Michelle Obama: A
'Revolutionary' That'll Be Good for America
"In some
respects, she would represent an even greater revolution than the parallel
entry into office of her husband … The world would be grateful and the
credibility of the United
States enhanced if Michelle Obama became
First Lady, and the White majority would forthrightly reminded
of the debt it still owes America's
Black minority."
A President Barack Obama would be regarded as evidence of a
turning point in the United
States. However, an even greater
breakthrough would be a First Lady Michelle Obama.
As the United
States was born, for heads of state the
global norm was kings or queens, not presidents; so it was that in the early
months of the republic there was a serious debate about whether the president,
for the purposes of symbolic equality, should be addressed as “Majesty.” And it
wasn't only eccentrics or those who were nostalgic for monarchy who pleaded for
this. The second U.S. President, the great founding father John Adams, was one
of the proponents of this title, which sounds so peculiar to us today.
If one wants to understand the USA and its political system, it’s
worth directing one’s attention to these early years. The United States
is a young country. Just one hundred and twenty years ago, European settlers or
their descendants were still fighting battles of conquest against the so-called
natives. But at the same time, it's the oldest great republic on this planet -
one of the very few countries where government institutions can look back over
a 200-year history.
Much of what continues to dominate the political system of
the United States
arose out of the political context of the late 18th century. This includes the
quasi-monarchical respect - despite the fact that the title "Majesty"
was renounced - that surrounds the office and person of the president and his
family. There is hardly any other republic in which the spouse of the head of
state receives so much attention, space and reverence as is the case in the United States.
FIRST LADY OF SOCIETY
This tradition has very practical consequences. It's one of
the reasons that even staunch political opponents and journalists critical of
the president display a distinct respect and engage in social activities with
him, even when he bends the law and distorts language in order to legitimize
the torture of prisoners. It's also one of the reasons that so much attention
is focused on potential First Ladies during an election year. As in a monarchy,
the wife of America's head of state is undisputedly and for all, the First Lady
of Society. Her tastes, her choice of curtains, or the style of her clothing
are all legitimate topics of reporting for the nation's most prestigious
newspapers.
All of this reflects what an enormous breakthrough that the
entry into the White House of Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic candidate
Barack Obama, would be. In some respects, she would represent an even greater
revolution than the parallel entry into office of her husband. The people of
the U.S.
have by now gotten used to Black generals commanding their forces, and thanks
to the current president, of having a Black woman as Secretary of State. But
it's one thing to occupy high office. It's quite another when a member of a
long-oppressed, still underclass minority assumes a position that like no
other, embodies social prominence and celebrity to the point that in the
strictest sense, it isn't even an "office."
The Presidency is a job in which one takes action, and only
then does he take on the vestments of the role. But First Lady is not such a
position - and she who ignores that fact courts failure, as Hillary Clinton did
in her first year at the White House, when she tried to obscure this difference
with her work on healthcare reform.
Michelle Obama is unlike Condoleezza Rice in that as a Black
woman, she conceals the wounds inflicted on her due to her skin color and the
differing perspective of the U.S. that emerge from those wounds behind her
great charm and a carefully-crafted mask with which she so tactfully handles
the self-indulgence of the White majority. One suspects
that she won't be one to forget that the celebrity and success of rare social
achievers like TV genius Oprah Winfrey, Secretary of State Rice and her
predecessor in office Colin Powell - conceal, more than reveal, the reality
that a majority of Black Americans experience - and the history that they have
inherited.
The self-congratulation of the United States as a country of
freedom ignores the fact that Russia freed her peasants from serfdom before
America freed her slaves; that the freedom of Blacks had to be fought for and
won in a bloody civil war; and that Michelle Obama, Rice and Powell were all
born in an America in which the state tolerated or organized the worst kind of
violence and discrimination. And today? Yes - there
are many great successes. But nearly four out of 100 Black residents of the U.S. capital
are infected with HIV. And one out of eight Black Americans aged 20 to 30 are
sitting in prison.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
For a considerable portion of the White majority, when Michelle
Obama declared several months ago that for the first time she was proud of her
country, it was an offence against the first commandment of unconditional
American patriotism. Since then, the First Lady to be has had to spend a
considerable amount of time dismissing her statement as misleading, and her
husband Barack has had to take part in the cult of the flag as if moving into
the White House depended on it - which it likely does.
MICHELLE OBAMA
EXPLAINS HER COMMENTS ON THE VIEW
But the Black minority knows what Michelle Obama meant.
Blacks are embittered and scoff at conservatives - a mortal sin against the
second commandment of unconditional American patriotism. From a European point
of view, this bitterness seems like a much clearer perception of the realities
in the country.
In Michelle Obama, there would be a woman entering the White
House who like no other, would be capable of directing the gaze of the majority
into the darker aspects of American society and history. It's the best thing
that could happen to the United
States - and even to us Europeans. The world
would be grateful and the credibility of the United States enhanced if Michelle
Obama became first lady, whatever her husband's re-election chances - and the
White majority would forthrightly reminded of the debt it still owes America's Black
minority.
*Thomas Klau is an FTD columnist and
heads the Paris
Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
