Wasn't It Also Obama's "Democracy Speech"?

As commentators vie to predict the impact of Obama's March 18, 2008, "race speech" on his candidacy, it's easy to fixate on what it tells us about Obama the person -- his steady courage, his nuanced thinking, his mastery of imagery and storytelling. All are important attributes to weigh as we choose our next president.

Yes, Obama's speech was one of our nation's most thoughtful on race and contained important character clues. But let's not miss the speech within a speech -- the one about democracy itself.

Obama implicitly reminds us, first, that democracy requires that we learn to hold competing truths simultaneously. "He talked to us as if we are grown-ups," a friend told me last night, and I agree. But being a grown-up goes beyond nuanced thinking in any general sense: it requires a capacity to accept another's pain as real without denying or belittling our own. Such appreciation of differing realities, the opposite of fundamentalism, is the beginning of democratic dialogue.

Second, this speech quietly but firmly reminds us of one huge reason American democracy has been thinning, rapidly and dangerously -- from the drastic retreat in government transparency to the violation of constitutional protections to the reversal of progress in overcoming poverty. It's that those who benefit from democracy's regression encourage us to blame each other for our ills, to think, mistakenly, "zero-sum" -- that "your dreams come at my expense," to use Obama's words. Race is a mighty tool in that blame-deflection game, and too many of us have been sucked in.

"Not this time," Obama tells us. Yet, to ensure that this time will be different he must now help Americans understand precisely why and how the vast majority of us share common interests: That, to pick but one example, the burden on America is not the cost of anti-poverty efforts; the burden for us all is poverty itself. A 2007 study [PDF] estimates that damage caused by childhood poverty alone costs us in, for example, health care and lost economic output, $500 billion yearly -- almost well over four times what we spent in 2006 on education, energy, and homeland security combined.

The third important democracy message in Obama's speech is his reminder that democracy is an unending journey, not an endpoint. Faithfulness, then, to our founders' vision means that we never proclaim our democracy perfect but relentlessly further its unfolding.

Now he and we must follow through on this core insight.

To retrieve what we've lost and to move democracy forward requires our rethinking democracy's meaning: As long as it is primarily a structure -- elections plus a market, or a string of programmatic advances -- we are vulnerable. We've seen, as noted above, that in just one generation much of the underpinning of democratic freedom can be stripped away.

Obama can use his remarkable intellect and oratorical power to remind us that democracy strong enough to meet today's challenges is not a set system but a set of system values and norms -- inclusion, fairness and mutual accountability, for starters. It is a culture whose premise is that solutions require the insight, experience, ingenuity, energy -- and therefore the buy-in -- of citizens.

If we are truly to unite, to stop blaming and start solving problems together, as Obama suggests, millions and millions of us must be able to see a rewarding place for ourselves in democracy. But with over two dozen lobbyists walking the corridors of power in Washington for each person that voters have elected to do our work, is a culture of citizen empowerment possible? So long as Red and Blue alike -- almost 90 percent of us, according to a 2002 Harris Poll -- believe that corporations wield too much political power, many will assume it's not worth our time to engage.

In his speech Obama refers to "a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests." But he can even more forcefully focus Americans on this mother of all issues: noting that the danger is not only private power's distortion of public priorities but its shutting out of the real force needed, that of engaged citizens.

Even as he calls us to overturn the barrier of corporate influence, Obama can use his unique voice to remind us of the power we each have now. He can call out the innumerable -- but invisible to most Americans -- exemplars of citizen-driven initiatives, often partnering with government, that are succeeding: from state-wide Clean Elections now in Arizona, Maine and Connecticut to the citizen-driven planning process that turned smog-clogged Chattanooga into a U.N. environmental-award-winner to community-led initiatives in low-income Kansas City neighborhoods that pushed high-school graduation rates up 40 percent in less than a decade to government-community partnerships in Burlington, Vermont, that made that city the nation's leader in the share of its housing that is permanently affordable.

What many classify as an historic speech about race may, on reflection, also be an historic speech about democracy. This time, each of us must push Obama and ourselves to bring its messages to life.

Frances Moore Lappé, of the Small Planet Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the author of sixteen books, most recently Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad.

Comments

[LBKN]

It took me two weeks to digest it... and many are still working on it.

Yes, it was about 'race' and 'democracy­'... but these are the spices in the soup... not the base or the meat.


The real focal point of all the nuances of the speech was the causes and affects of "anger"... the many faces of "anger".


It was his "Anger Speech"...

and his appeal to stop blaming phantoms for our individual anger.

[BTJ]

Thank you for an important post. I think an important line to highlight is "the danger is not only private power's distortion of public priorities but its shutting out of the real force needed, that of engaged citizens. " That is an exact description of the Karl Rove strategy for demoralizing the electorate and of the 'anti-Hope' candidate who is refusing to concede this Democratic nomination process.

