Barack Obama has re-energized American Politics. No one has been able to draw the huge crowds he does; no one has renewed the pulsating desire to participate like he has. Many speak of the JFK years with longing and claim to see images of that era reflected in the Obama campaign. I don’t. Having lived during the JFK era, having worked as a teenager to get him elected, the comparison doesn’t quite jibe. Read More
Kennedy was a creation of old fashion politics, cigar filled back room deals with the likes of the father of the present mayor of Chicago Richard Daley. He more than most understood that he could flout tradition only a wee bit without losing support of his base. Obama on the other hand began his national career flouting tradition by running against the Democratic machine’s choice in Illinois for United States Senator. He beat the Party candidate in the primaries, and then went on to win the fall election. His audacity to flout traditions has time and time again proven him right.
With his decision to run for President, he again flouted tradition and ran against the Democratic pet, Hillary Clinton a senator herself from the State of New York, and a former first lady. Many laughed at the audacity of a black man running against anyone for President, and many were shocked that he did it against the highly popular Clinton. But he did and won.
As the primary election headed into the last few months of the campaign, mud slinging by the Smear 'n Fear mongers began in earnest and again in the face of tradition, Obama and his staff setup a "myth buster" section of his campaign website to debunk all the lies being spread about him. Grey heads in the Democratic Party shook and many thought "this is not the way to handle things, best to let them burn themselves out on the fires of popular opinion." Instead we have seen many who forwarded the emails containing lies and rumors begin to come around and suddenly many became strong Obama supporters. The Audacity of this man is unbelievable, but the results bear out his convictions.
When one is willing to stand up for his beliefs in the face of opposition that isn’t used to being challenged he/she can expect a hard battle, and winning over that same entrenched opposition, one can see the actual strengths of that individual, we can begin to believe that this person could make the hard decisions necessary to return America to its former place as the head of the free world. We suddenly have the audacity to change our minds and begin to challenge local party overlords who have far too long dominated and lost election battles.
Tradition has always been, at least in our local politics, to show up when called to support this or that candidate, even if we don’t like him/her, to give our contributions to the party, and not ask for things that we have any business being involved in. Power bases are crumbling through out the country. Why Obama and his staff had the Audacity to move Democratic headquarters from Washington DC to Chicago, talk about crumbling power bases, this was like an atomic bomb no crumbling, just flat out smashing of tradition.
If Obama can avoid giving the opposition anything they can hang on him before the election, (I know they will say he is soft on terror, but without proof to back up the charge, they won’t have a strong argument) then he will not only win the Presidency, he will do it in a fashion that makes the Johnson landslide over Goldwater look pale in comparison.
The Obama campaign is using what I call the "Wal-mart approach" moving into small cities (under 100,000), using the mechanics of grassroots organizing they are going into these smaller cities which have traditionally been ignored by the Democratic Party know-it-alls who said that "the big cities are where the votes are, big cities are where the poor live, and if we take care of them, they will deliver the votes we need." All you have to do is look at the results, 28 years of the last four decades have seen a Republican in the White House, resulting in rising food, fuel and other prices coupled those with the jump in inflation and there is the proof of the fallacy of traditional beliefs. The audacity of the Obama campaign is once again coming to the fore and delivering results. When have we seen crowds of 25,000, 35,000 even 75,000 come out to see and hear a Presidential candidate? NEVER!
To top off everything else Obama had the audacity to refuse federal funding of his campaign (saving an estimated $85 million of taxpayer’s dollars), even though he knew that he would be accused of flip-flopping and was. He relied on "We The People" who once again crushed records of fund raising with around $280 million for the Obama campaign. His audacity to refuse lobbyists money has lead to the Democratic Party doing the same, yes in face of tradition.
The Democratic Party had grown stagnant over the years, and then Howard Dean burst on the scene and chinks began to appear in the walls around the party. That he didn’t win the nomination in 2004 was a shame because he was another that had the Audacity to go against Traditions. He was the pioneer that blazed the trail for Obama. When Dean became head of the Democratic National Committee, we all began to hope that it wouldn’t be politics as usual, and we got our wish. The 50-State Strategy paid off. In the midterm elections many new faces appeared in Washington, many traditional faces faded away. Democrats can now look to a Progressive future. They can once again hope that America is getting on the right track.
Some might say that we have a touch of Audacity as well. When WeDemocrats.org was formed we hoped to help change America for the better, but we were ignored since we were bucking tradition. When we broke with Democracy for America many thought we would slink away with our tails between our legs, instead we continue to grow, not like Move-On and other such groups, but solidly with verifiable results. Our State Coordinators are leading the way. Heather Ryan the WeDems co-coordinator for Kentucky is the Democratic candidate for the House in western KY, running against the traditional Ed Whitfield, and in the State Senate in New York’s first district, Greg Fischer our New York State Coordinator is the Democratic banner carrier. These two are just a few of the WeDemocrats.org members who have the Audacity to face down traditions.
When I founded We! (We The People) online magazine in December 2006, I was laughed at because we went against tradition, but with editors like Norla Antinoro and Edward Pickersgill, and a fantastic pool of writers, We! Has just published its 76th consecutive weekly edition. As we approach our 800th article in the magazine we are looking forward to our 2nd anniversary of publication. Readers of We! Come from around the world, I get emails from places like Turkey and Kenya where progressives have the audacity to go against tradition, places where it is far more dangerous to do so than it is here in America. I encourage these individuals to continue to buck tradition, to stand up for what they believe in. Barack Obama has become a leading light in the world and he isn’t even our President yet. Many around the world act as if he is our President, his popularity is enormous.
Barack Obama will be our President, and we will all be better off because of it, because he had the audacity to hope, the audacity to go against tradition, the audacity to ask us to make the journey with him in this the "Year of Audacity". Do you have the Audacity to Flout Traditions?
Many more articles in our 77th issue of WE! Magazine