The role played by gut feeling or subjective value judgment in the assessment of character is not to be underestimated, especially in politics. So when it comes to the decision making process of selecting our leaders, although we will listen to what the pundits have to say, although we will read biographies and autobiographies to discern how the candidates were shaped by the events and circumstances of their lives, although we will study their policy statements, we invariably will find, after having weighed all of the above and more, that our subjective value judgments will be that upon which we will ultimately draw in answering the one remaining, yet crucial question about the political package that has been held out to us. That question being: 'Do we buy it?'
As with all serious shopping outings, where product comparisons have been entirely exhausted, the answer to that question typically will only come by way of a subjective value judgment. So what exactly was the comparable subjective value judgment on the part of the American electorate that resulted in Barack Obama's stunning victory? I would say it had everything to do with their gut-level conclusion that Barack Obama is fundamentally a man of goodwill.
Now I am not suggesting that in elections past the goodwill factor has always held such sway over the American voter. Frankly, I am more inclined to imagine the opposite; for it seems to me that in elections past the goodwill factor has more often than not presented as a liability, especially in matters of foreign affairs. But at this particular moment in history, having witnessed firsthand the human and economic costs of the shameless ill-will of the post-9/11 leadership, the prospect of the office of the President of the United States being held by a man of goodwill struck visceral chords with the American electorate. Barack Obama was elected President of the United States because America, after having exhausted the ill-will scenarios of the post-9/11 period, came to believe within her heart of hearts that the only way forward, the greatest hope for her ever-mounting foreign and economic challenges was to elect a President who would solve problems, not create them; a President who would be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Barack Obama was elected President of the United States because America came to believe within her heart of hearts, based on what she was told and observed, that he is a man of hope, a man committed to finding the very best way forward and as such fundamentally a man of goodwill. Perhaps we could just say Barack Obama was elected President of the United States because he was perceived to be, first and foremost, a goodwill fundamentalist, which is to say, someone who believes in the infallibility of goodwill, something no doubt his mother instilled in him.
Of course there are those who would argue that the attribution of goodwill to Barack Obama on the part of the American electorate has no basis whatsoever in reality and has everything to do with the projection of an ideal. I have spoken to this ill-founded conclusion with far more detail than I can here in my recent book Democracy and Self-Organization: The Change of Which Barack Obama Speaks. The change of which Barack Obama speaks, I explain in that work, is neither vague nor groundless, but rather, functional and substantive. The change of which Barack Obama speaks constitutes an altogether new approach to doing politics within democratic culture--an inclusive and process-based approach that directly correlates with the profound leadership initiatives of President John F. Kennedy and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Americans elected Barack Obama because they had had more than enough of the carnage of foreign policy unilateralism; they had had more than enough of the fixed form ideologies of neo-con politics; they had had more than enough of one-dimensionality; they had had more than enough of a leadership that couldn't competently juggle even one ball at a time; they had had more than enough of a leadership whose modus operandi was to manipulate and impose on, rather than work with and through; they had had more than enough of a leadership whose blind-faith adherence to an ideologically-driven agenda would keep them from even beginning to approach solutions commensurate with the highly complex domestic and foreign policy needs of this age.
Americans elected Barack Obama President of the United States because they believed that as a man of goodwill he would have the consciousness and resolve to encounter life as it can only be truly encountered, as a dynamic process. Americans elected Barack Obama because they believed he would have the consciousness and resolve to release democratic process from the grips of lobbyists and power politics. They believed that as a man of goodwill he would reach beyond what I term false absolutes, the false absolutes of secular and religious ideologies, to engage in process the reality of what is. America elected Barack Obama President of the United States because they believed in all situations he would in good faith take the real factors at play into consideration to reach the best possible solution for all parties concerned. And it was for this very reason that so many longstanding conservatives, including some very prominent ones, got behind Barack Obama's candidacy during the election. Americans elected Barack Obama President of the United States because they believed that as a man of goodwill he would reach beyond the false absolutes of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religious belief or lack thereof, to name but a few discriminatory possibilities, to receive people in process as human beings first and foremost.
No easy course awaits the new President. There will be unrealistic expectations with which he will have to contend. So perhaps we should just let it be known that the goodwill path of Barack Obama's presidency will not be without hardship and suffering. What it will do, however, is conduct America and democratic culture from a place of meaningless or unproductive hardship and suffering to a place of meaningful or productive hardship and suffering, the Iraq war being one of the more distressing examples of the former.
Going forward Barack Obama will be navigating in largely uncharted territory, which will make it all the more difficult for him to know if he is on or off course. At times complete disorientation will occur regardless of his intentions. He will need to understand that genuine goodwill is not always regarded as such by everyone and can even offend. Of course this is exactly why most politicians lack the moral fortitude to show it, pursuing in its stead political capital. As inauguration day approaches, the Middle East finds itself yet again in a downward spiral, and if there were any place in the world in need of some of the genuine stuff it would be there. How Barack Obama positions himself on this crisis from day one as President will produce no small butterfly effect on the unfolding destiny of that most volatile region.
Barack Obama has yet to assume the chair of the President of the United States. In a matter of days, however, he will do so. No individual truly thinks as President until the chair of that office has been assumed. At that moment it is as if an altogether new and different thinking cap is put on. So can there be any doubt that on January 20th the prayers and most heartfelt best wishes of America and the world will be that the consciousness so constellated will be a consciousness commensurate with the goodwill promise of Barack Obama's historic campaign?