Taxman Features
From tonight, America no longer dines in hell
Four years ago, we, here at The Taxman, woke up to a nightmare. Tonight, we dare to dream.
In eight years, the bounty of hope and expectation at the start of this century has been systematically and comprehensively destroyed by a series of catastrophic events if not all directly caused by the presidency of George W. Bush than at least inextricably linked to his reactionary, reckless and blinkered conservative policies.
These collective catastrophes have taken the world - for while it pains us to admit it, today America really is the most important piece in this planet's complex jigsaw - to the very brink of social, economic and environmental collapse. While the second election of Bush was an incomprehensible and disastrous occasion, it allowed for something truly remarkable and historic to occur four years later.
Although Barack Hussein Obama is by no means the answer to all the world's innumerable ills, he is extremely capable of reversing the trends that have taken us to this dark and dangerous place. A wounded country is embracing a man who has promised the hope and change they now so desperately seek.
And while much has been said of Mr Obama in the last few months, it all means nothing now. The billions spent on campaigning, the speeches, the revelations - they don't matter. Everything he has said and done in the last 21 months has been carefully orchestrated to win the keys to the White House. For The Taxman remembers that day in February 2007 when Obama announced his campaign, a day when the end of Bush's nightmare world seemed light-years away.
The fact that, since then, he has beaten the political machine of Hillary Clinton - who's claim to the crown was as presumptuous and expectant as the eldest son of a dying King - and overcome the dirty tricks of the Republican party is a huge achievement in itself. But the clues to who Obama really is, and the kind of president he will become, cannot be found within the archives of his campaign.
So what that he spent more than any other election candidate in history? So what that he broadcast half-hour adverts, prostituted himself to celebrity endorsement and religious fervour or shook the hand of capitalist gluttony? Obama is a supremely intelligent man, and has simply done what needed to be.
Because prior to his campaign - in which pimping to the still largely insular and brutish American masses is a pre-requisite for victory - Obama gave a blueprint for a brighter future. His voting record and his speeches showed him to be a genuine, considered and commendable human being. That the office of the most important job in the world is now to be occupied by a man with such qualities is hugely significant. It hasn't happened for decades, if ever. The inexperience so frequently cited as a weakness, is in this case a massive benefit. For Obama's short time spent in the senate makes him less likely to have been corrupted by its machinations.
The result of this election does not mean that all will now be fine and well. It simply means that a way out of this dark hole is eminently possible. A route to a fair and free world has been lit. Now it is up to Obama to lead us there.
Dare we dream? After such a hellish period in time, you can't blame us.
Other Features...
- 2008-04-07: Law-abiding citizens can be arseholes too
- 2007-09-05: The man who killed himself
- 2007-06-19: An ode to Tony Blair
- 2007-01-21: RIP democracy
- 2005-10-19: Spot the terrorist!
- 2005-09-22: Global warming: now we're all losing our cool
