Outside of the birth of my children or the night my beautiful wife agreed to marry a shlub like me, perhaps the proudest day of my life was three years ago tonight. I will never forget it. I spent a great deal of it here, and the rest with my already longtime compatriots from the Obama campaign. We had fought a long time to get to January 3rd 2008.
I was living in the eastern time zone, so it was late when Obama spoke that night. Perhaps it was silly, but I woke my 9 year old daughter up and made her watch a political speech. I wanted her to witness history.
She was nonplussed. Even my wife wondered why a simple caucus win could mean so much to me. I explained that the was the first time ever that mainstream American voters had ever demonstrated that a person of color could be accepted as President of the US. We tend to forget it now, but back in those days we worried...what subterranean racial discomfort might lurk in the hearts of the average American? We can argue until the cows come home about what we may or may not have gained on 1/3/08, but one tangible thing was achieved that night: No person of color who seeks public office will ever have to be preemptively stopped from trying for fear of the so-called "Wilder-effect."
That seems an obvious point now. But back in those days, even folks here openly warned of the danger of risking the loss of a winnable election in the name of racial equality. The assumption was made openly that those of us who supported Obama did so BECAUSE of his race, and not his ideas and the content of his character.
This was never the case for me. I'd opposed Jesse Jackson long ago because I did not see him as the best man for the job. When I first found myself moving towards Obama, I challenged myself to imagine his words coming from a white man. I was no less enthusiastic about that imaginary candidate. But once I'd made that determination, I found that the fact that he was a black man WAS important to me. In fact, the closer we got to the election, the more it mattered.
It mattered because it was time. It mattered because society had to progress. And while the day-to-day policy decisions a President makes can certainly be important, in the larger sweep of history, the step we made when we nominated and elected this man President is the step that future generations will remember us for.
My daughter still does not see why the election of Barack Obama was a big deal. A world in which someone like him could not be President is barely real to her. Good. That was what we fought for that night.
It was not simply the nomination of a black man. it was proof that our better angels can win. Whether or not you find yourself satisfied or disappointed with his Presidency thus far, what was proved that night is that cynicism can lose. A bunch of white folks in Iowa can and will respond to a better view of America.
We must never forget this point. And though smart and decent people can disagree about what the last three years have brought and what the right way forward may be, it is incumbent on us to defend what we won in 2008. A diary by Mike Stark sat on the rec list last night arguing that to defend this administration is to defend watering down the progressive brand. But this argument misses the point. Nixon created the EPA. Reagan raised taxes several times. Both could have been accused of watering down the GOP brand, but both won and their party flourished in their wake. History is written by the winners. And so I submit to you that we must all unite in the common purpose of winning. In doing so, you do not have to defend the last three years if doing so is problematic for you.
Defend the optimism that carried the day in 2008. Defend the people Iowans showed themselves to be on 1/3/08 - the people that Americans showed that they could be on 11/4/08. Never forget. We must build on that foundation.