Column : The transformation challenge

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Column : We always overcome

: Why is the election of Barack Obama so compelling, to so many in the United States and beyond? And will President Obama be an agent for transformation at home and in the world?

Even via CNN from India the election has been deeply affecting. Two of many moving experiences have been seeing the tears in the eyes of older black men and women, and the energy, excitement and engagement of so many young people.

This is especially compelling because of the contrast with the sense of political apathy and cynicism that has been so prevalent within the United States, and the feeling from abroad that the country has been in the grip of narrow interests and blinkered ideology.

Part of the answer to why the election has been so moving is of course that Obama is the first black president of the United States. His election is a huge symbolic step to the realisation of Martin Luther King’s inclusive dream. This symbolism resonates beyond the United States, in the Kenya of his father, throughout Africa, and throughout a world in which ethnic difference is all too often a source of polarisation or exclusion. The answer also partly lies in the range of specific policy promises that seek more equality of opportunity at home and greater multilateralism and tolerance abroad. Of equal interest is the nature of his campaign.

The power of Obama’s public presence flows not only from the eloquence of his speeches, but from his capacity to voice a narrative of inclusive opportunity in a way that provides an invitation to others to engage. He relentlessly emphasises that change depends not on him, but on “us”, that he himself is imperfect. He has an empathetic capacity that is intellectual as well as emotional. This is the opposite of narcissistic grandiosity. A narcissistic leader can also excite, but the focus is on what he, or she, will do. By contrast, Obama provides a container for the aspirations of those whose own hopes have been suppressed, disappointed or diverted into narrowly self-interested pursuits.