Changing face of history

FORTY years back from now nobody dreamt to have an African-American elected as the President of the United States of America where majority population is white. The dream of civil rights movement architect, Martin Luther King Jr saw the light of the day when Americans voted African-American Barack Hussein Obama as 44th President of America on November 4. Thus, electing the first African-American as President by the people of America irrespective of caste, creed and color marked a profound change of direction in America and the world at large.
Barrack Obama emerged as young and charismatic leader when he gave a key note speech at the convention of the Democratic Party in Boston in 2004. During the last one year and eleven months the democratic party's nominees, particularly Barack Obama, have created movement in the country and inspired the younger generation within the age group of 18-29 years, and mobilized African-American and Latino communities to come to vote for a change from suffocating and distrustful environment created by President George W. Bush and the Republican Party.
The country has been passing through very difficult days in its history following the economic meltdown which many analysts argued akin to great depression of 1929-1940. The country saw biggest budget coupled with trade deficits during the reign of George W. Bush of the Republican Party when, in fact, it inherited a surplus budget from the Democratic President Bill Clinton in 2001. Millions of Americans are about to lose their homes because of foreclosure and millions are on the verge of losing their jobs as a result of economic meltdown. On top of these, the country has lost its image abroad because of two unproductive wars, scandal in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and holding suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay for an indefinite period without a fair trial, and spying on Americans.
Being frustrated by wrong policies of the Republican administration voters, who are by and large indifferent towards Presidential and Congressional elections, rushed in massive numbers to cast their ballots. The young, old and disabled alike flocked to the polling stations early in the morning to register their protests against the most unpopular regime in American history. I was witnessing the scenario from the precinct of George Marshall High School in Fall Charge where I was on election duty. This trend reflected that they were hungry for change in the country to get rid of the Republican Party from power. My wife was in the queue in the morning for about one hour and a half and many voters waited braving rains in the afternoon to cast their ballots.
During campaign I saw unprecedented enthusiasm among young and old volunteers alike. This I witnessed every time visiting Obama's Falls Church office and Senator elect Mark Warner's office in Alexandria confirmed my feeling that the country was agog with enthusiasm and passion for a fundamental change propagated by Obama during one year and eleven months in conducting affairs of the country which became morbid during the rule of the Republican party.
I happened to meet in Alexandria a couple from Pakistan who claimed to be the grand daughter and daughter in law of Dr. Mahmud Hassan, former Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University. The couple were among hundreds volunteers campaigning door to door, phone banking and distributing literatures. The enthusiasm was so much that hundreds of young and old men and women waited in the big park in Manassas for six hours on the eve of election day to listen to Obama who was on his last day campaigning in the country. His arrival was delayed from North Carolina where he received shocking death news of his grandmother aged 85. According to Washington Post, 95000 people turned out in the rally. The visit to Virginia possibly helped Obama to win the battle ground state Democrats for the in 44 years.
The Democratic party's presidential candidate got majority votes in 1964 from Virginia when the voting rights Act was passed. Again this year two Senate seats went to the Democratic party, including the one by Mark Warner who pulled the highest number of votes in this election defeating the Republican nominee. Virginia now turned out to be blue state where Democratic Party maintains domination.
An estimated 128.5 million voters cast their votes. Exact figure will be released on December 10. Democrats won 248 seats in the House of Representatives out of 435 and the Senate gained three more Democratic Senators giving the Democratic party majority in both chambers of the United States Congress. In the Senate, Democratic Party has now 57 out of 100 seats.
I would like to conclude this piece by quoting editorial comments by Falls Church News Press: "There was never any sign that the momentum of the campaign might wane or burn out. There was a level of gravity and resolve that went far deeper than euphoria or cheerleading that was perceptible in the massive collective effort that has changed the face of history".

Mohammad Amjad Hossain, a former Bangladesh diplomat, writes from Virginia.