Why I've had trouble blogging about this election (and other post-election thoughts) Posted by Shadi Hamid

Over the last 7 months or so, I didn’t blog much as I would have liked. I certainly didn’t blog much at all about the election (and I guess most of what I felt I needed to say was said here). I would sit down and think of something, but it was difficult to translate my thoughts into the appropriate words. I wanted to write about my fears, but I couldn’t, because if Obama failed to win, I felt that it would be devastating for the country, but devastating also in an intensely personal way. I was banking on too much. When I was in Jordan, I was constantly trying to offer a defense of America. "They" seemed to “hate” America, but the America they spoke of wasn’t the one I knew, or the one I wanted to know. I made the argument that a lot of their anger had to do with the last 8 years, and wasn't necessarily a reflection of the idea of America as I understood it. But what is an idea if it bears little resemblance to reality?

America can change, I would say. “Just wait.” "Give us time." My relatives in Egypt were excited about Obama, but they said it was impossible. America will never elect a black man. I found it slightly disorienting that they would claim to know more about race relations in America than I did. But, every now and then, I would wonder. Indeed, when I tried to visualize an Obama victory, it seemed slightly out of reach. I could understand it happening in theory, but, in practice, it was hard to picture it. Keep in mind that nearly all of my formative political experiences have been ones of defeat (our post-9/11 capitulation on civil liberties, the failure to stop the Iraq war, Kerry's loss, the tragedy of the aborted "Arab spring"), ones of expecting one outcome but being handed another. The notion that Democrats never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity was never from my mind. I was proud to be a liberal, but I had lost faith in my party’s ability to reflect that liberalism in a way that was both true and effective.

So, if Obama had lost, it would have been a vindication to all the people over the last 8 years who attacked the very essence of the American idea, of those who said that we were not what we wished to be. That the American “idea,” to the extent that it still is existed, was just that: an idea. How could I defend America to its naysayers – how could I tell them that America would correct its course – if Americans, with all the requisite information, had opted to make the wrong choice not just once, but twice, and not just twice, but three times. 

But there was another matter: I have put, some would say perhaps, an inordinate amount of faith in “democracy,” in both its power and its promise. It is true: I do believe that democracy is the key to addressing so many of the Middle East’s problems, and, in turn, our own. Part of this is founded upon a belief in democracy’s self-correcting mechanisms, that people can make blatantly wrong decisions only so many times before they try a more promising course – that in a free market of ideas, with competing political parties communicating their respective ideas to the electorate, eventually and ultimately, the best ideas would rise to the top, that people could be trusted with their own agency. A McCain victory would have made me question some of these premises. I would have lost some degree of faith – because if we could not win under these circumstances, when could we ever? But democracy, as an idea, and American democracy, as a practical matter, have been vindicated. The best aspects of who we are, and who we still wish to be, have been vindicated. So many of us didn’t know what to say when we were living abroad. Now, we will know what to say. They, however, will be watching what we do. That, in the end, will be the measure that matters. The struggle did not end yesterday. 

Comments

[c.l. ball]

Hey, extend arm, bend, and pat back.

You all at Democracy Arsenal labored long and hard this past year to end the Republican dominance of the national security agenda. This election validated your efforts.

Of all the potential GOP nominees, McCain had the most "street cred" to stump any Dem. nominee, especially Obama, who was a neophyte on military matters (but who showed great judgment in 2002 -- he speech was, sadly, among the prescient ones).

Blogs like yours, steadily, diligently, paved the way for reasoned discussion of strategic affairs. And I disagreed with you on a number of points, as your logs will show.

Nonetheless, the US and the world will be a safer and more peaceful place for your efforts.

Congratulations. You all earned it.

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