"For the first time, I'm stepping out of my pew because I've been inspired. I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America. Dr King dreamed the dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality" -Oprah Winfrey, inspiring 30,000 fans, December 9, 2007.
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"To renew American leadership in the world, we must immediately begin working to revitalize our military. A strong military is, more than anything, necessary to sustain peace....We should expand our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the army and 27,000 marines....We must also consider using military force in circumstances beyond self-defense in order to provide for the common security that underpins global stability -- to support friends, participate in stability and reconstruction operations, or confront mass atrocities." Barack Obama, reassuring the foreign policy establishment in their journal Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2007.
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And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.
-William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act IV, sc. 1
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Is it snobbish to doubt the political or educational value of Oprah's pep rallies? Or am I right in suspecting that this is just more entertainment-disguised-as-politics? More feel-good trigger words and inspiring happy talk lifted from corporate motivational seminars and religious tent revivals? More sound and fury signifying deception and, ironically, the cynical abandonment of progressive dreams?
Obama is not an empty vessel like Ronald Reagan or Dan Quayle. By all accounts, he is a very smart man. I deeply appreciate his strong stand against invading Iraq in 2002-2003, when it counted. I personally know people who worked with Obama on criminal justice issues when Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate and came away with a very positive impression. But if his dream is the same as Martin Luther King's dream...then why is he talking about expanding the US military, invading Pakistan, and taking no military options off the table in confronting Iran?
When I think of Obama, I remember Michael Ritchie's superb movie, the Candidate (1972), which was about a handsome public interest lawyer running a long-shot campaign for Senate (Robert Redford), who waters down and then abandons his progressive ideals as victory becomes possible and cynically appeals to the electorate based on his own charisma.
The film highlights many criticisms of modern day American politics, such as the importance of money and the emphasis on the image of political candidates. In particular, the degeneration of McKay from an idealistic public-interest lawyer working for unpopular and then-little-known causes (the young environmentalist movement, civil rights for Latinos, integration through busing) and strong opinions on all issues into a construct of his campaign, dominated by idiotic little slogans.