Somebody ring the Liberty Bell. An African-American whose middle name is Hussein, no less, is the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
For those of us old enough to remember unapologetic segregation at every level, from elementary school to professional organizations, from rest rooms and buses to restaurants and all public facilities, it's time to push away concerns about war and global warming for just a minute and notice that America is still realizing the vision of its founders. It's not just all white men who are created equal; all men are. Women, too; that's why in this Democratic primary, for all its disappointing moments, we lived out a grand, newly evolved realization of that vision.
To help us think about how this happened, there's an old conundrum that sounds like Question Number Five on the driest social studies exam you ever took: do politics drive cultural change, or does cultural change drive politics?
As applied to Americans and Obama, this chicken-and-egg question becomes very engaging. Many people born 70 years ago or more could hardly have imagined a black presidential candidate because they had never (or so seldom that it only seemed the exception that proved the bigoted rule) seen an African-American given a venue in which to prove, visibly and publicly, that he (not "she" in those days) could deal with problems of presidential caliber.
Then came two things: first, a body of antidiscrimination law, law about education, about the right to work, the right to vote. The federal government emerged as one of the first reliably egalitarian large-scale employers, for women as well as minorities.
And something else happened: more and more black talent and intelligence reached the level of visibility. Sidney Poitier burst out of stereotyped movie roles with his stunning dramatic talent; Edward Brooke was elected to Congress. Younger people today, who turned out in droves for Obama, are used to seeing accomplished African-American actors and a business and professional landscape populated by more and more people of color.
So who did more to bring the country to this moment: Chief Justice Earl Warren, or Fat Albert? No doubt it took both. Each voter arrived at this point in his or her own way. Whatever happens in November, this is a victory that makes other victories more likely.
