The Death of Racism & the Return of the True Conservatives

While I opposed his candidacy with every fiber of my being, I am well aware of the potential long-term benefits of Barack Obama’s presidency.

The jubilance that exploded throughout the world on Tuesday night stemmed not from the election of Obama the man, but Obama the black man. To the millions and millions of people the planet over, who cried, swooned, and cheered, Obama the man was out of both sight and mind, if he was ever there at all. His was now the face not of his parents’ child, but the entire black race. Heralded as a symbol, not a person.

And this is indeed a powerful symbol. But the problem with symbols is that they aren’t self-interpreting. Within recent years, the Confederate flag has been interpreted by many blacks and others as a symbol of “racism,” Jim Crow, and slavery. Yet to many white Southerners, it signifies liberty and a rich, distinctive cultural heritage. Similarly, the American flag, the Christian Cross, and the Islamic Star and Crescent symbolize different things to different people and groups of people.

An Obama presidency could, and no doubt does, signify to some the passing of “the old order,” or what has more cynically been described as “white dispossession.” To others, it is a symbol that blacks have, at long last, “overcome.” Yet to me, and no doubt to everyone else who has thrills over the reality of an Obama presidency that would eclipse even those that overtake Chris Mathews’ whenever he catches a glimpse of Obama, Obama’s election is a resounding repudiation of the poisonous, but profitable, fiction that America is a “racist” country.

To put it more bluntly, an Obama presidency symbolizes “the death of ‘racism’” in America.

From this point onward, the mantra, repeated for decades on the left, that “Amerika” is a “racist” society, will sound as archaic as the Latin Mass in a Catholic Church. And its recitation will appear no less ritualistic. Of course, to an even greater degree than before — if that’s even possible — the race merchants, those whose lives are deeply invested in perpetuating the notion that “racism” is lurking behind every corner of American life, will seek to remind us of what a racially oppressive society the United States remains: “Yeah, things aren’t as bad as they used to be, but….” But their accusations will become ever more difficult to credibly sustain.

And it is this that should provide those of us who dreaded an Obama victory with the utmost consolation, for the race card that the left has been playing to exacerbate inter-racial tensions and demonize America, though still on the table (as I said, they will continue to rely on it), no longer has the effectiveness that it once possessed. If nothing else, the notion of “institutional racism” has suffered an at least near lethal blow.

There are three more consolatory prizes to be had from an Obama victory, although the “death” of “racism” is more than enough.

First, the Clintons have been knocked into the ranks of the “has-beens.” While it is possible that Hillary could return in 2016, it is very unlikely. In any event, we needn’t worry much about the Clintons ever again darkening our door.

Second, we no longer need worry about John McCain either. To many on the left, McCain too became a symbol, a symbol of precisely those features of American life that they felt Obama had to “fundamentally transform.” McCain represents “the old guard,” all of those “dead, white males” in whose hands the lion’s share of political and economic power has rested from the days of America’s beginnings up until the present.

Yet to millions of traditional conservatives, including yours truly, McCain was a symbol alright, but a symbol of all that was wrong with the contemporary Republican establishment. His defeat, hopefully, is a harbinger of the defeat of the neo-conservative, Bush-style “conservatism,” that has left such a bad taste in the mouths of both conservatives and non-conservatives alike.

Finally, Obama has set expectations so high, it will be impossible for him to meet them. True believers there will always be, but within time, the bloom will come off the rose and many will become disenchanted with Obama. Then, America’s infatuation with having its “first black president” will fade and maybe, just maybe, the next election cycle will promise a return of at least some sanity.

An Obama presidency could, in the long run, do more good for both conservatism and the country than a McCain presidency could ever dream of achieving.