ON A PRO-AMERICAN ENDORSEMENT

WAY TO GO

Yesterday, I cited a U.S. politician who said something that in my view is Un-American to the core, (especially following the recent campaign kerfuffle around Governor Sarah Palin's "Pro-America" comments). 

Today, I'd like to cite another, former U.S. politician, who said something that is profoundly pro-American.

I'm of course referring to the long-rumored endorsement of Barack Obama by Colin Powell, which was announced on "Meet the Press" today.

While the endorsement in itself is very good news to Obama supporters everywhere, what I particularly appreciated was Mr. Powell saying something that should have been said by an American leader a long time ago after those terrible days on 9/11/01.  Here's what I'm talking about:

"Powell also spoke passionately against the insinuations by some Republicans that Obama is a Muslim.

"Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian," he said. "But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America.

Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

For the record, I was glad that John McCain corrected a supporter at a rally in Minnesota who suggested that Obama was an Arab.  Here's a clip of the video if you missed that notable moment.

But I would have liked Senator McCain to have added that there's nothing wrong with Arab-Americans, just like there's nothing wrong with Italian Americans, Irish-Americans, or Americans that trace their origins to other nations, and hail from different religions and cultures.   And that it defines one of the unique attributes of being American and pro-American.

As I've stated in the past, just in the small world of technology that I spend most of my waking hours, we wouldn't have likely had some seminally American companies without Americans from places beyond our borders.

Examples abound of course, with folks like Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo! who was born in Taiwan, Pierre Omidyar, the co-founder of eBay, who was born in France to parents from Iran and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, who was born in the former Soviet Union to Russian parents.  Not to mention Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, whose biological father was an immigrant Arab from gasp, Syria.

Many of my fellow Republicans have lost their way after 9/11, on this issue of Americans from other places, and it's likely to cost us this November.

I know politics everywhere call for a glinty-eyed populism that absolutely necessitates pandering to the lowest common denominator of human emotions, especially in tough elections. 

But ultimately, we're all here for a cause much larger than ourselves.  The nation's long-term well-being and pre-eminence call for us being true to our unique ability to assimilate people from everywhere and anywhere into Americans. 

And it's time some of our politicians start to remind us of that.  Colin Powell's words in his endorsement made me proud to be his fellow Republican.

Comments

[Nikhil Garg]

Michael, I very much enjoy reading your business and technology analysis, but I must say that I find your political commentary to be truly insightful. Thanks from a devoted reader for discussing these critical issues!

[Dennis Chan]

Michael,

Amen. Well said.

[Question Asker]

What if the 7 year old Muslim who wants to be president takes seriously the notion that Muslims should try to establish sharia law in the nations in which they dwell?

Keep in mind that sharia law does NOT accept or provide for ideas like separation of church and state, equality of men and women, equality of Muslims and non-Muslims, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.

What would you think then?