John Edwards eloquently and movingly reminded us that our country has become ever-more divided by class and income, and that a host of ancillary ills accompany that division.
And of course, for however long now, we've had the simplistic, fairly obvious but still instructive division into Red States and Blue States--another binary category into which to parcel us all out. A way to split us up and split us apart.
Now we seem to be seeing the country further sub-divided into ever smaller portions, a balkanization into "real" America or not, "pro-"American or not, and goodness knows what other inward-looking, homogeneous pockets. [more on the jump if you'll take the leap]
Not that we are exempt, in the Democratic Party at large nor here in our progressive and protective blogosphere, from a failure to embrace the heterogeneous, the heterodox, the divergent or the different. How pleasant it is to seek out these communities of like-mindedness and celebrate our commonality--and what a blessing that collegial communion can be, to be sure!
But let's not forget that it is also, in its small way, an extension of that same tribalism or villagism (someone send the Idiot-in-Chief back to his bereft village, soon, please!); a major and important difference being that while the Hillary/Obama Wars (or pie wars or whatever else before) may have gotten heated and intense, they never seemed to have devolved into actively decrying the fundamental humanity of the opposing viewpoint, or calling actively for violence and mob rule.
What Keith's comment makes me think about, at this nearly landmark moment, is actually Obama's definining keynote from the '04 convention. This is exactly what he was talking about, and talking back to, and calling on us to rise above. It's time to revisit that language, I think, in the waning days.
I've thought for about a month that the Repugs, and the Hillary campaign before, successfully accomplished one major adjustment in Obama's gameplan (to go with the petty accomodation of wearing a flagpin, alas): the high-flown rhetoric that was actually, or at least arguably, an important element of the medium and the message, the oratory that called on our better angels in moments like the transcendant "Yes We Can" paean, seems to have given way to the pragmatics of the stump speech and a more mundane discussion of daily issues.
Yes, many cried out for this and rightly so, but I would say not at the expense of the bigger picture too. Kennedy (x3 really), Reagan, FDR, TR, Lincoln, MLK, Churchill, Jesse Jackson, Clinton, heck William Jennings freakin' Bryan, all managed to take us soaring on wings of words as well as mastering the nitty-gritty policy. Heck, if presidents and candidates could quote Euripides as well as Gospel, then I think there's room for Obama to retain ALL the arrows in his considerable quiver.
We need ennobling, we need uplifting, we need our eyes raised to the prize now more than ever. We need a reminder of those twin pillars of the premise of this campaign, that we can all come together, and are united by much--and that in that strength of unity, we can overcome.
[began this as a response to K.O. Special Comment, but decided to try it as my first Diary posting; hope that flies.]
Gobama!