A Day Which Will Live in History

Today, Barak Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Over a million people gathered in Washington to see the historic event, and hundreds of millions more throughout the world watched the event on television, viewed it on streaming video over the Internet, or listened to it on the radio.

Some were drawn by the fact that Obama is the first black man elected to the highest office in America. Others were drawn to his message of hope and transformation. Still others were relieved and gladdened b the fact that George W. Bush's reign has finally ended (and I use that verb on purpose, since GWB is a proponent of the "imperial" presidency theory).

Personally, I did not watch the event. I had work to do and I knew that the airwaves would be filled with the recap this evening. I suppose I am also a bit more neutral towards Obama than many other Canadians. On the one hand, I appreciate his message and I fervently hope that he is able to move the United States in the direction outlined in his speeches and envisioned in the Constitution. On the other hand, I think people, especially people in other countries, may be disappointed.

People have compared Barak Obama to both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Lincoln truly was a great man, perhaps the only man who could have held the Union together at the time of the Civil War. He was also the President who suspended Habeas Corpus and the man who signed the Homestead Act, which opened up the West to widespread settlement by whites, thus ending the independence of the native societies of the Great Plains. Similarly, Kennedy was a strong defender of the post-war American "empire" who authorized attempted or actual military action and/or regime change in Cuba, South-East Asian, and, ironically enough, Iraq.

I guess my point is that as inclusive and as transformative as Barak Obama appears to be, he is still the head of an imperial power. Whether the rest of the world likes it or not, he will have to act in the best interests of his nation, which is the United States of America and not Canada, Kenya, members of the European Community, or any other entity.

I like the United States. As irritating and as arrogant as its self-anointed vision of itself as the "city on the hill" that inspires the world, I would rather live in a world where the United States of America aspires to be a model of a just society than a world where the United States is just another cynical power that bullies weaker nations and ignores international law.