I'm not a DailyKos celebrity and almost no one here knows me. But sometime last winter, I discovered that Daily Kos was the best place to get up-to-the-minute information on the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
I haven't always been a supporter. In fact, I scoffed at the idea of America electing a black man named Barack Hussein Obama to its highest office a mere 7 years after the devastating attacks of September 11th, 2001. I bristled at the 'hype' and 'young up and comer' image that Barack Obama had been given by elements of the Democratic establishment starting around the time he won his Senate seat essentially unopposed.
When my wife told me she was going to caucus for him here in Iowa, I thought: "how sweet". But as in all things I supported her choice and I sat on pins and needles awaiting the result. Incredibly, he won. And then, he gave this speech:
They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned, to ever come together around a common purpose.
Ouch! That's me he was talking about. Me, the idealist. I, the man who, down to the very heart of his soul, believes that an informed, active and involved citizenry, and an open, responsible and representative government is one of the greatest ideas ever conceived by humanity. In fact, I believe God Himself has always intended for us to govern our earthly affairs by consensus and concern for each other's well-being. Yet here I was, one of the cynics, the doubters.
You said, the time has come to move beyond the bitterness, the pettiness that has consumed Washington.
Hey, I thought, I do believe that. I do believe that hyper-partisanship and the bipolar political landscape of America has created a deadlock of ideologies that prevents real solutions from ever being crafted, much less implemented. I do believe that thinking of the world, or the country, in "us versus them" terms makes it increasingly likely that "we" will be blind to our own flaws and mistakes because we're too consumed with opposing everything "they" stand for.
So I started reading up on this guy. And the more I read, the more I watched, the more I listened, the more I thought: Can this be true? Is this guy for real? He actually appears to believe in Democracy!! Is he seriously not taking PAC/Lobbyist money? Did I really hear him stress "disagree without being disagreeable?" He opposed Iraq from the start for all the right reasons? He sees the world as very nuanced and complex, but has very little difficulty expressing his thoughts/vision in clear and concise terms?
His father was a Muslim? He spent part of his childhood in Indonesia? He was at the top of his class at Harvard? He decided to take his degree back to Chicago to work with poor people? Google for government? Net neutrality? A strong marriage and a beautiful family? A wife who dazzles not only with her beauty but with the keenness of her intellect? He's running a positive campaign and yet never comes off as a wimp?
Middle class tax cut? Using taxes as a disincentive to outsourcing jobs? Universal health insurance?
Are you EFFING KIDDING ME, is this guy for real??? Imagine my surprise when everything I tried to learn about him seemed to think that indeed, he was.
A little about me:
I was born and raised in Canada. My parents are immigrants to Canada from a little north African country called Tunisia. We are Arab Muslims. I moved to the United States 10 years ago and married an Iowa farm girl. I have 2 step children and my wife and I have two children together, all of them born here in Iowa.
I've always been harshly critical of US foreign policy since World War II. And when I came to the US, it was not in search of a better life. It was for my wife. I've made a good life here, but it's always been somewhat of a sore point for me to see that the nation that fancied itself the beacon of freedom for the world was apparently filled with an apathetic, uninformed and uninvolved citizenry. That America was willing to go to war in the name of freedom, when domestically social injustice and government abuse were rampant. The press was an instrument of government propaganda on a scale any third-world dictator would envy.
Then 9/11 came. My wife was pregnant with our first child when the planes hit the towers. I remember thinking to myself, what kind of world am I going to be bringing this child into? Those first two years after 9/11 were a tough time to be a Muslim in America. For a while I was afraid to go to the mosque because several had been vandalized and I thought it might be a matter of time before someone pulled a Baruch Goldstein.
It was also a tough time to be a Muslim in America because now my faith, my heritage, was forever linked to acts of unspeakable evil. The internal turmoil that resulted could be the topic of a whole series of diaries, but I digress.
At the same time, I saw what happened to America as a result of the 9/11 attacks. I saw America begin to morph into a police state. I saw America sacrifice its relationship with long-time allies and its standing in the world in the pursuit of naked imperialism. And, let us not forget, with the full-throated support of the vast majority of the American people and the media beating war drums deafeningly. I saw empty, chest-thumping displays of nationalism, chants of "fighting for our freedoms" all while these very freedoms were being undermined and stolen by a seemingly crazed and paranoid government.
How disillusioned was I? I visited Washington DC and wept before the words carved into the walls of the Lincoln monument. I poured over the documents written by America's founding fathers and I loved them. Not loved as in "enjoyed". Loved as in "cherished". Why don't our leaders speak this way anymore? Why don't people believe this stuff anymore?
2004 was such a kick in the gut, as I am sure it was for many people here.
Which brings us back to 2008. A new kind of leader, who honestly does remind me of a cross between the Kennedys and Doctor King, and rather than someone who is just telling me what I want to hear, he appears to be someone who happens to share my beliefs, my ideals. Not all of them, but even where we disagree he inspires confidence... in his competence, his fairness, his open-mindedness and his ability to process complexity. Such a refreshing set of attributes in a leader! And honestly/integrity to boot?
A little while ago I wrote a diary about the way my little 6 year old girl was inspired by Barack Obama. She even drew and later mailed this picture to him:
She was so excited to see him win. Eventually, she convinced me that we should be out there helping to get him elected, and so it was that my daughter and I canvassed neighbourhoods in Iowa together:
And I told myself, if this guy wins. If America truly does this, then America is a country I want to be a part of.
So on November the 5th, 2008, after living and working here for 10 years, I have finally submitted my application for US citizenship. And if I receive this citizenship, I will wear it with pride, because on November the 4th, Americans proved to each other and the world that they believe in the truth of their own dreams, and that there has never been anything false, about hope.