Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Editorials: Political maturity of voters
AFTER more than two centuries of United States independence, change in the American political attitude and outlook appears to be in the making.
All indications point to a change in leadership, not just in political party—from Republicans to Democrats—but also in racial orientation—from black to Caucasian.
This imbues not only deep historical significance on the American population, which is a racial melting pot, but is also a demonstration of the human “collusion of hope” done in freedom and expression of individual will.
The phenomenon is certainly the first in US history, and perhaps in the world, attained without violence and bloodshed.
Turnaround
Note that since the declaration of American independence early in the last quarter of the 18th century, nobody envisioned that a black American president would ascend the steps of the White House in Washington, D.C.
American historians point out that at the close of the 1865 US civil war, only one out of every three newly freed black slaves were granted the right to vote,.
In other words, the early Americans accepted the blacks as only one-third of a human being in the matter of political rights.
More than two centuries and three decades later, the unexpected great American turnaround happened.
No one, but no one, ever thought that an American black, more than an American woman, would sit as president of the world’s most powerful nation.
Maturity
Anyway, the Barack Obama-John McCain presidential tussle that ended in the US polling booths starting yesterday, also ended an election campaign “amid mounting fears of a record turnout” that would “overload the voting system, sparking a ballot-box meltdown…And an onslaught of dirty tricks—confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps…to keep people from voting.”
It is, however, a scenario that is not new since similar tricks have been used in the past elections of our country.
Nevertheless, the possible election of Senator Obama to the White House points to the political maturity of the American electorate, a circumstance that Filipinos still have a long way to attain.
