Since his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, Barack Obama has emerged as one of the most inspirational political figures in America today.
With his vision for America, he has attracted a broad spectrum of supporters across all age brackets, and among independents and Republicans. How has Obama, a person of color with a muslim-sounding name, been able to make this connection?
He does this because he places his vision within the context of traditional American themes. In doing so, he is giving moderates and even some conservatives an opportunity to support liberal/progressive ideas without completely alienating their traditional views of America.
I first became aware of Barack Obama before the Democratic primary in 2004 for the open Senate seat in Illinois. The Chicago Tribune strongly endorsed Obama in the primary. I was aware of the candidates at that time, but like most average voters before a primary, I hadn't really focused strongly on the race, the issues, or the candidates.
I don't base my decisions on newspaper endorsements, but this one caught my eye. Normally, the Chicago Tribune treats Democratic candidates as an afterthought, and its endorsements of Democratic primary candidates are perfunctory. I don't remember the exact wording of the endorsement, but it was so positive, I decided I had to find out more about this guy with the funny name.
As I listened to his speeches, like many I was drawn to his vision for America as we move forward in the 21st century.
What I found unique was Obama's ability to articulate a liberal/progressive agenda, and to place it within the context of traditional American values. Why is this important?
Liberals are not afraid to point out America's faults--indeed we see it as it as a true patriotism that inspires us to work even harder for a higher vision of what America can be. But for conservatives, who focus more on the external symbols of American exceptionalism, questioning those symbols and pointing out America's problems is seen as disloyalty.
It is important for many americans to feel that, despite her faults and missteps, America as a nation (and by extension themselves) is at its heart a noble, decent and caring nation, the superior embodiment of democracy and individual initiative. The need to have this idea continually validated leaves Americans vulnerable to Republican exploitation of patriotic symbols and themes.
Since the majority of Americans trend a little more conservative than liberal, I think, as a population, we are prone to "concern fatigue". I think one of the big reasons Reagan was elected in 1980 is that Americans--after the civil rights movement in the 60's, Vietnam, Watergate, the Church Committee, etc.--were tired of hearing about what was wrong with America. They were uniquely susceptible to a huckster who reverted to the most basic and banal cliches about American superiority.
As the implementation of the republican conservative priniciples has wreaked havoc over the past 27 years, and with the bush regime's corruption, deceit, and embrace of torture and agressive war, Americans have grown increasingly disenchanted with the republican party, but they have not been willing to reject it out of hand. One the reasons for this, IMO, is that they still need to cling to traditional symbols and (images) of America the Beautiful. Throughout our history, liberal ideas and policies have defined what is great about America, but that has gotten lost under the barrage of right-wing attacks of "special interests" and "tax and spend".
To me what sets Obama apart, and the reason for his broad appeal, is his ability to articulate a progressive/liberal agenda and place it within the context of traditional American exceptionalism. He is able to show that, througout our history, we have responded to challenges with liberal policies and programs that have embodied the truest expression of what is great about America.
In short, he has provided a context in which moderates and even conservatives can embrace liberal principles and still have positive, traditional "patriotic" feelings about America. Right now, he does it better than any other political leader in America--and that is why he is inspiring people.
I thought these ideas were best expressed in Obama's commencement speech at Knox College in June 2005. Some excerpts:
A place where destiny was not a destination, but a journey to be shared and shaped and remade by people who had the gall, the temerity to believe that, against all odds, they could form "a more perfect union" on this new frontier.
And as people around the world began to hear the tale of the lowly colonists who overthrew an Empire for the sake of an idea, they came. Across the oceans and the ages, they settled in Boston and Charleston, Chicago and St. Louis, Kalamazoo and Galesburg, to try and build their own American Dream. This collective dream moved forward imperfectly - it was scarred by our treatment of native peoples, betrayed by slavery, clouded by the subjugation of women, shaken by war and depression. And yet, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, people kept dreaming, and building, and working, and marching, and petitioning their government, until they made America a land where the question of our place in history is not answered for us, but by us.
This is the image of America that most people want to believe in. Obama also showed that questioning our policies was not "tearing down America" but an important part of our history:
The true test of the American ideal is whether we are able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life's big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.
We have faced this choice before.
At the end of the Civil War, when farmers and their families began moving into the cities to work in the big factories that were sprouting up all across America, we had to decide: Do we do nothing and allow the captains of industry and robber barons to run roughshod over the economy and workers by competing to see who can pay the lowest wage at the worst working conditions?
Or do we try to make the system work by setting up basic rules for the market, and instituting the first public schools, and busting up monopolies, and letting workers organize into unions?
We chose to act, and we rose together.
When the irrational exuberance of the Roaring Twenties came crashing down with the stock market, we had to decide: do we follow the call of leaders who would do nothing, or the call of a leader who, perhaps because of his physical paralysis, refused to accept political paralysis?
We chose to act - regulating the market, putting people back to work, expanding bargaining rights to include health care and a secure retirement - and together we rose.
When World War II required the most massive homefront mobilization in history and we needed every single American to lend a hand, we had to decide: Do we listen to the skeptics who told us it wasn't possible to produce that many tanks and planes?
Or, did we build Roosevelt's Arsenal of Democracy and grow our economy even further by providing our returning heroes with a chance to go to college and own their own home?
Again, we chose to act, and again, we rose together.
Not only does Obama show that confronting our shortcomings as a nation is a traditional strength, he also infers that the major improvements in our economy and society over the last century have been due to DEMOCRATIC programs and policies. Nice two-fer.
And then he ties this history into our current day:
Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn't much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government - divvy it up into individual portions, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, education, and so forth.
In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it - Social Darwinism, every man and woman for him or herself. It's a tempting idea, because it doesn't require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say to those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford - tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job - life isn't fair. It let's us say to the child born into poverty - pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes that we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we will be Donald Trump, or at least that we won't be the chump that he tells: "Your fired!"
But there a problem. It won't work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it has been government research and investment that made the railways and the internet possible. It has been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools - that has allowed all of us to prosper. Our economic dominance has depended on individual initiative and belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we're all in it together and everybody's got a shot at opportunity - that has produced our unrivaled political stability.
Even more than his speech at the 2004 Democratic Conventions, this speech convinced me that Obama was the national leader that America needed for the 21st century. And I think that, for many independents and conservatives, Obama's words provide a "safe place" where they can turn away from the failures of the bush regime and accept liberal/progressive ideas without losing the sense of American exceptionalism that is so important to them.
It seems that Americans want to be lead by leaders with a positive vision and an optimism about the future. Despite his legislative accomplishments, most Americans rate JFK much higher than Lyndon Johnson. And many Americans still have a posittive image of Ronald Reagan, despite his destructive policies and criminal acts. Obama is an insprirational leader with both a brain and a conscience who says the right things because he believes the right things. I think he has the ability to restore liberalism as a traditional American value.