Politics

US Elections: Results, Analysis and Implications

Written by Guest Author on November 10, 2008 4:32 pm EST

Written by,

Professor (Emeritus) Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D

Karibu Rais Obama!

The 44th President, elected 221 years after the United States Constitution was first adopted in 1787, is an embodiment of the change he preaches. For the previous 43 Presidents, from George Washington (1st) to George W. Bush (43rd), have all been white.

It is hard to believe that the United States of America has actually elected its first African-American President – Barack Hussein Obama – the 47-year-old son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother. Tragically, neither parent lived to witness this history-making event.

Even before inauguration, Jan. 20, 2009, the President-elect faces a myriad of hurdles and challenges, both at home and abroad.

First: President Obama will have to grab the bull by its horns and formulate innovative and comprehensive methods (even if unpopular) to extricate America and the world from the ruins of the current economic recession. In the 1930’s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted the Depression squarely, saving America from a national economic catastrophe. President Obama’s task in the present day will be no less onerous.

Second: the new Black President will preside over a White House and national white male-dominated establishment.

To illustrate: African-Americans constitute about 13% of the US population. If elections were free, fair and color-blind, proportional representation of blacks at all levels of government would be 13%.

However, the US Senate membership reflects blatant racial inequality with zero black members (Obama was the only black) out of 100 (0%). The House of Representatives distinguishes itself by having 42 black members out of 435 (9.7%). The 50 States fall behind with only two black Governors – Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and David Paterson of New York (4%).

By contrast, the figures show representation by women as follows: the Senate, 17 members (17%), the House, 74 members (17%); Governors, 8 (16%). Clearly the US is a far cry from more progressive countries like Rwanda and Sweden, which have 53% and 49% women Members of Parliament respectively. Shamefully, Kenya has only 18 women MPs out of 222 (8%).

Just as Kenya practices balance in tribal political appointments, President Obama will have to balance the various US white majority tribes and racial minorities – African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. He will undertake to make his government “look like America”.

Third: the African-American core base of support, crucial for Obama’s victory, already has high expectations for the Brother. Undeniably, Black America’s 13% minority constitutes disproportionally large numbers in the most socially destructive segments of American life, e.g., substandard housing, homelessness, inferior education, unemployment, poor health care, drug addiction, racism, police brutality and incarceration.

To ameliorate these conditions, the Brother-President will have to devise creative programs like President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” in the 1960’s.

Fourth: Africa, largely ignored by previous US administrations, looks forward to new and more sensitive American policies regarding trade, aid, loans, technical assistance and cultural exchange.

Fifth and last: in the past eight years we have seen America degenerate to abysmal levels of respect, dignity and reputation around the world, to the delight of its enemies.

After the tragic “9/11” terrorist attacks, with the subsequent disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (another headache for President Obama) American leaders regressed into bellicose preemptive unilateralism in world affairs – often senselessly disparaging the UN – coupled with xenophobic isolationism and protectionism.

In a reflection of the worldwide disenchantment with America, the website www.iftheworldcouldvote.com shows Obama with 87.3% of the world’s vote compared to McCain’s 12.7%.

The world wishes President Obama all the best as he prepares to tackle these enormously difficult challenges, and believes that he will surely succeed.

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