“There is an entire generation that will grow up taking for granted that the highest office in the land is filled by an African American,” Barack Obama told the Washington Post last week. “I mean,” he added, “that’s a radical thing. It changes how black children look at themselves. It also changes how white children look at black children. And I wouldn’t underestimate the force of that.”
“Neither would I,” writes Jonah Golberg in today’s Los Angeles Times. Nor would I, if I may say so myself. In his column Golberg explains “what Obama brings to conservatives,” and argues conservatives out of trying “to belittle the importance of this milestone,” because “this is simply a wonderful—and wonderfully American—story,” and “any political movement that is joyless about what this represents risks succumbing to bitter political crankery.”
And this is how he concludes his remarks:
If Obama lives up to the dreams of his biggest supporters in writing a new, post-racial chapter for America, he will have at once done more for America than any Democratic president in generations. But he also will have cut the knot holding much of the left together. As an American and as a conservative, I certainly hope that’s the case. He’s already made a good start of it just by getting elected.
A thorough reading of Goldberg’s piece is highly recommended. (Thanks: Sandra K. S.)
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