By Christopher Caldwell, Financial TimesNext Thursday’s caucuses in Iowa mark the start of the American election season. Barring a late surge by the populist John Edwards, the Democratic meetings will either give Hillary Clinton a strong chance of becoming the first woman president or Barack Obama a strong chance of becoming the first black one. A female president would be no big deal for the US, which has stood for most of its history in the world’s feminist vanguard. A black president, however, would be epochal.
That Mr Obama’s candidacy is even viable calls for a re-examination of America’s central problem, which for generation after generation has bloodied its streets, haunted its conscience and warped its institutions. Does Senator Obama represent a “new kind of politics”, as he has claimed? If so, how? And does it have anything to do with his race?
Shelby Steele poses these questions in the most provocative way in a new book called A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win. There is no American essayist more important or original than Mr Steele. In The Content of Our Character (1990), he looked at the obstacles to black individualism thrown up not only by white prejudice but also by black demands for solidarity. That book managed to do something books about race almost never do: deepen people’s understanding. Today, Mr Steele is worried that when Americans look at Mr Obama, they don’t see a politician so much as a vehicle for their redemption.
No comments:
Post a Comment