If I didn't despise the Republican Party so much, if I didn't think they should be forever painted as the Party that allowed 9/11 to happen, lied us into a war, created more poverty, given away jobs, destroyed the middle class, ignored the health of the people, de-stablilized the world, decimated the military, enriched the already rich, tortured and imprisoned people unjustly, and trashed the Constitution, I would almost feel sorry for them.
Why?
Because they have never had and will never have moments like we Democrats had last night and will have tonight. They will never be the party that nominated the first African American for president, and they will never hear an acceptance speech by that nominee.
In nominating an African American for president, the Democrats did something last night that may someday be viewed as an incredibly significant turning point in the cultural history of this country.
As we all know, long before the Revolutionary War was fought, before our Constitution was written and our first president sworn in, the economy of a good portion of the country was dependent on slave labor. White men went to the coast of Africa and purchased African human beings, who had been kidnapped and imprisoned by slavers, and tore them away from their families to be brought to this country in chains. For hundreds of years this practice continued, even after the nation was formed, and ultimately a war was fought to free those human beings.
The losing side in that war, however, refused to accept that those Africans-Americans were equal to them. They refused to see their humanity. So for another hundred years Jim Crow laws in the South made segregation the norm and prevented African-Americans from voting and thus being equal participants in democracy. The North was not innocent either. Segregation existed in the northern states as well, and racism infected the entire nation.
As recently as two years ago, it would have been unthinkable that an African American could be the nominee of a major political party. Yet here we are. Last night, Barack Obama, an African American candidate, was nominated to be the standard bearer for the Democratic Party.
Even as her supporters were profoundly disappointed that she did not become the first female nominee of a major party, Hillary Clinton was the one who moved to have Barack Obama nominated by acclamation. Even she understood the historic significance of the moment and she wanted to be part of it. Then, in a moment of triumph for Obama, the party, and the nation, the cameras moved around the room and caught images of people weeping - whites and blacks together. Though they had hoped and prayed for this moment, the actual nomination was overwhelming - a dream most thought would not happen in their lifetimes.
All the years of kidnapping, chains, slavery, discrimination, segregation, lynchings, beatings, rapes, racism, fire hoses and assassinations led to this moment, and the people in the crowd could hardly believe it. The people of the Democratic Party this year had the courage to nominate a man who may not win in November, partly because of the subtle and silent racism that still exists in this country, and partly because the Republicans are pulling and will continue to pull every nasty and ugly campaign trick in the book, and will appeal to that racism with their dog whistle politics.
The Republicans have depended on the entrenched racism in the South for their victories ever since 1968, and especially in 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000, and 2004. In those years, they used coded signals that chastised the Democratic Party for giving too many rights and privileges to black Americans. They used words like "states rights" and "bussing" and "affirmative action" to criticize their opponents and appeal to white resentment of the black citizens they once imprisoned and enslaved. Ronald Reagan began his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the place notorious for murders of civil rights workers and lynchings of black Americans, with a speech about states rights. George H.W. Bush used Willie Horton ads to smear his rival. And George W. Bush got rid of his main GOP rival in 2000 by accusing him of having a "black baby."
The Republicans will do it again this year, only this time they can use their racist tactics directly against an African American candidate. They will feign innocence when they are accused of dog whistle tactics, as they already have, but that doesn't make their coded racism any less obvious and any less disgusting - and any less evil.
They may very well succeed, however. In a year where the incumbent party has an 80% unpopularity rating, a year that should be the year for a Democratic victory, the Republicans have nominated a former POW and insist that immunizes him from all criticism, while they slam the Democrats and demand they never talk about race. They are playing their POW card daily, and also playing a subtle, dog-whistle race card, while accusing the Democrats of playing the race card and demanding they stop. Incredible! These people have no shame, and no soul.
We will have to see what happens. I believe Barack Obama, with his new brand of politics, with his incredible brilliance, with his soft and steady temperament, with his money and tightly organized campaign, and with his registration of millions of new voters, may actually win. It will not be easy, but it might happen. I don't underestimate the despicable tactics of a despicable party, but I still believe good can occasionally overcome evil, and I believe Obama can win. If he doesn't, it will be because not enough old racists have died yet. If he wins, on the other hand, it will not only be the beginning of a new era, it will be the end of an era.
Once we have elected an African American president, racism will be unacceptable in a way that the election of John F. Kennedy made anti-Catholicism unacceptable. Sure anti-Catholicism still exists in places, but it simply has no power anymore. If you doubt that, count how many Catholics sit on the Supreme Court today. I believe it is a majority.
This week was historic and grand. Should Obama actually be elected in November, his presidency and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln will be forever linked as bookends on the fight to end this nation's original sin of slavery, followed by over a hundred years of racially motivated crimes and discrimination in a nation supposedly dedicated to liberty and justice for all.
We live in a truly historic moment. This is our time. I hope we don't blow it. And I hope we don't let the Republicans destroy it.
