I was out on a work appointment, so I just got back in and had the chance to read Obama's speech. I'm still crying, and I haven't finished the speech yet. While I will finish it later, I already know that, to borrow a phrase from rival candidate, Obama crossed a threshold today.
He didn't cross some stupid "CIC threshold" that somehow validates his ability to bomb people on the other side of the planet. He crossed 3 much more difficult and a much more important thresholds. He crossed the threshold of vision, the threshold of leadership, and the threshold of common citizenship.
Our country's ethnic diversity sets us aside from all other nations. No other country, especially one this large, encompasses as many races, creeds, and divergent backgrounds. W/ all due respect to Pat Buchanan and to Lou Dobbs, whether or not we will have such diversity was settled long ago. The question that is now on the floor is what we will do about it.
We can choose to view this diversity as a handicap, and we can drown our society in a tide of nativist jingoism. Or, we can view this diversity as a strength, and we can truly live out the term e pluribus unum. We can take the many and become one. Obama showed today which of these choices he has made.
Our country is visibly at a crossroads today. Our economy has slid into a recession, and the possibility exists that something worse may still be on the horizon. A war that should never been initiated will "celebrate" its 5th anniversary shortly, and no end to the death and the destruction is currently in sight. Decisions will likely be made in this campaign whose consequences will be felt for years to come.
A core philosophical decision we will have to make is whether we wish to start to weave together our disparate threads or whether we wish to continue the process of atomization. As Benjamin Franklin said in 1776, we can hang together, for, if we do not, we shall surely hang separately. While the contemporary concept of "hanging separately" is more metaphorical for us now than it was for the patriots then, we should not fool ourselves about what will happen to this 220 year experiment in constitutional self-government if our current course is not materially altered.
While Obama's speech has considerable meaning to it, its greatest meaning comes from its origination. It did not, as is virtually the norm these days, come as a result of polling or focus groups. It clearly came from the candidate himself. Obama drew on his education, his experience, and his vision of this land to deliver words that will be remembered long after this campaign is over.
Recent weeks have made it obvious that the vast majority of Kossacks are as tired of the politics of Mark Penn as they are appalled by the politics of Karl Rove. Seven years of extrordinary rendition, of the unitary executive, and of pre-emptive war have made the politics of V-chips and school uniforms as obsolete as torch light parades and whistle stop campaigns. HRC's campaign can no more return this country to 1999 than Dobbs can stop people from crossing our borders.
The next president will likely inherit problems the likes of which no incoming chief executive has faced in decades. The next president will have to rally the American people to a common purpose if he/she is going to have a prayer of resolving those problems. There is only 1 candidate currently running who understands that basic concept, and he spoke in Philadelphia today.
When Gov. Cuomo gave his epic Keynote Speech in 1984, he said that, while it is good to give speeches that bring people to their feet, it is even better to give speeches that bring people to their senses. Sen. Obama clearly gave a speech today that should bring people to their senses. If this speech does not achieve that goal, it may be time to accept the proposition that our 220 year old experiment has run its course.
We have a nominee who appears to be up to the momentous tasks that will face him if he is elected. Let's close off an increasingly pointless and destructive primary campaign and get on w/ the essential business of making him our 44th president.
UPDATE: Some of us remember how Lani Guinier, a long-time friend of HRC and WJC, was left twisting in the wind when the hounds of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy started baying. There's a stark contrast to how Obama treated his long-time friend Rev. Wright today. There was nothing that Prof. Guinier wrote that was half as controversial as anything that Rev. Wright said today, yet Obama went out of his way to place Wright's comments in a favorable context. Neither WJC nor HRC did anything similar for Guinier.