Right On Obama

I recently posted here a story by the Spanish newspaper, El Diario Exterior, about how the European left is feeling somewhat threatened by the rise of the Obama star in the U.S., as his success could weaken one of their pet claims – that racial division prevents equality of opportunity etc. and that racial prejudice is still endemic – especially in “rightist America”. Meanwhile, argued the intriguing article from Spain, the European right are embracing him.

Why? An Obama victory would be on the back of a huge youth vote. A victory thus won would demonstrate that the United States has moved hugely toward, if not entirely arrived at, a post-racial politics. Such a move would not follow from anything Obama has done, but from the opportunity he provides for a younger generation, who do not divide their world up ethnically, to make a statement about who they are, and thereby what their country is. Such an act of self-definition and expression – by individuals at a ballot box in defiance of any social narrative – would be worthy of celebration. And such an act speaks to all that is best about the political right. Moreover, Obama himself, if victorious, would not just be an agument for the traditionally “right” value of the individual’s embracing opportunity to succeed on one’s own terms, but an ultimate manifestation of it – one of the greatest public manifestations, in modern American history.

In that context, it is particularly interesting to see three more postings on Obama from Europe at Watching America.com, seeming to support the latter part of this thesis.

Specifically, the British right are loving the Obama rise, as evidenced by this piece from Britain’s most right-wing broadsheet, The Telegraph, and by this summary of the right-wing press in the (also British) Guardian. Moreover, the French paper, l’Express, modeled on the American Time Magazine, and traditionally also right-of-center, writes positively of the Obama candidacy.

For the world’s views about Obama, the other presidential candidates of any stripe, and the political culture of the U.S., visit Watching America.com