Nearly seven months on from giving in Philadelphia his powerful and frank speech on religion and race in America – a speech in which Mr. Obama invited Americans of all hues to look up from the stale rhetoric that calcifies the nation’s coded conversations about race, and set their sights higher – the rhetorical highlight of his speech remained - until these past several weeks - unrealized in the nation’s collective mind, and, in fact, the minds of many of his supporters.
"Not this time", he urged us to think, remember, say. Not this time will Americans of every color be distracted from working together to address our collective and color-blind problems. Not this time in a time of wars, economic crises, and looming environmental catastrophes will we allow ourselves to be mesmerized by trivial scandals masquerading as news.
"Not this time." This was the highlight. This was the whole point. This was Obama reasserting what his candidacy is all about: that it’s past time we look beyond our own personal interests and grievances to see our common problems, and create a common future worthy of the ideals upon which this country was founded.
While most speeches given by politicians are, indeed, "just words" – quickly spoken, and just as quickly forgotten – on occasion a speech is given whose words have the force of thunder, and whose meanings reverberate across time in the minds and habits of a society.
Senator Obama’s Philadelphia Address on March 18th was just such a speech.
The full effect of Mr. Obama’s artfully reasoned treatise on race and rancor in America will take months, even years to assess. Of one thing we can be confident: while we may not remember specific passages, we will long remember how it made us feel, as a part of the beginnings of a post-racial America.
Let’s not be naïve. Would racial harmony in America result from an Obama presidency? Most certainly, no.
But would progress towards racial reconciliation be made? Undoubtedly. Whether the measure of that progress would be modest or significant would of course depend less on him than on us.
And, as voters, we should make no mistake: whatever the measure of that progress, it surely would far surpass that which can be expected to result from the presidency of Mr. McCain.
But though Mr. Obama with his eloquent speech navigated the minefield of race and religion with a deft agility, his intent was not that we wander blindly into the same field after him.
No, his intent was to show us a vision of what lay on the other side – an America where Americans of all races recognize that they face common social, economic, and security problems – and to mark a path for us to someday get there:
...For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."
This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children.
This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together."
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.
This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country...
Let me be clear. This was a remarkable speech, an address of presidential quality on two of the most toxic subjects in American politics and culture: race and religion. Mr. Obama addressed the racially charged remarks by his former pastor, delivered from the pulpit years ago, and proceeded to draw lessons for all Americans from his connections to the pastor.
In the same speech, Mr. Obama not only gave us a sensitive rendering of the grievances of blacks and of working-class whites, he offered a vision of how those grievances could be surmounted, if not forgotten. From his moment of political peril, Mr. Obama extracted an enduring message of reconciliation, all the while issuing a challenge to those on both sides of the racial and the political divide who would exploit the issues of race and religion for political purposes.
Mr. Obama spoke honestly and intelligently about subjects that most Americans would rather ignore. It was an extraordinary moment of truth-telling, in which he confronted his problems –and our problems – candidly, and with civility. There were no weasel words. It was both unequivocal and healing.
But this speech was about more than race and religion.
It was a reminder of what it ought to mean to be a citizen. It was a reminder that the work of forming a more perfect union is not yet done – and Obama made it clear that continuing that work is the duty of all Americans, black, white, brown, blue, red, and purple.
The choice is ours. And Americans these waning days of a marathon campaign are finally and truly getting that. And they're making a choice, a choice against callous and shrill partisan politics, and politicians.
The choice is ours. This is what Barack Obama was saying. We can choose on November 4th to disengage ourselves from the sound-and-light show that has diverted the attentions of our great democracy from the important issues and challenges of our day.
Or, we can not, and nothing will change.
We can choose on November 4th to repudiate the politics of retribution, vengeance, division, and fear - and the politicians who fatten on them.
Or, we can not, and nothing will change.
We can choose on November 4th to reject at once both a traditional media and a political party together joined like some symbiotic cancer, each feeding and thriving on the titillation of the trivial.
Or, we can not, and nothing will change.
"Not this time", Obama urged us to think, remember, and say.
Not this time are we going to be distracted by what our opponents would attempt to distract us with.
This time we - you and I - are going to work tirelessly to rouse an indifferent nation to face its real villains – our energy overdependence on the Middle East, our looming health-care collapse, our educational unreadiness for the 21st century economy, and our out-of-control transfer of carbon from earth to sky.
This time we're going to see our hope, our anger, our frustration, and our energy through, and get the best candidate for President in a generation, more than a generation, elected to the office to which he is worthy.
And then we're going to start rebuilding America.
This time, yes, we can.