And all those watching tonight from beyond our shores -
….
Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared,
and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
Not having cable, and being at work last night, I didn’t watch any of the election coverage in the U.S.. I fully expected that Obama would win, though it was always possible that McCain would pull a victory out of his hat.
I came home and sat down to watch Obama’s Acceptance Speech on YouTube. Before tonight, I had never heard or seen Obama speak. I’ve seen Bush. Clinton. Harper. Chretien. McGuinty. I’ve seen David Suzuki speak in person.
Watching Obama reminded me of Hitler. It’s not meant to be a negative comparison. Despite whatever else anyone may think of the moustachioed little bastard, Hitler was an amazing Rhetorician. I remember very, very little about my time in university studying rhetoric, but at heart, rhetoric is about communication and persuasion. It’s my firm belief that Hitler could have convinced masses that a green door was black. There aren’t many people (T.) in the world (T.) who have that ability (T.). And even fewer of them end up in power. Hitler managed to do it and restored national pride, at a time when Germany was beaten down after the Treaty of Versailles. Sure, he was a bigoted little fuck who was responsible for millions of deaths and a world war, but cut him a bit of slack – Germany united under his rule. He gave them back their pride, and they ran with it. Perhaps in the wrong direction, but still…
Obama… I don’t think he’s yet reached his full strength. And I predict he’ll be in for two terms. He’s a relative unknown, stepping on to a world stage populated with people waiting for him to fail, and all that’s keeping him upright is the bubble of hope of a nation ready for change, standing at his back. Now, that’s nothing to sneeze at, but the man is flouting the status quo at every turn. There’s no money. There’s no long-standing political career. There’s no time served in the military. He comes from a divorced home. The man is black, his father is an immigrant from Africa, his mother is a white woman, and he was basically raised by his grandmother, outside of the lower 48. He’s not exactly “weekend in the Hamptons” material.
And yet…simply watching him speak is a remarkable, provoking experience. Watching him speak made me want to be American, and that’s saying a lot. And he reached out to “everybody else here not sitting on a cushion” (artistic license with the link, cut me some slack) when he invoked the shared destiny idea that I quoted above. It takes a pretty damned intelligent American to realize that there’s a world outside of the “home of the brave” and it is to his benefit to acknowledge them.
Clinton was a young, vibrant President who brought a little jazz to the White House. But Clinton didn’t… he never hit the home run. Obama is the first President since Kennedy who is poised to alter the course of history not by taking a slight right, but by hauling our asses around in a sharp left and making off like an exuberant rally racer right across the heart of America.
Obama stands for hope. It is in Canada’s best interests to work with Obama; the 49th Parallel is one of the most important lines in the world. Whether we like to admit it or not, Canadians – a distinctly different nation, damn it - still rely on President of the United States to stand up for North America. We have our own government, our own laws, our own history. But the fates of the United States and Canada are irrevocably tied together. He must lead us all.
