The Trouble With Hope

I arrived back in Jordan late, late Saturday night after a day of uneventful flights and travel, uneventful being the operative word, and the wish my friend Anne always offers. If you have read the blog entries, you know it was a delightful spring break. Long will I remember the joy at reconnecting with Stephanie, Adam K, Marlene, John P, Cristina, and the many others that filled my days and nights with good food and discourse. There is never enough time on these breaks, and the next time I go westward ho I must see Dawn, and Debbie, and Linda, and Flavia, and Meg, and Polly, and the Celentanos—okay, I concede: there must be more time for more food and discourse!!

I realize that in all these months of blogging, I have not always heeded the words of the sage: In mixed company never discuss religion or politics. Of course, living this adventure in the Middle East renders that dictum pretty impossible. Yet up until now I haven’t found it really worthwhile to discuss American domestic politics. I mean—has anyone not been satiated by the endless talking heads and advertisements for a race that is still six months away? But it seems to me that in this week of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries (and continued murky Democratic-nomination politics) I should weigh in with my two dinars worth (by the way, the market value of those two dinars is just under $3).

My friends in Jordan believe that it has been at least a generation since a United States presidential election had more bearing on the Middle East—so many of them are focused on the race. While in America the campaigns may have shifted primarily to domestic issues, whether Americans realize it or not, the Middle East (well, I cannot speak for the whole region—I will qualify it with the people that I know in Jordan) is focused on how a new president will navigate the waters over the conflict in Iraq, the deteriorating situation in Palestine and the growing tension with Iran. Some candidates have openly talked of “Islamo-fascism,” and naturally Jordanians worry about how that sound-bite pollutes political discourse and exacerbates the so-called “clash of civilizations.” One friend marvels at how Hillary Clinton has changed since she became a senator from New York in 2000: “She used to talk of a Palestinian state in the 1990s, but now she has a strident pro-Israel position—I guess it is necessary as a senator from New York.”

Since the beginning of the heated races Barack Obama’s message of unity that transcends race and class has resonated with many here—in point of fact, almost all the people I have met in Jordan have expressed a deep hope that he will win the race to the White House. A colleague said, “If Middle Eastern Arabs wake up the day after the election in November and see Obama as President of the United States, all of them know that this would send a very different message about America. This is the America that they have dreamed of.” As I canvass these new friends of mine, many say things like, ‘Can an African-American son of a Muslim really win in America? Can he really win?’

At a party I attended in New York around New Years’ the crowd gathered around the sliced ham started buzzing about Barack Obama. A guest said he’d heard Obama speak and was blown away; Obama had a spark, he said, a charisma, that he hadn’t seen in a presidential candidate “since the Kennedys.” Yes, several other guests chimed in. Obama really might give Hillary Clinton a run for her money! All of these admirers, as it happens, were white. At another event, another friend, a black man, shook his head when I asked his opinion. “It’ll never happen,” said the older friend who had lived through the civil-rights years. Whites, he said, might admire Obama, but in the privacy of the voting booth, most of them would never pull the lever for a black man—not for President.

Is he right? In the beginning of the primary season it seemed that Obama’s race was inconsequential. In New Hampshire, a state he did not capture, polls still showed Obama with about 36% of the vote in a very white state. Would voters judge him by his ideas, his experience, and yes, by the content of his character? We were especially interested in watching the primary races here at KA after Chip Carter had visited us in December. This son of a former Democratic president said he was going to be working for the Obama campaign. Carter had explained why he felt Obama was the best candidate for the United States and indeed the world. Many of the students got very excited about what the prospect of this election might mean for the United States and also for Middle Eastern Arabs. One student, Jadallah, said he saw this as a “turning point some Americans thought they’d never see.” Jadallah wished that he were American “so I could vote for Obama.” Indeed, as I interview prospective students to KA, if I ask them about American politics, and I often do, these young people are just as captivated by Barack Obama and his campaign banner of hope as many of the American youth.

Of course this historical turning point has indeed come. With the presidential candidacy of Senator Obama putting renewed focus on the legacy of racism, as it is viewed by Americans both black and white, the 2008 campaign serves as a healthy reminder that separate drinking fountains, to cite one shameful practice, are just a generation or two in the past.

But it is not the “race card” that mesmerizes the Jordanians and galvanizes them behind Obama—it has been his solid discussion about the diplomacy on issues they care most about, his rhetoric about Iran, about Syria, and about the thorny Israeli-Palestinian issue. One friend lit up as she talked about Obama’s hopes and plans for “two states” and how Obama pledged to be personally involved to make it happen. She said: “Obama used an interesting expression, saying ‘achieving a two state solution and a secure Israel and a viable Palestinian state is important to American Jews, important to Arab Americans, and important to me.’”

However, as we all know, Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright has come out swinging time and time again in the last month, imperiling Obama’s campaign. Obama framed his Rev. Wright problem in the context of America’s unfinished work toward a “more perfect union,” as envisioned by the nation’s founders. As we have all seen, Obama has had a hard couple of weeks, and if Obama sinks, millions of young voters, and people around the world will be heartbroken and bitter.

Does that matter? Let’s look at this America that many Jordanians hope will come to pass—an America with a President Barack Obama. With Obama in power, it would become— at least, initially—more difficult for Europeans, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, South Americans to denounce America as happens daily in the world press. The best America for the world is a confident America—an America that sheds its culture of fear and rediscovers the roots of its culture of hope. This is Obama’s America. There is an opening line in a Langston Hughes poem that goes, “Oh, let America be America again.”

Obama stirs that hope in many people. People around the world know that the United States is indispensable. Of course the greater your expectations are, the greater the risk of disappointment. Is it a risk worth taking? These people I have met in Jordan hope that Americans will take that risk. That is why many of them follow this election with passionate interest. With such hype of hope, must the audacious bubble burst?