Some say that supporters of Barack Obama are simply devotees to a cult of personality. Young people too ignorant to remember the fights of years gone by embracing empty post-partisan rhetoric. They don't know what it really takes.
Some say I don't care. Some say that millions don't care, that they are projecting their hopes and dreams onto a candidate. Obama is full of nothing but hot air - he stands for nothing, and so everyone stands with him.
I'll tell you what:
They've got it wrong.
Barack Obama is not a blank slate to be projected upon. He is not my dream, and he is not my hope - he is the American dream and the American hope.
Barack Obama never talks about policy, or so I hear. He never talks about anything meaningful, and all those people, young and old, who gravitate to him, they're suffering from a mass delusion, compromised by groupthink.
Well, I have news for the "some say" crowd. I will not be ignored, and I will not be marginalized, because I have friends. At first, it was just a few hundred friends, and we didn't even know each other except in the spirit that resided in each of us. Then it became a few thousand friends, coming together for a cause against the odds. Then it became a few million friends, uniting behind real change.
That crowd, the "some say" crowd, they claim that the people joining into this campaign for change, this coalition for change - they're not truly progressive. Drawn into a rock star cult of personality, they don't care about ending the war. They don't care about improving education. They don't care about the minimum wage. They don't care about making higher education more affordable. They don't care about making healthcare universal. They don't care about our GLBT brothers and sisters. They don't care about the millions left destitute by an economy that is systematically undermining the working people of America.
All they care about are empty platitudes. They like the word hope, they like post-partisanship, they like to chant slogans.
With great dismay, I cannot say I've ever been to a Barack Obama event, but I regularly check in on the videos. His audiences are filled with thousands of people eager for something new, and something different, including many, many young people like myself. And when I watch those videos, I'm filled with hope. Not just because I believe that yes, we can, though I do. Not just because I sense that fierce urgency of now, because I do. Not just because I know that we can heal this nation and repair this world, because I do.
The some say crowd may not pay attention to the passionate masses applauding his opposition to the war in Iraq now. They may not pay attention to those thousands empowered by his plans for free and transparent government and media. They may say it's not important when he stands up to John McCain and brings that crowd right up with him on the wave of his strong rhetoric.
But today, on February 13th, they might just begin to realize, just a little bit.
On March 4th, they might begin to realize a little bit more.
In Denver, they might begin to realize a lot more.
When November rolls around, and the millions they said didn't care about policy, the millions who didn't know the difference between a mandate and a mango, turn out in ways Americans never have before for the simple policy changes they want so badly, they'll wonder where they got it wrong.
On January 20, 2009, when Barack Obama begins "I do solemnly swear..." they'll know where they went wrong.
You can ignore me. You can marginalize me. You can say I'm sucked into a cult of personality, that I care little for the hard work of change, even though it's not true.
But I have friends. Lots of friends, and we are not interested in a cult of personality, but in a cult of change.
And though you can ignore me, and marginalize me, we cannot be ignored, and we cannot be marginalized.
Edited, to add this, just because: