January 7, 2008--Huckabeezers
From the look on Al Sarpton’s face the night of the Iowa caucuses, you could tell that he realized that the earth had moved. It said, my time is passing. The era of “race politics” (black as well as white) is ending. Obama’s victory, especially all the “internals” (he got more women’s votes than Senator Clinton, more independents that all other candidates combined, and young people did in fact turn out in hordes to vote for him), all of this in a “conservative” state where fewer than two percent are minorities signals that we may be seeing yet another generational shift in culture.
And that’s what this is all about—culture.
Think of the post-caucus tableaus—sharing the platform with Edwards were his family but packed behind them were his endorsers, union leaders, local Iowa pols, and other hangers-on. Behind Hillary were of course Bill (looking traumatized and much older) and a sampling of Clinton retreads and warhorses, with Madeline Albright front and center—not the picture of change.
Sharing the platform with the triumphant Obama were just his wife (in a tight knit dress) and his two daughters. No one else. And when he spoke, unlike Edwards and Clinton who delivered versions of their stump speeches, he delivered a speech that was a political, inspirational masterpiece. Even Republican pundits on the news channels conceded that it was about the best speech of its kind that they had ever heard.
Why had so many missed the fact that Obama’s kind of blackness is cool? Hadn’t anyone noticed that African-American celebrities and entertainment stars had already made the crossover and were now appealing big time to youthful white audiences? Denzel Washington is now Hollywood’s most bankable male star. Not to mention Oprah who help kosher Barack among young women of all races.
And then there is the Huckabee phenomenon to understand. It’s not so simple to just chalk up his appeal and success to the fact that he is attracting Evangelical voters. Time will tell, but there is considerable culture-shifting among conservative Christians as well. They are not the two-dimensional cartoon characters the mainstream media have been describing only fulminating about Evolution, abortion, and same-sex marriage. There is growing diversity in their ranks as well, perhaps exemplified by Mike Huckabee. Many, taking the Bible literally, fundamentally, see a Christian responsibility to care of God’s creation—the Earth—and to take seriously the Christian virtue of Charity which is deemed first among the rest. There is that explicit requirement to love thy neighbors.
And what is it that the Bible says about passing through the eye of a needle? I don’t think hedge fund managers are first in line among the meek who are to inherit the Earth.
No one of course knows where all this is headed, but anyone with even a cursory sense of American political and cultural history knows that there have been times like this in the past and what we are now witnessing may be in its own way historic.
And that’s what this is all about—culture.
Think of the post-caucus tableaus—sharing the platform with Edwards were his family but packed behind them were his endorsers, union leaders, local Iowa pols, and other hangers-on. Behind Hillary were of course Bill (looking traumatized and much older) and a sampling of Clinton retreads and warhorses, with Madeline Albright front and center—not the picture of change.
Sharing the platform with the triumphant Obama were just his wife (in a tight knit dress) and his two daughters. No one else. And when he spoke, unlike Edwards and Clinton who delivered versions of their stump speeches, he delivered a speech that was a political, inspirational masterpiece. Even Republican pundits on the news channels conceded that it was about the best speech of its kind that they had ever heard.
Why had so many missed the fact that Obama’s kind of blackness is cool? Hadn’t anyone noticed that African-American celebrities and entertainment stars had already made the crossover and were now appealing big time to youthful white audiences? Denzel Washington is now Hollywood’s most bankable male star. Not to mention Oprah who help kosher Barack among young women of all races.
And then there is the Huckabee phenomenon to understand. It’s not so simple to just chalk up his appeal and success to the fact that he is attracting Evangelical voters. Time will tell, but there is considerable culture-shifting among conservative Christians as well. They are not the two-dimensional cartoon characters the mainstream media have been describing only fulminating about Evolution, abortion, and same-sex marriage. There is growing diversity in their ranks as well, perhaps exemplified by Mike Huckabee. Many, taking the Bible literally, fundamentally, see a Christian responsibility to care of God’s creation—the Earth—and to take seriously the Christian virtue of Charity which is deemed first among the rest. There is that explicit requirement to love thy neighbors.
And what is it that the Bible says about passing through the eye of a needle? I don’t think hedge fund managers are first in line among the meek who are to inherit the Earth.
No one of course knows where all this is headed, but anyone with even a cursory sense of American political and cultural history knows that there have been times like this in the past and what we are now witnessing may be in its own way historic.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:24 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home