I‘m with Jonah Goldberg. He writes:
He’s right. I went to the Inauguration yesterday to be a part of that history and I’m glad I made the effort. Two things stood out. As I walked from the TWS offices to Capitol, I had to pass through Washington’s infamous 3rd Street tunnel — where commuters headed to their homes in the District, Maryland and Virginia sometimes wait for hours in traffic before they truly begin their trip home. Yesterday, the tunnel was only open to pedestrians and emergency vehicles. When I entered at about 8:30am, it was nearly full — a sea of people mostly headed to the south side of the US Capitol. Among the crowd were three black males — and given the similarity of their looks, I took them to be three generations of the same family. I saw a grandfather old enough to have experienced the sting of real discrimination, a father old enough to know it and a grandson perhaps not even old enough to understand it. I caught only snippets of their conversation — from everyday chatter about the mundane to what sounded like a more meaningful discussion of race. Really, though, I didn’t need to hear what they were saying. Just their presence — on this, for this occasion — was deeply moving. So, too, was the view I had about two hours later. My seat was #45 in the Section Two (green) on the West Front of the Capitol. I was directly behind the military band — so close that I could read their sheet music — and maybe forty feet from the podium. (And perhaps forty rows in front of Oprah Winfrey, who obviously didn’t know the right people.) Given all that was in front of me — the band, the podium, row after row of congressmen and senators, the Capitol itself — it was ten minutes before I turned around. The view of the mall from the Capitol — which really is on a hill — was breathtaking. It certainly felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Sadly, the muffled boos and not-so-muffled songs mocking George W. Bush, his family and his team — offered a quick reminder that for all of the lofty rhetoric and for all of the meaningful scenes that passed our way yesterday, there is and always will be parts of our political world that lack class and even basic decency. Obama’s speech, too, took some political shots at his predecessors that were unnecessary and unworthy of the occasion. I am probably a bit less sanguine than Jonah about what this might mean for racial politics. Even today we hear complaints that Obama’s cabinet is not diverse enough. We hear that Hispanic interest groups wanted a more high-profile spot than Commerce Secretary for Bill Richardson before he dropped out and there is talk that Obama must nominate another Hispanic to replace him. Two years ago, members of the Congressional Black Caucus effectively banned newly-elected representative Steve Cohen from joining their ranks because he is white. And just three years ago, and despite his many public promises to move America beyond race, Obama himself cut a radio ad for the campaign to preserve racial preferences in Michigan. Obama’s inauguration is a powerful symbol in a debate where symbols can be very important. But if he truly wants to govern as a post-racial president, he’ll need to do things that won’t please some elements of his base.
