Reclaiming the American Dream?

national | politics / elections | event notice Monday September 08, 2008 22:39 by Pauline Hadaway - The Belfast Salon info at belfastsalon dot org

The New York Salon meets the Belfast Salon to interrogate the Obama phenomenon.

Join the Belfast Salon's September conversation and get the autumn off to a lively start with an evening of debate and politics in stimulating company.

Tuesday 16 September at 7 pm

Upstairs at the Spaniard, Skipper Street, Belfast

Up for debate: the US election, the Obama phenomenon and the politics of life style and identity.

The discussion will be lead by Jean Smith, convener of the New York Salon: http://nysalon.org/salonoverviews

Barack Obama argues that his personal background and bipartisan approach to politics makes him uniquely qualified to bring the American people together. Representing himself as the embodiment of the American Dream and a man the American people can trust - he loves his country and his family, respects his neighbors, believes in God, and will follow through on his promises. Can a victory for Obama help America out of its political apathy and revive US democracy?

Seeing him in the tradition of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr, supporters argue that the very fact that an African-American man has been chosen as the Democratic Party candidate for president is evidence of the dawn of a new era of change, but does the rise of Obama really mean that old divisions along racial lines in the US are no longer relevant? And to what extent is the Obama phenomenon new or simply a continuation of the old?

Black identity: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121945267454865513.html

Jesse Jackson and Obama: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121668579909472083.html

Politicisation of lifestyle: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5301/

Post-racial politicians: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/10/race.politics

Obama as the outcome of the struggle for equality:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/opinion/07herbert.htm...login