World | USA
A change of heart runs through the conservative American heartland
In this bedroom community, hard on the prairie and a scant 40-minute drive from America's "Second City," you could feel it in the crisp autumn air.
- By James Lynch, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:33 November 5, 2008
Chicago: In this bedroom community, hard on the prairie and a scant 40-minute drive from America's "Second City," you could feel it in the crisp autumn air.
And, you could see it, too, right here in Naperville, Illinois.
Set bright against the backdrop of burnished, golden-hued leaves, the blue signs were everywhere - Obama/Biden '08 - dotting lawn after lawn of these suburban four-bedroom homes.
It was a sight startling to see in a town and, indeed, a county so long a bastion of the Republican Party where, until recently, even to utter the word Democrat or Independent could be met with contempt. A friendly chat with a neighbour said it all: "I had a John Kerry sign in my yard in '04," she said, "and one morning I found it ripped to pieces."
Yes, here in the American heartland, in the months, weeks and days before the most closely watched election since 1960, "change" was the buzzword.
And the story, Barack Obama's story and his slogan that had been his battle cry for all 21 months of the hard-fought campaign, had finally resonated all across the country.
From the palm-studded precincts of Boynton Beach, Florida (ground zero in the election debacle of 2000), to the once fire-engine red states of Indiana and North Carolina, this upstart 47-year-old Illinois senator had struck a raw nerve with Americans of all colours, ages and political persuasions.
The central message that sealed it for the candidate and voter alike: a hunger for change.
Change from the now failed trickle-down economic policies once espoused by Ronald Reagan.
Change from a government-sponsored corporate culture that had allowed monetary regulation to run amok, causing the worst financial implosion since the Great Depression, one that cascaded through global markets from London to Hong Kong.
Change in the promise of a quick draw-down of US troops from a contrived and ill-conceived war in Iraq even as Afghanistan, on the eve of a Taliban winter offensive, resembles what the US faced in Vietnam 40 years ago.
Obama's opponent, John McCain, did not have many arrows in his quiver to combat the unrelenting attacks of his opponent.
And this time the negative political ads - the kind that had proved so effective in 2000 and 2004 - went virtually unheeded.
Even most of the political pundits, who are legion in the U.S. media, didn't take the bait. In one political expert's most-telling TV comment - in response to an internet ad that was causing part of the electorate to believe Obama was a Muslim - the pundit simply said: "So, what if he was?....think of that for a minute and how insulting it is to Muslims."
So now we - as in America - are set to witness the dawn of a Barack Obama presidency, and a hope for change from the last eight years, with an end in sight to the bloodshed abroad and, at home, an economic revival of the middle class, once the very backbone of the American dream.
The change will be difficult, something that Obama acknowledged in his victory address. Not since the days of FDR or JFK has an American president faced such overwhelming problems.
But a calm, even temperament should serve Obama well, and he's confident in his own skin to quell any doubts about his inexperience by surrounding himself with America's best and brightest, as in the manner of JFK.
James Lynch is a Chicago-based writer and editor.
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