So, Obama had the courage to do something that just doesn’t happen anymore in American politics. He talked logically and forthrightly about an issue. That is especially rare when it comes to foreign policy and security threats. He noted that "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela – these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we’re going to wipe you off the planet."
This is precisely the kind of respectful, non-contemptuous, mature, adult sort of language Obama also employed with his already famous Philadelphia speech on race, which was astonishing for a variety of reasons, but most especially because it was the first time in a very long time that a politician didn’t address us as if we were kindergartners, unable to think beyond two-dimensional cartoon cutouts of Mr. Good versus Mr. Evil. I’m not entirely sure the American public actually craves this sort of discourse (because, of course, it inevitably leads – horror of horrors – to their having to take responsibility for their own politics), but I sure as hell do. And I’m not sure the American public deserves this sort of honest discussion, but most assuredly the rest of the world does. In any case, Obama is providing it, and it is shockingly novel. And breathtakingly respectful.
Think about the profound effect that alone could have. Four years of that from the bully pulpit could dramatically change the political culture in this country. Even we progressives sometimes lose sight of the extent to which the entire regressive agenda is built on everyone failing to tell the emperor he’s walking around in his freakin’ underwear. The right have many nightmares which keep them up at night – an end to their greedy feeding at the public trough, having to share resources with the rest of the world, a black man or a woman in the White House, etc. – but, trust me on this, nothing shakes them up quite like the existential threat of someone intelligently and forthrightly discussing policy questions in America. Once that crack in the dam appears, they are finished forever.
Finally, I like Obama because he seems to have some real decency and integrity about him. And, man, is that rare in American politics. From what I can tell, he doesn’t seem so psychologically damaged – like both Clintons and both Bushes and plenty of others – that he absolutely has to have the presidency in order to validate his so very fragile sense of self-esteem. He doesn’t seem willing to say or do anything in order to get there. He doesn’t seem as bogus as a three dollar bill when he speaks to people. He doesn’t strike me as a predator who will do anything to liberate me from my vote.
Maybe that’s just because he’s such an amazing politician that he fools me better than all the rest. I will admit that at different points over the years John McCain has charmed me to various degrees, though I certainly gave up on him forever after his performance at the Republican convention of 2004 and his enthusiastic stumping for Bush that year on the basis of national security. And he’s only gotten worse since. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, seems to have mesmerized millions, though he never did anything for me (apart from not being George Herbert Walker Bush or Ronald Reagan), other than to raise my hackles at regressing the Democratic Party as well as the country’s general political discourse.
Maybe I’m wrong about Obama. Maybe he sees people like me coming from a mile away, and proceeds to eat us for breakfast. But I don’t think so. Neither his words nor his actions nor his demeanor nor his policies nor his background suggest to me that he is the garden variety self-serving politician we’ve barely survived for so long now. As far as I can see, Obama’s got integrity, sincerity and grace about him. How about that in a president, eh? Out of three hundred million of us, I suppose we were bound to stumble into someone like that eventually, just by the laws of probability alone.
Obama looks to me, in short, to be inspiring, smart, gutsy, empowering, forthright and decent. Moreover, I think it is possible that he just might actually be capable of uniting the country, as he claims to aspire to do. I think the country would rally behind him in that effort, bestowing on him a healthy heaping of good will and support, and a serious interest in transcending the massive failings of the current crowd. In this respect, I am much reminded of the hopefulness originally attached to Tony Blair, and his resounding victory of 1997, following 18 years of Thatcherism.
Let us hope that, should Obama win the presidency and win that good will and support, he won’t also follow Blair’s path in providing showmanship over substance, and criminal idiocy when he actually does do something substantive. I don’t think he’d make those mistakes.
In my lifetime I’ve survived Nixon, Reagan and two Bushes, not to mention Watergate, impeachment, the Cold War, Vietnam, Iraq twice, wimpy Democrats, a cowardly press, and a lazy and selfish electorate. And I’ve got all the scars and bruises you’d expect to show for those decades of disappointment. Believe me, I’m no Pollyanna.
It takes a lot these days to get me to use the words ‘hope’ and ‘politics’ in the same sentence. But I am more hopeful about American politics now than I’ve been in decades, and perhaps ever in my lifetime.
Barack Obama is a substantial part of that optimism.
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