The King is Dead, Long Live the King

(Forgive me for missing the past few weeks; life happens sometimes. Hopefully, I’m back on my intended weekly schedule for now.)

Obviously, the United States doesn’t have a king, but “The President’s Term is Ended” just wouldn’t have the same ring to it. Besides, President Bush’s term doesn’t end for another couple of months.

This past week, we had a historic event: an African-American is now the President Elect of the United States. I would like to believe, as many others seem to, that this event will bring healing to “race relations” in our country, but I’m doubtful. I read too many articles and too many comments leading up to the election about how “closet racists” might yet end up defeating Obama to believe that we’ve come very far at all in “race relations” (for example, check out this Slate article: Racism is the only reason Obama might lose).

Generally the argument went thus: while the polls tended to show Obama in the lead, it is likely the case that many people said that they’d vote for Obama so that they wouldn’t appear to be racists, but on the inside, they were still racist and just not ready for a black man to be president. I’ve also come across the sentiment that “the only reason not to vote for Obama is because you’re racist.” Unfortunately, after listening to the media, it sounds like many people who voted for Obama weren’t so much voting for Barack Obama as they were voting for a black man.

I have always thought that true progress in “race relations” would mean that a black man was running for the Presidency and no one cared that he was black. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” I think this applies whether the judgment is positive or negative, and regardless of the skin color of the subject.

Personally, I did not vote for Obama because I believe his policies will be bad for our nation. Had someone such as Alan Keyes run on the Republican ticket, I would have voted for him.

That said, Obama is going to be our next President. While I disagree with him politically, and I will continue to be critical of his policies that I think are going to be harmful to our nation, he is going to be the President and I will support him. As a Christian, I will pray for him and his administration. God bless President-Elect Obama.