The Color of the Flag and the Color of the Skin
// America elects a new president
Today the results from the U.S. presidential elections become known. Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are fighting for the White House. Kommersant special correspondent Mikhail Zygar spent several days with the candidates and their supporters and came to the conclusion that a real revolution has taken place in the United States.
What Is This, The Soviet Union?
On the last weekend before the elections, the battle for the presidency was fought in several important states. In most parts of America, the battle was already over, so the candidates concentrated on Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and, of course, Virginia.
Virginia is especially important because it has voted for Republicans for the last 44 years, but now, surveys show, it is ready to vote for Obama. Moreover, an Obama victory in Virginia could be the decisive vote in his victory. I traveled to Virginia to see if Americans were really ready to give preference to dark-skinned Barack Obama over white John McCain for president.
The stadium at the school in Glen Allen, a suburb of Richmond, is small. Just 500 people fit into the grandstands. Tickets cost $5. The problem is that vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be standing with her back to the grandstands. It is customary for orators to stand facing the camera in America, with the cheering crowd behind them. Another 1500 people were on the football field. Admission there was free. I do not take a seat in the fenced-off area for the press, but go down onto the field with the crowd. I am given a sign that reads “Country first,” the main motto of the McCain-Palin campaign.
There are many elderly people. They are all white and their faces are rather angry looking. That was probably because it was cold, and the meeting had been moved from 6:30 to 9:00.
Finally, the MC comes out and begins to rile up the public.
“The liberal press is writing that the outcome of the elections is predetermined. That we’ve already lost and Barack Obama is already president. Do you believe that?”
“No!” the stadium answers angrily.
“They write that our votes don’t mean anything. That voting itself is just a formality. That Barack Obama has already appointed a new White House staff.”
“What is this, the Soviet Union?” a bearded man in camouflage grows nearby.
“And another thing. Barack Obama has decided to change the design of the American flag. It’s too red, white and blue for him!”
A woman carrying a sign that read “I vote for vet and mommy, not socialist and commie” was pushing her way onto the stage. Just to be sure, I ask the people next to me, Charlie and Jill, who are the socialist and communist.
“Barack Obama, of course. And that’s why we’re against him. We’re the working class. He wants to take money from those who work and give it to those who don’t work. He’s a real communist!”
Their anger was genuine.
Now three veterans were on stage. They were introduced as John McCain’s cellmates when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Next come the former governor and attorney general of Virginia. They both say the same thing: Barack Obama wants to redistribute the wealth and take money away from people who work, he wants to maintain America’s dependence on foreign oil and weaken the American army.
My neighbor raises a sign that reads “less money for the army today, a Russian invasion tomorrow.” “Obama and Osama are one and the same,” yells the bearded man.
And then, to the accompaniment of ceremonial music, Sarah Palin takes the stage. She delivers a long and emotional speech that cannot be paraphrased. People begin leaving before she is finished.
“Well, we saw her, we can go,” the bearded man says businesslike to his wife. “Otherwise we’ll get in a traffic jam.”
The Former Opponent
About 50 events per campaign day are held in support of Barack Obama. Anyone who wants to can think up their own event and invite people to it through the candidate’s official website.
I go to Arlington to a meeting of volunteers at a call canter. There, 30 gather, mainly elderly white people. Liza, the instructor, explains that they will receive a list of undecided voters to call. If no one picks up the phone, they should leave a message on the answering machine. If they encounter a McCain supporter, they should tactfully try to sway the voter. They are asked to study a sheet with a comparative analysis of the candidates’ positions for that purpose. The volunteers not only work for free, they use their own cellular telephones.
While the older Obama supporters worked on the telephones, the youth went from house to house. A meeting of activists takes place at the home of George and Christine Lively in Fairfax. George gives everyone fliers, stickers and a list of addresses to visit. When they found out that I was from Russia, they thanked me for my interest in American democracy.
Since I did not have a car, I could not go house to house. The only places that needed to be visited were parts of the state that were inaccessible on foot. Instead, a pair of African Americans, a venerable-looking white woman and I were assigned to hand out leaflets at a supermarket.
There I discovered that Hillary Clinton was campaigning for Barack Obama not far away from there. She was appearing before the students of George Mason University. I go there.
“And now, a great woman whom we all admire will speak to you,” said a young African American, the president of the student council. “A woman who has made great efforts so that Barack Obama can become president! Ladies and gentlemen, Hillary Clinton!”
Barack Obama’s former opponent was not the least bit embarrassed by that introduction. She spoke with wit and passion for half an hour about how she longs to see Obama president.
“John McCain and his people lied when they tried to use my words against my friend Barack,” she said. “My name is Hillary Clinton and I officially state that I want, with all my soul, for Barack Obama to become president of the United States of America!”
The students sighed delightedly.
“Why did the presenter joke so cruelly that Hillary had done so much for Obama’s victory?” I ask Simon, a student wearing a T-shirt with a portrait of the Democratic candidate on it.
“If it weren’t for Hillary, Obama really wouldn’t become president,” Simon explained. “Everyone was enraged that she considered herself the sure democratic candidate. They didn’t even ask the voters. They decided for us. Like in a monarchy: the Bush family, then the Clinton family. Everything decided in advance. You know what I mean?”
“In Russia, we call that Operation Successor.”
“Yeah? Any way, it was their arrogance that drove people to Obama.”
Fired Up!
The evening before the elections, Barack Obama held his last meeting in Virginia. I went to the small town of Manassas. There were traffic jams for miles around it, as though the whole state were heading to Manassas.
Obama’s meeting was not in a stadium or on a campus, but in an open field. And it was full of people – 100,000-150,000 people. Music is pouring out of speakers and they are dancing.
There is everyone in the crowd – blacks, whites, Arabs, Asians, retired people, businessmen in suits, soldiers on crutches, young mothers with babes in arms, school children in uniforms. They whisper that Obama might be late, or he might not come at all. His grandmother just died. He is almost not late at all.
Obama begins to speak, but the crowd does not let him. “Obama! Obama!” the gigantic crowd chants. I look at their faces and remember the last time I saw a crowd of this sort. It was in Kiev in 2004 on the Maidan. But there were fewer people there.
Obama begins to speak about change, about how the bankrupt policies of Bush cannot be continued, and John McCain is a fine person, but a follower of Bush in economics.
“I want to tell you the one most important word. Tomorrow,” Obama says, and the crowd roars. “Tomorrow our time will come. Eight months ago, none of us could imagine what is going on here today. At the very beginning of the election campaign, I asked you to believe. To believe not only that I can change something in Washington, but that you can too.”
“Yes, we can! Yes, we can!” they chant.
Eight months ago, the crowd was sure that the election would be between Hillary Clinton and John McCain, the successors to former presidents. Then these people made a revolution. In another situation, you could call it a color revolution, but in this situation, it could probably be called a black and white revolution.
At the end of his speech, Barack Obama lowered the pathos level and told a story about coming to a meeting of voters in North Carolina. For a long time, no one paid attention to him there because everyone was standing with their backs to the wall listening to an old lady shouting “Are you fired up?” and they answered in chorus “We are fired up.” “Are you ready to go?” she shouted. “Yes, we are ready to go.”
“One vote can change the world,” the candidate concluded. “And I can tell you. I am fired up. I am ready to go. Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?”
The results of the election will be known today. But regardless of it, thousand of Barack Obama supporters are fired up and ready to go.
Mikhail Zygar, Glen Allen – Arlington – Manassas
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 05, 2008
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