[2Nurselady]

It's too bad that Barack Obama's "Democracy Speech" did not include something about turning a deaf ear to voters of this nation that he has, singlehandedly, disenfranchised in Florida and Michigan and to Democracry, itself. He talks the talk, but surely does not walk the walk, in my opinion.

[realistxxx]

You guys are making this argument too easy. See my message to AnninCa below.

Thanks for playing, 2Nurselady.

----------­----------­-------

AnninCa, thanks for making my points about nuance below.

Here, we have obvious shills/partisans (like AnninCa) making a completely non-nuanced, cynical and fallacious argument about MI and FL to dupe the simple minded.

It is simultaneously unfair that MI and FL voters have lost their opportunity to influence the Dem nomination and unfair to seat them as is given decision made by the national party and all of the candidates including HRC.

Solving this problem is not going to lead to an ideal outcome short of a re-vote.

Again, thanks, AnninCa. You show how the cynical politics as usual crowd rejects nuance and honesty in favor of opportunism.

[scottvineberg]

JFK 2.0

It is time to upgrade the Obama campaign and start a 527 that funds a ‘collaborative political platform process’:

“Barack Obama wants more than your vote, your money and your endorsement. Starting NOW, he wants you to bring your best ideas and practices together.”

This builds on the passion and participation now dormant in all the states that have already voted... energizing Obama & Clinton supporters alike to participate & collaborate regardless of the specific outcome of the primary campaign (likewise drawing in independents & Republicans).

This demonstrates that Obama is not only capable of leading the democrats as their nominee or the nation as President, but that he is leading the nation NOW.

How? Tap into the Obama network by email and online, and America at-large through media events and national advertising, to organize:

Online - A collaborative web community
Local meetings – in homes, community centers, schools
Regional & national conventions centered on specific issues (education, infrastructure, health, economy, poverty, etc. with rep's from the small meetings)

Publish evolving results as:

* A comprehensive ‘policy platform’: an evolving ‘wiki-polity’.
* Printed documents available by mail & as media inserts.
* As press releases for the web, newspapers, radio & TV.

This more fully realizes the promise of Barack Obama’s candidacy:
Innovative leadership, sensible use of technology and participatory politics as voluntary enhancements of representative government.

For real change, it is up to us not only to vote, but to get deeply involved.

more...
http://vrum.vox.com/library/post/obama-20.html

[nazgul]

Excellent article. We can't forward with more BS "you're either with us or against us" binary logic. If the world were that simple, W would have been a lot more successful.

[AnninCA]

The biggest action that speaks for who Obama really is?

It's the blocking of MI and FL.

That is who the real Obama is.

[2Nurselady]

Exactly, AnninCA.

Well said.

[realistxxx]

AnninCa, thanks for making my points about nuance below.

Here, we have obvious shills/partisans (like AnninCa) making a completely non-nuanced, cynical and fallacious argument about MI and FL to dupe the simple minded.

It is simultaneously unfair that MI and FL voters have lost their opportunity to influence the Dem nomination and unfair to seat them as is given decision made by the national party and all of the candidates including HRC.

Solving this problem is not going to lead to an ideal outcome short of a re-vote.

Again, thanks, AnninCa. You show how the cynical politics as usual crowd rejects nuance and honesty in favor of opportunism.

[stageplay]

Brilliantly written. I am impressed with your insight and I agree with you. All in all, Obama is just the kind of leader our country needs in these troubled times.

[BeeOplentee]

Lordy, spare us from "nuanced thinking" , which defines nothing and muddies decision making.

[realistxxx]

Only the cynical, simple minded or opportunistic partisans would reject the inherent duality of good and evil in everyone of us, our societies, nations and laws.

Obama embraces this duality and then deconstructs it intellectually, philosophically and spiritually to arrive at a course of action.

This what is so refreshing and inspiring about his candidacy. Politics as usual is cynical and simple minded and is exploted by far too may of our opportunistic elected leaders and the power elite.

Obama's candidacy in every way has challenged the politics as usual status quo.

"I'm not into nuance" George W. Bush. Now he has been decisive.

Nuance does not lead to indecisiveness. It allows for a more informed and rational decision. Often wishy-washy leaders hide behind nuance to avoid making politically risky decisions.

You obviously fail to acknowledge this distinction. Are you just cynical, simple minded or an opportunistic partisan?

[MelloY]

The reason we are so divided as a country right now is because we want to think of things as black or white, right or wrong, good or evil. The reality is that things are usually grey and that there are multiple "right" answers depending on your perspectiv­e..