I am sure that numerous diarists have already remarked on the beauty of some sense of fulfillment with Obama's speech 45 years to the day of MLK's dream. We have reached a summit, now let's see if we can get to the promised land.
James Baldwin famously said, "If I am not who you say I am, then you are not who you think you are." Obama brought this saying to life and home to the Republicans last night with that speech.
The Republicans have constantly attempted to frame Obama to define themselves. Rather than explain the "what we are," they have held on to the "who we aren't" of politics. That serves them well because it feeds from fear and loathing, isolationism and discontent.
When Obama said this of the Republicans last night, "Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America," he flipped the script, he refused the box that the Republicans have been so successful putting Democrats and progressives in. But the transcendent part was that he didn't start making new boxes for them. He held them to their own lines in the sand, but challenged them to do better. Then he challenged us to do better:
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.
That, I think, is the true gift of Obama as a candidate.
In defining our successes collectively, we take MLK's dream to the next step. We can stop building our castles in the sky and finally start putting those foundations under them.