Well, there it is. If you are one of those folks who has been watching Barack Obama bring audiences to their feet with platitudes like "stand up for hope," while you yourself wonder who this guy really is and what does he really stand for, today was your day. Few politicians have ever spelled out in such heartfelt detail exactly what they stand for in the way Obama did today.
The standard politician response to the media hoopla over Wright's sermons would have been to "repudiate" Wright (whatever that actually means). Instead, Obama initially said something about Wright being part of his "family," and that we all have disagreements with family members but we don't kick them out of the family.
And I thought, well, that's a principled thing to say, but I don't at all know if it is going to fly in the context of a national presidential campaign. After all, "God damn America" is pretty toxic stuff for someone who wants to be President of the U.S. in the age of fundamentalist terrorism both Islamic and Christian.
But then Obama raised the stakes many notches by announcing he was going to use the whole fiasco as an opportunity to discuss race and maybe educate some people about the black community, and why it might not be so unreasonable for Wright to say such things. In Pennsylvania he was going to do this. Right before what will likely be the deciding primary. The guy's got guts.
Now he has done it.
The most important part of the speech is this:
"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country."
This is a level at which politicians simply don't speak in this country. It is not a "repudiation" or some other fashionable but empty word from American political-speak that politicians hide behind. It is a serious critique of the thinking of Obama's former pastor. Obama does not condemn him for being extreme or for being angry, but for having a static view of society that ultimately doesn't lead to change. And then Obama used this critique to frame his counter-argument and to explain yet again his vision of how change happens.
Another interesting thing about the speech: there is not a sound byte in it. It was simply not crafted according to the norms of American electoral politics. Rather, it was what the guy actually wanted to say.
Before the speech, I anticipated that we would be left with the question of whether a black man who addresses race directly be elected president. Having heard the speech, I now think the question it raises is much bigger: can anyone who speaks to the American people so thoughtfully about matters of actual substance win a national election?
(And I wonder how the super-delegates can hold back now.)
Hillary, like McCain, will keep pandering to the emotions, not to reason.
I'd say Obama doesn't have a chance, but I never in the world thought someone who treated Americans like intelligent adults would get this far.
Hopefully, he'll prove us wrong again.
God willing.
Win or loose Obama is changing politics at every turn. "Yes, we can?" Maybe we can't get our act together to defeat the media's messages and unite. But HE CAN get change just by showing the new model for raising money, addressing difficult situations and changing the conversation to a lecture based upon sound thinking.
The media is NOT half as interesting as these well designed lectures on what's at the heart of America's problems... with lectures on the "War" (an Imperial Occupation and a bad bet), the economy (some regulation is there to protect the average citizen from fraud), healthcare (Hillary makes the lecture impossible because she won't listen) and how the government SHOULD function to get problems addressed and implemented.
If that happens in the next 7 months... then we'll see hat he can do. If NOT, then I think he'll be back after 4 or 8 more years of the same and then he'll fix the #1 issue: experience. It's all good. He's obviously a very patient man.
It totally diverts the argument, and momentum of the campaign off the tracks.
We're not in a race war in this country. Or a gender war. Yes those divides still exist, and the day when all races and both genders will stand as equals may not be tomorrow, but there has been slow progress. It took the failure of affirmative action to prove hiring based on race, or sex was just as discriminatory as denying a job for those same reasons.
The day when a candidate can run for office and their sex or race is not an issue, will be a banner day for democracy. That's right, not one mention of " now things will change", or hints of retribution for centuries of oppression. That's what some want right now.
I don't believe Barack wants to exact punition on the white establishment for such offenses. He'd last about a day in office if he were to try. But he won't.
He didn't seem to make race a priority in his campaign, but it was nevertheless placed in his lap by the Clinton contingent. He wanted this to be about restoring democracy, and instilling transparency in government, and getting us out of a war we never should have started. Not that race isn't an issue which needs to be addressed, but that is something that won't be solved by a speech, or even over the course of four, maybe eight years. Maybe it never will be.
No, the issue in this campaign is the class war, which is currently raging, the people with wealth and power now engorging themselves at the people's trough. Their race or gender matters not. If there's green in their pocket, they're on the same side. Oh, the billionaires are still trying to fuck over the millionaires, but that's the nature of the beast. There no honor amongst thieves.
This racial issue, while still a very prevalent one in our society, is smoke and mirrors. The elite are trying to rile the masses with incendiary stunts like the Islamic garb photo of Mr. Obama, and the parading of this pastor in front of the electorate. So what? The guys got a gripe with America. Who the fuck doesn't.
We've all damned the government at tax time. We've all regretted botches like Viet Nam. Dissent is our birthright as citizens, it doesn't mean we're traitors because we criticize what this country's become, and how far its strayed from the vision our forefathers originially held. I love this country because that minister was allowed to say the things he said without fear of prosecution, or punition. I don't agree with much of it. But I know that black folks certainly have gotten a raw deal in this country.
And now more and more people of all races are getting to taste that same sense of disenfranchisement, and choking oppression. We're all black right now. We're all watching the man steal our freedoms, and money from our grasps. But it has nothing to do with skin color.
This quote from the speech pretty much gets to the point:
"This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit."
Senators McCain and Clinton have been totally eclipsed for three entire news cycles and probably will be for the rest of the week. The adage "No press is bad press" works in Obama's favor since his name will be repeated continuously while the others fight for coverage and its free. Senator Obama made a speech that everyone is discussing while Senator McCain made his lack of understanding of his primary issue, the war. abundantly clear. This was good for everybody.
I don't know. There's an awful lot of racists in this country - still.
Bush got elected - Twice. I am worried.
We are in the situation we have today because we have not done so in the past.
I hope so, because the problems we are facing are unique, and this Country has always benefited from unique Presidents during unique times.
And standard responses would only be good for standard times. But are we in standard times? Nope.
My conclusion and an answer to your question:
"In the end, the question isn’t whether Senator Obama can live up to _my_ expectations. The real question—the question that terrifies me—is can we live up to his?"