That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
"Why on earth would you feel this way?", you might ask. Well, firstly, this has been possibly one of the most boring, foregone conclusions of a presidential battle that I have ever seen. Obama would have had to have made some very serious mistakes to turn off an American public, so disenchanted with the previous Republican administration, and it was plain from the start that he wasn't the type of guy to make those sorts of mistakes. He probably still could have won even if he only had the lamentable level of experience of Mrs Palin.
It's also the first race I remember where the candidates have failed to have fundamental differences of opinion that resulted in serious debate. Rather, they both seemed to slap each other gently, from a distance, like two schoolboys having a very tentative fight. Sometimes they went even further than that and actually heaped praise upon each other. It's fair enough to respect your opponent, but some comments were practically encouraging people to vote the other way, and no-one likes a suck-up. In one instance during a televised debate, the candidates had to be reminded they were meant to be debating rather than giving simultaneous presentations. It seemed like I would be more likely to find people outside Gallery on a Thursday night who would be willing to argue about politics.
Sometimes they heaped praise upon each other, and no-one likes a suck-up.
It also seemed, perhaps, quite a predictable result because of the fact that many people gave their vote to Obama purely on the basis of his race, in the belief that he will represent them better as being part of an ethnic minority. The record numbers at the polls will almost certainly have been made up largely, in some states, of ethnic minorities turning out to vote for the first time. The irony of it is that, to me, the only thing that marks Obama out as being black is his skin colour (as tautological as it may sound to some). He's only as likely to identify with the non-Caucasian proletariat as, say, Bill Clinton.
Some are hailing it as testimony to the fact that the United States are shunning the racism of their past. In some ways it is, but I find the statement flawed and slightly patronising at the same time. It makes it sound as though the average American voter was completely ignorant of the policies presented to them and asked instead to choose the racist side, or the tolerant side. The fact an African-American was able to stand was, in itself, testimony to how far the United States has come; the fact that most people ignored his race when they came to vote is testimony to this also. The fact he won proves nothing, especially given that roughly a third of the United States population is now non-Caucasian. The moment restrictions on race in politics were retracted was historic; every moment that a person rejects racism is, in a way, historic; this victory though, is at best just a serendipitous result of all those previous moments.
Despite all my indifference about this election though, I am somewhat concerned. What worries me is a sneaking suspicion that the Republicans gave up contending seriously for the position, possibly thinking of their long term prospects over short term. In four years time, will the American electorate remember that the Democrat administration started out with an economy in ruins? Or will they be made the scapegoat for the Republicans' misdeeds of recent years, leading to a Republican resurgence in 2012? Only time will tell on that one.
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