"Hope is the bedrock of this nation: the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be."
Senator Obama already had me when he spoke these words, but they rang so true that I've been thinking about exactly why his candidacy appeals to me so much. When he speaks about Change, the cynics say "Change what?" When he speaks about hope, cynics say "Hope for what?"
Well, in my mind, he means change everything, and hope for everything. The idea is that you or I, simple human beings existing in a nation of millions, can do something to change the world. The idea is that our voice is just as powerful as his, that our work can change just as many things, and that the nation is ours to fundamentally alter if we will just stand up and do it, if we will just stand up and say "Yes, we can!"
New Politics. It's not just a phrase to be bandied about. It's the bedrock of this website, the bedrock of Obama's candidacy, and our only hope for the future.
Transparency. Accountability. Responsibility. Action. Change. Bottom-up, not top-down.
These are not just words that sound good. These are the fundamental concepts of the style of politics that can rescue us from the partisan gridlock and power-mongering that ensconces Washington, D.C., and states all around the nation.
It's the idea that this government is mine just as much as it is yours, that my stake in this country is no less or no more than your stake. These ideas are meant to move us past the politics of the past in which folks broker power and money in exchange for influence. When Senator Obama or anyone else rails against "Special Interests," he isn't just railing against the ones he philosophically disagrees with - he's railing against all that would hold and protect power and privilege, as though any man or woman should not be able to influence the politics of the nation, state, or city that they live in.
Let us for a moment step back and consider what exactly that entails. It's not just a slight change from the past, it is a fundamental difference and breaking from how the business of politics has been carried out in our country's history. What makes this change possible? Information, and the ease with which it can be made available.
I firmly believe that, given the information, the American people can make better, more decent choices than what we have today. I firmly believe in the American ideal, in the documents that have founded and shaped this country. The American people need to know everything.
The largest catastrophe of the Bush Administration has been its steadfast refusal to share information, to be transparent, or to be held accountable. These things have led to Iraq, to Katrina, to the gradual disintegration of fundamental American rights. Instead of giving Americans the tools they need to make informed decisions about our nation, the Administration pursues a belief that the population are sheep, that we are a herd that should only be told what we need to know, lest we find out too much and lose our ability to be controlled and manipulated.
Information is power. Knowledge is power. Why do those with access to knowledge and information seek to hoard it and to keep it from the general public? It's all about maintaining control, and it is wrong. Every American should be able to know everything about what's going on in their government, at all levels. The idea that the American public can't "handle" some information or that the American public can't be "trusted" with some information is one gigantic, stinking fallacy, concocted by those who seek to insure only that their hands remain on the levers of power, to ensure that they are the ones with access to disseminate knowledge, thus controlling the dialogue and national, state, or local train of thought.
It's the power and allure of politics, the prime motivator for why some folks even get involved in the first place. They want to have their hands on that knowledge that few others have access to. They want to be able to parcel it out like Santa Claus on Christmas morning. That power is addicting. To know what others want to know and to have the ability to disseminate that knowledge is addicting. But it's wrong. It's everything that is wrong with politics today. It's why politics isn't working for us and why so many people don't want to even consider politics.
It's why average folks choose not to pay attention to the issues that impact their lives on a daily basis. It is so much easier to just write off politics with the thought that one cannot change anything, that one cannot put forth the considerable effort it takes to get ahold of that knowledge, than it is to try to be involved. Most people in politics make it hard for other folks to get involved in politics. The competition for access to that power is deafening and ridiculous, even in a campaign like Senator Barack Obama's.
So, in the end, even in a campaign that seeks to change everything, the old ideas of power and knowledge fester and bloom. It must stop, for the sake of our country. It's a great feeling to know something that other people don't, to have access to "inside" information, and an avenue to the sources that produce that information. That hoarding is precisely what must be changed.
People must know the facts. People must know your opinion. The reason I've come to really enjoy this website is because the spirit of knowledge lives strongly here. The sharing of knowledge is paramount to this website's success.
New Politics isn't about kissing ass and sucking up. New Politics isn't about ingratiating one's self with the power brokers so that one day, one might be able to share in that power. New Politics is about finding information, sharing information, and talking about that information. New Politics is about empowering people through knowledge and taking away that oh-so-valuable currency that allows some politicians to lord over us like subjects to be commanded.
I wrote this to remind myself of my ideals, to remind myself of why politics matters to me, to remind myself of what is at stake every hour of every day in this country. Perhaps, maybe, it will remind you, too.