Obama's Brave New World

by Martin Willett

Why are Americans such assholes?

Religious indoctrination is child abuse

America's First 9-11

It's finally arrived, the brave new world, a Democrat in the White House. A smart leader. A man who embodies the best aspects of America instead of its worst. And he's also half black.

It has been an amazing week for black men. First Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 world championship, the youngest man ever to do so. Then Obama wins the presidency then it is leaked that the next Doctor Who might be black.

Is it a coincidence that so many of these black firsts are men with black fathers and white mothers? Is that a particularly effective combination? My daughter's first boyfriend had a white mother and a black father and he was clearly something special, good looking tall and seemingly well above average at anything he got involved in. The phenomenon of cross-bred vigour is well known in farming and dog breeding. First generation crosses often display positive traits which don't transfer to the second generation. If you cross a Labrador with a Golden Retriever you get a smart and keen dog that is for some unexplained reason that little bit better than either of its parents or its progeny, even when you cross a cross with an unrelated cross of the same two breeds. I remember in the story of Roots it was the first generation mulatto Chicken George who stood out as being the most exceptional of the ancestors in that tale. Most African-Americans are not African-American in the sense that Barack Obama is but they have almost as many white genes.

While Barack Obama is clearly 50% black (pure African stock) and 50% white most African-Americans are descended from people who have been in America for two hundred years or more and that mulatto blood has been thoroughly mixed in. Many African-Americans while looking clearly African have Native American mitochondrial DNA and European Y chromosomes. Just ask yourself who looks the blackest out of Barack Obama, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey.

It is a great thing that so many white Americans voted for a black candidate. There is no way that any candidate can win an election by being the black candidate in a country in which blacks are the minority. Barack Obama was not the black candidate, he was a black candidate, a candidate who happened to be black. Some voted for him because he was black, far more voted for him simply because he was the best candidate. That is what was so good about this election, it showed that America has grown up and is at last able to look beyond a man's skin colour and look into his character. While I have my disagreements with several of Obama's policy ideas I have no doubt that the man is worthy of the office, which certainly makes a change. In recent times the number of lightweights elected to the presidency has been a disgrace, especially on the Republican side. George H W Bush and Richard Nixon were of the appropriate calibre but Dubya and Reagan were an embarrassment to the nation. How can America have the respect of the world when they allow people of such modest intellectual ability to be their leaders? Haven't they got any pride? These were men who not only lacked intellectual ability they also lacked intellectual curiosity and respect for intellect in others. That America keeps on looking to such buffoons is a recurring tragedy.

Lyndon Johnson said that Gerald Ford was too dumb to fart and chew gum at the same time. The great American tragedy is that since 1945 only three Republican Presidents could manage that feat and one of them wouldn't use his own arsehole. It's sad to think that there has not been a Republican President in my lifetime that I would be able to say I would have been proud to meet.

America's mistrust of government and politics has gone way beyond healthy scepticism into deeply malignant cynicism. When people expect politicians to be corrupt, lying, selfish, greedy hypocrites isn't it obvious that this is what they will get? There must be better ways of getting straight honest politicians than electing people you think are too stupid to be dishonest.

One slightly disconcerting aspect of Obama's victory is the fact that he did not gain a majority among white voters but did get around 95% of the black vote. Getting 95% of the vote of any population group looks suspiciously like tribal voting of the sort seen across Africa. Just imagine the howls if it was a white candidate securing 95% of the white vote and yet failing to achieve a majority of the black vote. True race blindness will be here when black candidates cannot take the black vote for granted. Great progress has been made but the election of Barack Obama is not the definition of ultimate victory just a necessary step. There had to be a first and we're lucky that Obama is a man of intellect as well as charm and charisma. But then again it isn't luck, it is only the Republicans who regard 'liberal' as an insult and intellect as an undesirable quality in a President.

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