Obama-Keyes - the New Lincoln-Douglas?

Alan Keyes' entry into the 2008 Presidential race raises the prospect of an noteworthy historical parallel (and also a religious revelation, since if one believes Keyes that he entered the race at the urging of Jesus Christ, then either Jesus is not aware of Keyes' dismal performance in the 2004 primaries - in which case he lacks omniscience - or Jesus simply endorses hopeless candidates - in which case he's probably a Democrat).

With Keyes joining Obama in the race, we have the possibility (however remote) of a general election with two candidates who had previously squared off in competition for an Illinois Senate seat. Thus 2004 and 2008 would resemble 1858 and 1860, when Abraham Lincoln narrowly lost a Senate race to Stephen Douglas only to beat him and several other candidates in the Presidential election two years later.

Unless Keyes wins the nomination of some third-party (e.g. Constitution or Conservative), the odds of a Keyes-Obama showdown are about the same as those of the Jets making the playoffs. Nonetheless, pondering a parallel to Lincoln-Douglas illustrates America's immense progress in human rights over the past 150 years. Whereas Douglas savaged Lincoln for suggesting that the preamble of the Declaration of Independence applied to blacks, we now have a black man seeking the Presidential nomination in both of our two major political parties (even if only one of them is a contender).

At the same time, the presence of Alan Keyes at Republican Presidential debates is a stark reminder that tolerance and respect for others in this country is far from universal. Though he's no Stephen Douglas, this is a man who not only champions opposition to gay marriage, but who defines homosexuality itself as "selfish hedonism." His eagerness to portray his every political move as carrying out the will of Jesus Christ - in 2004 he famously said that Jesus would not vote for Obama - is also disturbing. While Keyes wields far less influence within the Republican party than Douglas did within the Democratic party, Republicans still respect him enough to let him compete for a Senate seat in the fifth-largest state in the nation. At the September 17 2007 Values Voters Debate, he placed third in a straw poll of those in attendance. So clearly Keyes' outspoken views on topics such as homosexuality do have some support within the Republican party. That this critical institution of American politics can harbor such an intolerant figure (as the Democratic party harbored Douglas in the 1850s) suggests that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right of all citizens remains an idea with which our nation struggles.