It's OK to Believe!

I truly believe the key to Barack Obama winning SC, is telling people that "It's OK to Believe!" Read an article in USA Today online, in which a black woman named Maggie Melvin in SC said that she "yearned" to vote for Barack Obama but was afraid to. Maggie feels that white people won't vote for a black man once they get behind the voting curtain, so she says she is voting for who she believes is the safer choice. I'm sure the stunning results from NH led her to believe that. Maggie believes that white people are saying one thing to pollsters, and then betraying those words when they get into the booth, because of their racism. This makes me sad. Sad to think that that could be true - although I think that that is not what happened in NH - and sad that there is a segment of our society that feels so discriminated against that they believe Barack Obama can't win because he shares the color of their skin.

I'm not naive, I know that there is still very naked and also hidden racial prejudice in America, but we continue to move in a progressive pattern in this country, on all issues, over time. We have gay marriage in Massachusetts, which was voted into law under the State's first black Governor, Deval Patrick. We have a black man and a woman running neck and neck for the Democratic Party's nomination for President - with a white man running a distant third. We have retained a woman's right to choose, despite numerous attempts to overturn it under several Republican administrations, since 1973. No matter how much the Conservatives of this country try and "conserve" the status quo, we are marching forward.

I believe that in my lifetime, I will see a black president, a woman president, probably a black woman president. I will see gay marriage signed into law across this country. My grandkids will probably have to learn Spanish in school, as it will likely become our second language. I know to some this is a nightmare vision of the future, but I'll bet the world we live in today, with its plethora of choices, women in the workplace, openly gay citizens, voting rights for all, etc. was probably the nightmare vision of the future that horrified the Conservatives 100 years ago. And you know what? It turned out all right. Sure, we have a slew of problems that go along with progress - but they had a slew of problems 100 years ago, too. Society will never be perfect, but it can be more fair. And that is a value that progressives cherish, and work for.

To Maggie Melvin of SC, I want to say: people in NH weren't telling pollsters they'd vote for Barack and then getting in the booth and voting for a white candidate. Blatant racists are, unfortunately, not afraid to say so. And the closeted ones aren't going to say they'd vote for Barack (to make themselves look good?) and secretly not vote for him because of his skin color. Closeted racists simply say "I really prefer John Edwards." Or Mitt Romney. Or anyone else with a white face.

What DID happen in NH was the media had christened Obama the double-digit winner, and then Hillary cried. I'm sure John Edwards' insensitive, vaguely sexist response to Hillary crying didn't help matters, either. Women told me over and over again as I canvassed on Primary day - especially middle-aged women - that they were all for Obama until the day before, and then they suddenly felt sorry for Hillary when she cried. They felt like the men were beating up on her. They said they identified with her as a woman trying to do everything and not getting the desired result. They were often apologetic, saying "I really LIKE Obama, I think he was the better choice, but I just really identified with Hillary." Many said the media made them feel like she was going to be handed a drubbing, and many of the women I talked to said they figured Obama would win anyway based on the polls, so they cast a vote for Hillary as a more or less pity vote, thinking it would at least make her loss less of a landslide.

The exit polls confirm there was a 15% shift in middle aged women who said before the polls that they were Obama voters and admitted to voting for Hillary after the election. In this case, the very polls designed to gauge the outcome of the election seem to have had a hand in determining the actual outcome. It was a confluence of unforeseen events.

To Maggie Melvin, and those like her who are afraid to vote for Barack Obama because you think white society won't vote for him, I say, "It's OK to Believe!" First of all, white people are voting for him - overwhelmingly. Not only did he win in Iowa where 95-96% of the population is white, but in the exit polls in NH, the only category of voters he didn't win was middle-aged women. Again, in a nearly white population, all other voters were overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. But that's not the main point. The main point is that if people who want to vote for Barack don't because they don't believe he can win - he WON'T. The very people who "yearn" to vote for him MUST. If these voters don't believe he can win and don't vote for him, they could be the very stumbling block that prevents his win. That's irony. So, to all the Maggie Melvin's out there, the rest of us who DO believe implore you to believe, too. Vote for who you WANT to win, and he can become the one who WILL win. It's OK to believe - in yourself, and in your dreams. This can happen now.