It’s been a week since Barack Obama’s monumental victory. As the enormity of the task he accomplished sank in, I came to a startling realization: Greatest Political Accomplishment In History.
I don’t say this lightly, but think about what he’s done. This man has risen from modest beginnings outside the establishment to become the single most powerful man on the planet.
In a country that has been founded and run by (relatively) conservative rich white Anglo-Saxon males for 300 years, a man of Kenyan decent and color has risen to the highest office. That’s like a Pakistani becoming the British prime minister! It’s like a Filipino rising to the top of the power ladder … in Japan!
In a country that is currently at war with Muslims in a fight that started as a way to catch an enemy by the name of Hussein, a guy that spent part of his youth in Indonesia (the largest Muslim country in the world) and with “Hussein” as his middle name has become Commander-in-Chief.
In a country where, in many states, a 7 year-old Barack Obama wouldn’t have been allowed on the same bus or in the same diner as a poor, dirty white man - he is now the leader of each and every one of those white men - in each and every one of those states! That’s like a drunk bum walking into the nicest restaurant in town, getting the keys to the front door and being told “it’s yours now.” Up until last Tuesday, it just couldn’t happen. Now it’s as real as the screen you’re reading.
“Okay so it’s big,” you might be saying, “but the Greatest Political Accomplishment in History? Come oooon!”
The Greatest. In History.
For starters, you remember Martin Luther King of “I have a dream” fame? Yeah, this IS the dream. Diddo for Malcom X and Muhammad Ali. I mean, Muhammad Ali was (and may even still be) the most recognizable face on the entire planet not 20 years ago - THIS IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT!
How about Abe Lincoln abolishing slavery? That was definitely huge, but now a once-slave IS Abe Lincoln!
The end of World War II? Monumental … but now a Jew is RUNNING the Third Reich! Think about that. Running the whole damn thing that tried to ruin him for so long … and without a shred of violence.
Ghengis Kahn creating an empire that covered most of modern day Asia? Barack’s empire covers most of the globe … and he didn’t have to kill and maim half the continent to get it. Same can be said for Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, the list goes on…
Make no mistake: no matter where you live today, barring the end of civilization as we know it, your great-great-great-great-great-grand kids will know Barack Obama’s name, recognize his face, and probably study him in school. How could they not? He accomplished the greatest political feat in history. His face already belongs on Mount Rushmore - and he isn’t even president yet!
And you know how he did it? The internet. Damn I love this industry - but more on that in another post.
On this Remembrance Day, I salute and admire the man. How he goes to sleep at night without having incessant nightmares of him and his family being assassinated, I will never know.
Barring that type of disaster, the next 4 years should be downright fascinating. A man who already accomplished one of the greatest feats in history - a peaceful, insightful, fiercely intelligent man - now has 4 years to show the world what he can do as it’s leader. My money says he will do as good a job as any that has stood in his shoes.
