The Landslide That Doesn’t Feel All Liberal
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on November 7th, 2008 5:28 am by HL
The Landslide That Doesn’t Feel All Liberal
The young and minority voters who swept Democrats to triumph call this the start of a new day. The many not-young whites who also backed Barack Obama might frame it a bit differently. To them, it’s a hopeful return to an older day. Do not dismiss these older Caucasians. Without their considerable support in swing states, Obama would not have won. This amazing election is being called a liberal landslide, but it doesn’t feel liberal. It’s at bottom a reaction against the radical philosophy that called itself conservative but ran up deficits, blustered on the world stage, denigrated science, served the rich and ignored the working class.
Stepping Into the Sunshine
WASHINGTON — I almost lost it Tuesday night when television cameras found the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the crowd at Chicago’s Grant Park and I saw the tears streaming down his face. His brio and bluster were gone, replaced by what looked like awestruck humility and unrestrained joy. I remembered how young he was in 1968 when he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., moments before King was assassinated and hours before America’s cities were set on fire. I almost lost it again when I spoke with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., one of the bravest leaders of the civil rights crusade, and asked whether he had ever dreamed he would live to see this day. As Lewis looked for words beyond “unimaginable,” I thought of the beating he received on the Edmund Pettis Bridge and the scars his body still bears.