiberj) surrounding identity and immigration played a part in the final result more so than the old divisions on economic questions. The same thing [occurred] in Italy the following year.

America, where the issue of race following a century of slavery and another of segregation, is still one of the most gaping wounds, has just elected a President of color. Who in the world could have [predicted] as much? For those who are the most responsible for the issues of minorities, [who to date] are named Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, or Nicolas Sarkozy, it’s a good start [to healing the wound].

The American Dream

But to show that the ideas of the Republic are not abstract, and only apply to the suffrage of the people. The National Assembly of Mayors [France], and the French political landscape, after years of agitation over the issue of diversity, have stayed the same. In this, the enthusiasm of the Europeans for Obama is ambiguous; for the politicians, [bringing up] minority issues are rare on the continent. “Yes to Obama, No to Mamadou,” by Vincent Geisser summarizes [this point].

Through the redemption of its racist past, America gets new credit. But this is not limited to a good operation of communication. Throughout the 20th century, its interior model and its exterior leadership acted [against] one another. The war against Nazism accelerated this desegregation and the quest for civil rights (how does one condemn Berlin when one is practicing [segregation] in Atlanta); the law opening channels for immigration in 1965 is explained partially by the cold war (the leader of nations must be an example and remain open).

With this 2008 election, America has demonstrated know-how for reconciling unity and diversity, a viable democratic model of coexistence for ethnically diverse groups. Above all, [America] has elected a president that resembles the rest of the world, and by the same token, possesses a legitimate means of renewing her dialogue with it; a president who can newly guide and inspire. After eight nightmarish years of George W. Bush, [Obama] personifies that which is absent in the rest of the world; the American dream.