Cross-Posted at Alex on Politics and the YP4 Blog
This is a really striking letter to mom that a pair of brothers wrote just yesterday. One of them was kind enough to share it with me (thanks, Jon).
Ben, with the help of his brother Jon, officially endorsed Barack Obama in this letter to their mother. From what I hear, it helped change her mind about who to vote for. After all, you never know when your endorsement might be just the encouragement someone needs to caucus or cast their vote — it worked for Ben and Jon. After getting the message above from her two sons, Emily told them that she’d be voting for Barack tomorrow, too.
This entry doesn't have to be about one candidate though, so you cast that aside. Ben and John are examples of young people across the country who are digging into politics and asserting their influence in their communities, in their classrooms, and in their families. This means that during the election season a new generation of activists are educating themselves, participating, and taking note of what's said and who pays attention.
This is my plea: take advantage of the campaign fervor, network, and meet excited and inspired young people. Tell them about your work beyond elections and then ask them to join you. Use the campaign craze to build lasting infrastructure we can use the day after we elect a Democrat for President. Before all of that, take a minute to read this letter.
Mom,
As all children do, Jon and I learned about how to operate as adults by watching and mimicking our parents. We learned from you and Dad about how to treat people, we learned culture, we learned right from wrong. We also learned our politics.
Politics permeated every corner of 50 Mapleton and 48 Salisbury. I’ll never forget passionately voting for Mondale in a mock election held at Driscoll in 84, the disappointment attending Dukakis’s defeat party in 88 and the sense of redemption and euphoria when Dad popped open a bottle of champagne to celebrate Bill’s victory in 92. You put two people into this world who believe unequivocally in the power of government to do good in the world. You guys got us hooked. We’re junkies.
With this passion has also come fierce independence. Jon and I are both voting for Obama and we can’t wait to do it. He is the first candidate in our lifetimes who actually personifies what we were raised by you and Dad to believe. We both love Hillary. She knows policy inside and out and she’d have a pretty clear agenda for a first term. I personally would be thrilled to vote for her in a general election, but I just don’t think those qualities are enough.
Obama embodies something no seasoned, experienced politician/policy wonk could ever achieve: a sense of newness and possibility. Jon and I were raised to believe that true patriotism is loving your country not just for what it has been, but even more importantly for what it has the potential of becoming. The election of Barack Obama would prove to us and the world that the US is still capable of bold evolution and innovation. It would prove that we have the ability to heal ourselves from a generation of failed policy, partisan rancor and imperialism. It would prove that our narrative as a country is still being written. I know these statements all sound sappy and high-falutin’, but, frankly, if the achievement of these ideals is impossible, then, well: I give up. But I do believe these things are possible. I have to.
Last week, a random young woman from Warsaw noticed that I was an Obama supporter on Facebook and sent me a message. She said: "I wanna give you my support for Obama as I am Polish and cannot vote, but I wish he wins!" How amazing is it that not even 20 years after the end of the Cold War, young people in New York and Warsaw are relating over a common desire for newness and change? The rest of the world wants to love America again. They are salivating over the thought that if America can repair itself, if it can overcome its Achilles heal of race and racism in favor of something greater, then the future of the planet can still be limitless.
Obama for who he is and for what he believes is the only candidate I’ve ever seen who is capable of truly accomplishing these things. We love Hillary, but we desperately need more than just policy right now. We need societal inspiration and growth, and I think Hillary is incapable of delivering that.
That said, Mom, I wont tell you who to vote for. I understand your desire to vote for a woman of your generation. If I was in your shoes, I would do that proudly. But, I’ll leave you with this: in the same spirit that Yanzo and I learned from you and Dad how to love politics, learn now from your children. It’s time for a new generation to inherit the country and we need your help. So do your grandkids.
Your loving sonny boy,
Ben
Another friend of mine pointed out later:
We’ve heard prominent Democrats like Claire McCaskill and Caroline Kennedy cite their children’s pleas as a chief reason for endorsing Barack Obama and campaigning fervently on his behalf, but Ben’s note is a testament that this phenomenon isn’t merely occuring among America’s most rich and famous parents and children.