Cathartic qualities of the US presidential elections

The letter from NYC

The first association when we say "America" is the American Dream, which every newcomer harbors and which its old citizens try to live (though with increasing difficulty). Americans, unlike other westerners, are not ashamed of their dreams, especially not the American one. What would be left of America if it were dispossessed of the myth? Still, on November 4, when the American dream of equality came true, most Americans, or at least those who voted for Obama, suddenly wondered whether it had really happened. As Thomas Friedman wrote in New York Times, on that day, after 147 years, a civil war ended. On the "new day", some sought a confirmation that it was not a dream and that Barack Hussein Obama did really become the first African American president of the United States. A confirmation that there was a sufficient number of white voters who elected a president that was not a Caucasian. That, finally, Martin Luther King's dream, which cost him his life in his America, finally came true. That on November 4 America became the Second America, i.e. the First one, founded on equal opportunities for all. That in the new America on that day, the Americans were lost for words to explain to their children why they were crying, while the world saw Jesse Jackson's tears and tears of Martin Luther King's family.
In the same America, on November 5, the newspapers, shop windows and billboards were covered in titles: We are Ready to Believe Again, We Have Won, Yes, We Did (in response to Obama's election slogan "Yes, We Can"). Strangers (for the first time after 9/11, but on a happy occasion this time) approached one another in the street, saying they had to pinch themselves to see it was not only a dream.

If the optimism of the masses had wandered off into messianism, it was not Obama's fault. Hope is useful psychologically, emotionally and socially, but it should be managed carefully (because of the danger that real plans may end in disillusionment). This was recently epitomized by an eight-year old Latino American, who said he would be "the first American Latino president". But Obama is neither American nor global Messiah, nor an economic shaman, and this, as he said so many times in his campaign, is the biggest crisis after the Great Depression.
During his campaign, Obama never acted as an African American, but proceeded as

someone who had a good program for the country. (If someone attacks you as a Jew or African American, Hannah Arendt wrote, you must defend yourself as a Jew/African American, and not as an American, citizen of the world or human rights advocate. And vice versa, Obama earned this victory due to his obvious qualities, and not because of any positive historical discrimination, as some have suggested.). As someone noted, US elections brought victory for the more deserving candidate (meritocracy), who proved to be: more intelligent (not only politically), more creative, closer to political ideals of American citizens, more convincing, with quicker political reflexes, more cool-headed (without below-the-belt punches or a negative campaign). Obama's victory was elegant, calm, almost nonchalant: he was the second democrat (after Franklin Roosevelt) to have attracted more than 51% of the electorate. He entered the White House
		Leon Bakst, - , -

with support that only Ronald Regan had; he won majority in every age group, except for those over 65 (but attracted 66% of young voters), and these elections saw the highest voter turnout recorded since 1908.
For everything to be "historic" at that moment, even the current president George W. Bush gave a "historic statement", saying that "all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday". Some other Americans said that, despite Bush's legacy, "History is with us once again" and "America belongs to Americans again". Others that today live or travel around the globe say they are no longer embarrassed to admit they are Americans. They have regained the self-esteem that was lost when America took many unpopular steps and placed itself in self-isolation: its "allies" followed it unwillingly, by historical inertia, out of pragmatic necessity and - ever more unwillingly.