Obama, the Post-Modern Candidate?

A debate on the Canadian talk show The Michael Coren Show on January 7th discussed a foreign perspective on the recent success of Democratic Candidate Barak Obama and the change in perception of children of immigrants in the larger political sphere in North America. Obama was seen not as an African-American campaigning on African-American issues, but more of what they called a "colourless" candidate campaigning on issues of the status quo. The success of Obama really comes from the fact that someone who's parent is an immigrant can make such progress in their life as to become president of their adopted nation. In a nation where immigration is often tied into issues surrounding the failing economy and terrorism, Mr. Obama has gone beyond prejudices of origin, ethnicity and status in the United States to become the most likely candidate for the presidency. In a country with a strong history of societal divisions throughout its history, this election has gone beyond electing the first African-American or first woman in the US (It already happened this year in Chile and Argentina, why not the US?) and moved towards who is the best person to clean up 8 years of damage from the Bush era.

The open minded approach to these candidates could be the reflection of a post-modern image of how immigrants fit into society. In the article "The Great Canadian Identity Crisis" by Scott Carpenter, Canadian's are seen as essentially being "Not" Americans, which leaves the question, how can you "Not" be a post-modern version of an American if the American itself is in the process of removing barriers to its own past? The article was responded to in the blog Roccodg.com, where the author and the responses on the blog detailed essentially how historic identities no longer exist, but in addition that this is more of an urban creation where many people have their origin in other countries due to immigration. In response, Canadians do have regional identities, but for many immigrant families like Obama's, they are able to live in freedom within the constraints of their society. This lack of obligation to adapt may have manifested itself with Obama, where the traditional obligations to run based on your heritage and background appears to not have constrained Obama as he is able to have the complete freedom to be whoever he wants to be in the eyes of the American public. This ability rarely existed amongst locals or immigrants and is certainly the result of a post-modern candidate from a society which has not restricted his identity as an immigrant nor as an American, but as simply let him grow as a person.