Election 2008, Why is it Close?

S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 9 M any pundits assumed that this would be clearly a “Democratic Year”: the Democratic candidateforPresidentwouldleadalandslide victory for himself and for a more substantial Democratic Party takeover of the Congress than was achieved in 2006. Their reasoning made sense. George Bush hashadjobapprovalofabout28%forthelastfewmonths—atestamenttotheintelligenceoftheAmericanpeoplewhohavecome to understand that: his policies in Iraq, the Middle East, and morebroadlyaroundtheworldhavelargelyfailed;hisinvasionof our privacy and the use of torture against suspects are significant threats to civil liberties and human rights; his opposition to serious ecological reform has increased health and safety risks for all of us; his failure to heed the calls for alternative energy sources andhisendlesspanderingtotheoilcompaniescontributedtothe current high price of fuel; his tax cuts, which serve the rich and destroy much of the safety-net security for middle class Americans , have contributed to the economic woes of the country; and the list could go on for quite a while. Why wouldn’t people, these pundits reasoned, be open to a dramatic change? The answer here is complex. And the situation could still be changed. In the Letters to the Candidates section of this edition of Tikkun we present a variety of perspectives. Our magazine is a non-profit:itdoesnotandcannotendorseanyonepoliticalparty or candidate—that’s what is legally required to make it possible for your donations to be tax-deductible. I hope you’ll read all of the letters published there, some of which point to how dramatic change might still be possible. Yet there is another factor operating that dares not speak its name: RACISM. The simple reality is that many Americans are no more ready to let go of their racism than of their sexism or homophobia . The fear of Blacks is very deep in American culture and goes back many centuries. That fear is easy to understand: the recognition on the part of Whites that we as a society and a people have significantly contributed to the suffering of Blacks and never fully rectified the pain that we caused makes us scared that at any moment Black people will erupt with the anger that theyjustifiablymightfeelatthishistoryofoppressionanddenial. This justifiable anger is not just based on historical memory; the reality is that Blacks continue to be the last hired, first fired in much of this country, that they are far more likely to be harassed for no reason other than their skin color, or arrested and jailed by police for crimes like drug possession that many Whites have committedwithoutconsequences.Soevenwhenacandidatelike Obama tries to reassure Whites that he doesn’t have a retributionist attitude toward the past, many Whites still retain the fear thatinvotingforObamatheymightbeopeningthedoortoother Blacks who do share that anger and who will be given more of an opportunity to vent the anger. There’snowaytogetaroundracismexcepttoconfrontithead on.Butangrychargesof“Youareracist”oftenelicitmorefearand thenmoredistancingbyWhites.Ontheotherhand,theacknowledgment of Black suffering while simultaneously acknowledging White working-class suffering, as Obama did in his post-Rev. Wright speech on race in March, seems a more plausible direction .Yettalkcanonlygosofar.Thereneedstobeawayforpeople suffering from the fears that generate racism to be cured, not just acknowledged. Some people in the Obama camp say, “Well we can do that by providing class-based solutions which help overcome the deprivations faced by economically oppressed Whites and Blacks Election 2008 Why Is it Close? BY MICHAEL LERNER RABBILERNER ANDTHESAUDIS If you didn’t read his email describing the amazing experience he had at an interfaith conferencecalledbytheSaudisandaimedatchanging some of the dynamics in the Islamic world, it’s nottoolate.Ifyoudidreadit,youcannowreada letter he wrote to the Saudis with whom he met, which he didn’t send out to you. Catch it now at www.tikkun.org editorial_2:Editorials+Columns 8/10/08 12:49 PM Page 9 10 T I K K U N W W W. T I K K U N . O R G S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 together. We don’t have to dwell on race—it’s too disruptive.” But actuallythatstrategyisnotworkingwellenoughtoovercomethe covert racism that Obama...