Sheldon Richman on Black Tuesday
November 8, 2008 – 12:35 pm by JohnI wish I had seen Sheldon Richman’s thoughts about America’s election of a black man to its highest and most vaunted position before I wrote my last post, because I think his take on it (and Wil Wilkinson’s, whom he quotes) matches mine more closely than does Lew’s, which, if not exactly more narrow, had a different point. Here’s what Richman wrote:
In light of our racial history and leaving aside political philosophy, I am overjoyed at what Barack Obama’s election means. I cannot put it better than Will Wilkinson did at The Fly Bottle, “It means something profound that a black man was elected to the most visible, high-status position our society offers. The mere fact that Obama won truly does make our society a better place.” I also share Wilkinson’s reservations. In a truly free society, the presidency would not be the most visible high-status position our society offers. That designation would be reserved for a variety of private-sector roles. Unfortunately, however, the presidency does have that status today, and Obama’s election must be appreciated from that perspective. Relatedly, I am uneasy about, though understanding of, the public displays that followed John McCain’s concession Tuesday night. Again, Wilkinson: “[F]rankly, I hope never to see again streets thronging with people chanting the victorious leader’s name.” Amen.
Richman concurs with Rockwell when he says, “In a truly free society, the presidency would not be the most visible high-status position our society offers. That designation would be reserved for a variety of private-sector roles.” But I thought the most important thought in there, which Lew did not mention explicitly and which I also failed to bring up on this page despite being very aware of its truth, was this: “Unfortunately, however, the presidency does have that status today, and Obama’s election must be appreciated from that perspective.”
The two purposes of Lew’s entire article were to point out that production and exchange (commerce) are much better measures of a man—or that man’s race, for that matter—than his success as a professional criminal, and to point out that this supposed breaking of a racial barrier by becoming the most powerful man in the world will actually create more strife and discord than voluntary cooperation and trade (private-sector achievement) would. I think Richman is right that, when viewed from the perspective of Statist America’s beliefs and values, Obama’s position as the majority’s most respected and vaunted individual is meaningful and important.
