Obama may be just as dangerous as some of my friends say he is. He certainly will do all he can to re-secure abortion rights, advance gay rights, enact counter-productive legislation on health care. His goals are all the more worrisome given the executive powers he inherits from the Bush administration. I have no sympathy with his agenda.
But it’s not all gloomy:
When Obama calls his wife his “best friend” and the “love of his life,” I believe him. His personal life will not be an embarrassment to the United States as Clinton’s was. (This makes him politically more dangerous, of course.)
His election is a big step in putting both the reality and the myth of American racism behind us. I suspect many voted for him to be part of this historical moment, to participate at a distance of decades in the Civil Rights movement.
It’s hard to gainsay the overall arc of his story. He started as a nobody nowhere and yesterday got elected President. That could mean many things - it could mean the Presidency is available to anyone willing to spend half a billion dollars on a campaign; it could mean that ruthless Chicago pols get what they want; it could mean that the American people are easily duped. Call me naive, but I think part of the story is this: The fact that he was standing out that stage in front of what? a million people, shows that in fundamental ways America still works.
Obama can be smug, very smug. He’s been treated as a Messiah, and hasn’t done much to dispel the hype. Last night, though, delivering his victory speech, he was sober, reflective. No hint of smug. He appeared to feel the gravity of what’s coming. (NPR reporters, by contrast, oozed the annoying mix of giddy and smug that NPR has mastered.)
“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
That includes Obama too.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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