The "first globals" are consumers, to be sure, but they are less likely to define the American dream in terms of materialism. They don't expect to live as well as their parents or grandparents did, but they consider personal fulfillment a top priority. Zogby believes the "first globals" are leading America to "a new age of inclusion and authenticity."
This sounds like wishful thinking, but it's based on Zogby Interactive's comprehensive polling system. Others have noticed this transformation.
So it isn't just time and death that is reducing the number of bigots and making America a more accepting society. There has been profound cultural change in the 40 years since the civil rights movement and the statutory end of "separate but equal." We're making progress. Obama is the latest sign of it.
But are we there yet?
"What else explains why this is even a close race?" a friend, who is black, said over lunch the other day. "After eight years of Bush, with the war, with the gas prices, with the economy going the way it is, what else would explain why John McCain is even close to Barack Obama in the polls?"
I had just described for him an e-mail I received - forwarded several times and ultimately from someone I know - that is one of the most blatantly racist I've seen this year, playing on bigoted stereotypes about the African-American work ethic. White bigots would find it funny. Everyone else would be offended by it. After seeing this garbage - and others that have come through the Internet - you can appreciate why a middle-age black man sitting in a restaurant in Baltimore would view the 2008 presidential election as a measure of the degree of racism in America.
But it's also a measure of our racial progress, though, for most of this extraordinary campaign year, that has not been the way Obama's candidacy was framed. Before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright episode, when Obama was forced to take on race with that phenomenal speech in Philadelphia, the primary-season debates had been all about the issues with which Americans should be most concerned - the cost of health care, energy policy, the war in Iraq - and not race. The war, the economy and health care are the things that should be on the minds of all Americans, no matter what their race or party affiliation, as the clock ticks toward November. Everything else is a sideshow.
"I think there's a silent longing for an American catharsis on race," my friend added. "Racial bigotry has been a long and strong and sad part of our nation's history. Many Americans want our country to grow up."
As for the bigots, my friend and I agreed: There isn't much you can do about them. The older ones, in particular, are not going to change. If the bigot you know forwards you a racist e-mail, you should respond by telling him or her that it's sick and stupid and should stop. Then hit the delete key. Do not forward these e-mails, even to friends as evidence of the evil lurking in our midst. Forwarding them just spreads the poison, and that's the last thing a country facing huge problems needs right now.
Dan Rodricks can be heard on "Midday" on Mondays through Thursdays, noon to 2 p.m., on 88.1 WYPR-FM.
