Rodriguez on Barack

Greg Rodriguez says that an Obama presidency would likely spell the end of the civil-rights paradigm that has dominated race relations since, well, the civil rights era. This comparison seems particularly relevant. 

It means that Obama is broader than one demographic category. Something similar happened when the very Irish Al Smith became governor of New York in 1918 and the famously Catholic John F. Kennedy entered the White House in 1960. While never forgetting his ethnic base, Smith broadened his outlook and appeal. JFK did the same with Catholics. Smith became Irish-plus; Kennedy was Catholic and a whole lot more. In their cases, their white ethnic and religious identities melded into the broader category of whiteness, and in some ways, they carried their groups with them into the larger whole.