Before the election of Barack Obama, eggheads and rednecks alike pontificated on how radical a thing it would be for a black man to be elected President. And while Obama's election was, in my mind, the greatest single event in our history as a nation, it was not as revolutionary as many might think. Indeed, another barrier, no less formidable than race, has been eclipsed by several American presidents.
It is bemusing and a bit irritating to hear knee-jerk leftists bemoan the lack of non-white presidents among our first 43. "Look at all those white faces" they drone as they scan the visages of our first 43 presidents. This fixation, however, is ignorant to realistic expectation and common sense and it entirely misses the larger point of how far America had truly come even before the election of Obama.
From the founding of our nation until about 40 years ago, 90% of American citizens were white. The white majority is not now nearly as large, and it will continue to shrink, but it is a matter of historical fact that, for the huge majority of our history, whites were 90% of the population. Given that simple fact, what other color could our first 43 presidents possibly have been? Of course they were white!
"What about the blacks?" one might retort. America's sins against blacks need not be catalogued here, but if you can show me a country that has elected a member of a 10% minority to lead it, I'll show you a war that George W. Bush has won. In other words, the whiteness of America's first 43 presidents has been drastically inflated in importance. The lack of women, in fact, is infinitely more relevant, since they represent 50% of the population and 0% of presidents.
That issue aside, we must ask ourselves what this race-obsession obscures. Specifically, it obscures class. And the issue of class is where America made huge and unprecedented strides which were real and historically important before Mr. Obama arrived. Put simply: since World War II, Americans have much more often than not elected men to lead them who were born poor.
Let us consider our presidents since FDR, since the office of the American President became the most powerful office in the world. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama. 12 men. And only 3 aristocrats. Only in America.
Think about that. Only 25% of our imperial presidents were born into status and/or wealth. Just three men from aristocratic dynasties, the Kennedys and the Bushes. The rest, the other 75%, were born normal and nameless men and rose to become, for their own respective moments and by their own respective merits, the most powerful men in the world.
This is a moral revolution in government that I have not heard anyone address amid all the hoopla surrounding Obama. Yes, he's black. But he was also born poor. And that has as much to do with his worldview as anything else.
Indeed, the huge majority of post-war American presidents were born poor. Poor. And look where they ended up. Again, ask yourself, as one must do often with America, "what other country in the world...." To ask the question is to answer it.
So, the next time we look at that row of photographs of our presidents, let's go deeper than race. Let's consider the fact that to look at these men and see an indistinguishable white mass is simply racist. Let's consider the fact that Ronald Reagan was raised by a single mother in a poverty very few Americans can imagine. Despite what one may think of the man's politics, was Reagan not evidence of the promise of America?
We should not diminish the importance of Barack Obama's election; few things are more important. But neither should we diminish the edifices and boundaries that we had collectively shattered long before that day but received such little credit for. It took a while for a white country to elect a black president. But it took much less time for a rich country to elect a poor president. We deserve credit for both.
It is bemusing and a bit irritating to hear knee-jerk leftists bemoan the lack of non-white presidents among our first 43. "Look at all those white faces" they drone as they scan the visages of our first 43 presidents. This fixation, however, is ignorant to realistic expectation and common sense and it entirely misses the larger point of how far America had truly come even before the election of Obama.
From the founding of our nation until about 40 years ago, 90% of American citizens were white. The white majority is not now nearly as large, and it will continue to shrink, but it is a matter of historical fact that, for the huge majority of our history, whites were 90% of the population. Given that simple fact, what other color could our first 43 presidents possibly have been? Of course they were white!
"What about the blacks?" one might retort. America's sins against blacks need not be catalogued here, but if you can show me a country that has elected a member of a 10% minority to lead it, I'll show you a war that George W. Bush has won. In other words, the whiteness of America's first 43 presidents has been drastically inflated in importance. The lack of women, in fact, is infinitely more relevant, since they represent 50% of the population and 0% of presidents.
That issue aside, we must ask ourselves what this race-obsession obscures. Specifically, it obscures class. And the issue of class is where America made huge and unprecedented strides which were real and historically important before Mr. Obama arrived. Put simply: since World War II, Americans have much more often than not elected men to lead them who were born poor.
Let us consider our presidents since FDR, since the office of the American President became the most powerful office in the world. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama. 12 men. And only 3 aristocrats. Only in America.
Think about that. Only 25% of our imperial presidents were born into status and/or wealth. Just three men from aristocratic dynasties, the Kennedys and the Bushes. The rest, the other 75%, were born normal and nameless men and rose to become, for their own respective moments and by their own respective merits, the most powerful men in the world.
This is a moral revolution in government that I have not heard anyone address amid all the hoopla surrounding Obama. Yes, he's black. But he was also born poor. And that has as much to do with his worldview as anything else.
Indeed, the huge majority of post-war American presidents were born poor. Poor. And look where they ended up. Again, ask yourself, as one must do often with America, "what other country in the world...." To ask the question is to answer it.
So, the next time we look at that row of photographs of our presidents, let's go deeper than race. Let's consider the fact that to look at these men and see an indistinguishable white mass is simply racist. Let's consider the fact that Ronald Reagan was raised by a single mother in a poverty very few Americans can imagine. Despite what one may think of the man's politics, was Reagan not evidence of the promise of America?
We should not diminish the importance of Barack Obama's election; few things are more important. But neither should we diminish the edifices and boundaries that we had collectively shattered long before that day but received such little credit for. It took a while for a white country to elect a black president. But it took much less time for a rich country to elect a poor president. We deserve credit for both.
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