I’d like to say I saw it all coming. I’d like to sit here and tell you that four years ago, when I could barely get out of bed the day after John Kerry’s electoral defeat to George W. Bush to face my jubilant class of conservative college freshmen, that on January 20, 2009 I would be feeling more optimistic about my country than I have in my entire life, and that I knew that we would elect a President who seems genuinely interested in governing, genuinely interested in moving the country forward. But I really didn’t see this coming, and in many ways, that’s what’s so astounding.
Oh, sure. I knew who Barack Obama was. I, like most Americans, didn’t get to see him give his speech broadcast live from the Democratic National Committee in 2004, but I heard about it the next day. I was sitting in my office at the University of South Carolina when I was asked if I heard “the speech.” I was told this Barack Obama said some good things and that he might be the future of the Democratic Party. Naturally, I went back and watched the speech online, read the text, and made a mental note to watch him once he got to the Senate.
Following the 2006 mid-term elections, the prospective presidential candidate chatter started, and Barack Obama’s name was consistently mentioned, and eventually, he announced his candidacy. Initially, I wasn’t sure how seriously to take his candidacy. I admit it. I wondered if he was experienced enough. I wondered if he would be able to contend against the 2004 vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, or the early front-runner, Hillary Clinton. But I kept watching, and over the course of the campaign I learned what hope is. And that’s what today is about.
Today is a cathartic moment for myself and millions of other Americans. The impotence I felt in the 2004 defeat and my hesitation early in the Democratic primary season were washed away in small moments of ownership: making phone calls, knocking on doors, and visiting polling locations. Barack Obama’s campaign was about taking our future in our own hands and understanding that when we work hard and work together, we can move things forward, we can impact our communities, and we can impact our country. For the last eight years we’ve had leaders whose leadership styles have been inherently paradoxical, demanding a blinding trust of their capabilities and decisions without ever accepting responsibility for what their decisions or actions might have wrought. The oft-panned line from President Bush’s farewell address on Jan. 15 is “You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decision.” Apart from the ridiculous redundancy of that statement is its inherent inaccuracy: he blustered about leadership without ever accepting responsibility.
Barack Obama brings us leadership and responsibility today. He has not asked for a willful submission to his every decision. His campaign was entirely about incorporating citizen activism into the election process, and his organizational decisions since then have indicated that he intends to have an active citizenry as part of his governing process. At the same time, he is accepting responsibility. While asking for our faith, he does not demand our obedience. Instead of rushing to conclusions and prematurely claiming success, he is asking for our patience. And this all makes me hopeful.
Hope is believing and, at times, demanding that the government works for all of us. Hope is the belief that an active citizenry can impact our government. Hope is understanding that neither a majority or minority owns a monopoly on our government. Hope is knowing that we do not need to sit idly by as our elected officials ignore each other in their own interests or ignore the rule of law in the interests of consolidating power. Hope is feeling the power within ourselves to transform our communities. Hope is believing we will finally work productively toward solving the problems of health care, climate change, alternative energy, and poverty. Hope lives today, for all of us.
Cross posted at http://filibusted.net