Obama and the Courage of our Convictions

A year or so ago I wrote a book entitled The Courage of Our Convictions. It urged Democratic leaders to restate the principles that guided the party successfully through the age of Roosevelt (1932-1968): commitment to national community, security alliances, citizen obligation, and equality and justice. Only when our principles are clear can voters know who we are and identify with us and can we develop persuasive and effective policies,and programs. Principles, policies, programs.

The Iowa caucus results seem to support this ideal. Senator Obama is a man of principle. He is committed to restoring a sense of national community to America. He believes in restoring our security alliances through active diplomacy and engaging those who disagree with us in constructive dialogue. He restates the requirement that we all give something back to America, to become engaged in the public arena, in the national interest. And, most important, he is the walking embodiment of equality and justice.

Already the Obama candidacy has sent a powerful message around a watching world: The torch has been passed to a new generation of American leaders, and we don't care what color it is.

As one who has struggled throughout a lifetime for restoration of idealism to American politics, I can only smile, and perhaps shed a tear of happiness, that our time may have come.

This is a new day in America. Let's call it hope.

Comments

[RogerHWerner]

Mr. Hart what you have said is true and Democratic leadership needs to reject the post New Dealist, Reagan era attitude of me first, last, and always. Whether or not some people care to acknowledge it, we all live in the same society and we had better damn well care about what happens to our fellow Americans or we won't have a nation for long. I said it yesterday and I'll say it again today: Clintonism is simply GOP lite and it must be rejected in favor of those policies that created the most egalitarian society the world has ever seen. No, this society was perfect and many people were treated unfairly. Today however we live in a society where social and economic justice exists in name only and this must change.

[BoulderSue]

Totally agree with you, Gary! After watching Obama's speech I couldn't help but think back to Bobby Kennedy's speech after the California primary in 1968 and pray that things would turn out differently this time. I've been getting e-mails from my Iowa in-laws expressing relief that it's over there, until the general election, but more than one of them (and there are a bunch) have also expressed satisfaction, and at least one, much younger than me, saw the the Bobby Kennedy resemblance: the optimism and idealism embodied in a very smart man. I was near tears during Obama's speech. As a Baby Boomer who hasn't lost her idealism (hard as that has been over the last seven years) I have hope, no matter who eventually gets the nomination, because Obama is now a genuine force in the Democratic Party.

[TribunusPlebis]

Gary Hart is right to suggest that Barack Obama is reviving the language of idealism in American politics, but it won't be sufficient to get him elected. Reaching for the rafters with soaring rhetoric is fine for some occasions, but effective candidates also have to develop a practical conversation with the American people. The reason Huckabee won on the Republican side is that he knows how to talk with people as if he were having coffee with them. In this context it's useful to ask why John Edwards still got 30% in Iowa, even after turning himself into a one-dimensional cartoon of anger at corporate America. It's because the animation of his language exhibits real passion for the rights and lives of ordinary people who feel sidelined by the system. There is little equivalent sense of identifying with ordinary people coming from Obama, who sounded last night as if he were on Mount Olympus, conferring with the gods of history. Fine, for the peroration of his convention acceptance speech. But democracy is practical as well as aspirational politics. It's about divining the urgent concerns of the moment, as people feel them in the day-to-day text of their lives, and giving voice to those aspirations in terms that people believe represent a practical way forward. We are talking here about the depth psychology of moving a majority to mass action, of how you create a mandate for a wholly new direction for government. Such a majority cannot be mobilized unless it feels that the would-be leader whose words are inspiring also understands the hard realities of living which the existing system has produced and that he knows how to change that system. Obama hasn't made that sale yet. Let us hope he can.

[HBeachbum]

Gee, and what experience does this guy have to warrant the presidency? None.

[6PercentIsUpperClass]

Well said Mr. Hart! I've been fighting back tears of joy last night as I watched America take a stand for change and today as I read how Obama's message truly resonates with our country. I remember the death of Strom Thurmond and how it symbolized the end of an era to me. I also remember feeling some remorse that it took a mans death to inspire those feelings instead of the lively voice of hope and optimism. Barack Obama is that voice. Today, I can't help but think that Iowans took the biggest step ever taken in my lifetime towards the eventual achievement of the dream of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I picture him looking down on us from the mountaintop and smiling with pride.

[lamarguerite]

I am with you. Last night, as I watched Obama speak, I felt giddy with happiness. A page has been turned, no matter what.

And I refuse to let all the cynics cast their shadow on what is a monumental victory. Those who claim that 'I would vote for Obama, but it is too risky, America is too racist and not ready yet to elect a black president'. Last night was the best proof that they are wrong.

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com

[Janco54]

The demographics of Obama's win last night are a clear indication that his message is compelling.
Women, men, Independents, younger voters (who have been almost totally excluded from the national polls) all showed up in force to vote for Obama.
No empty suit is Obama. He's the real deal.
The best news is that last night shot down the "inevitability of Hillary."

[Soph35]

How come Senator Hart is listed as among the "moderates" (mainly Republicans) meeting soon in Oklahoma, and looking very much like a group that will support Bloomberg's third party candidacy?

[NoahsMyBro]

Interestingly, I just read this column, and while scrolling down to the comments, my online music stream began playing the song "Our Day Will Come", beginning with the very first line: "Our day will come..."

[readerK]

Gary Hart's points are well-taken. But let's not pretend that Obama's win came about entirely through his own efforts. Most journalists and the pundits, starting about two weeks before tha Philadelphia, PA debate, have not stopped savaging Hillary in all kinds of ways.
They even urged Obama to start attacking her before the debate; and for about seven weeks thereafter, Obama and Edwards went viciously after her, with nary a word of disapproval from the press.

Just check out the transcript of the December 30, 2007, edition of CNN's "Reliable Sources." When Kurtz, the host, wondered whether the press would "savage" Hillary if she lost the Iowa race, Milbank (WashPost), one of the panelists, said: "The press will savage her no matter what, pretty much.... [The press] really have their knives out for her, there's no question about it out there.... And I think Obama gets significantly better coverage than Hillary Clinton does"
Kurtz himself had a long piece weeks ago in the Post documenting the media's antipathy towards Hillary.

So, congratulations to Obama; but his victory owes a bit to the savagery of the press towards Hillary. readerK/

[kj593]

Is this an endorsement? It sure READS like an endorsement.

[ianrthorpe]

Sorry Gary, but let's get real. This is the USA we are talikg about and Obama cannot win. The reason should not matter but will, and if the Democrats select a black man or a woman they may as well not field a candidate and hand the Presidency to a nutter like Huckabee or Romney.

I'm English but for the record if I had a vote it would go to Jello Biafra. You see idealism and the winning of power do not walk side by side.

http://machiavelli.blog.co.uk/2007/11/29/dead_man_speaks_a_message_from_beyond_th~3371003

[Boadicea]

Hopemongers of America (and the World!) unite!

Very nicely said, sir.

[resonate]

Obama Edwards 08!

[nlightenup]

I love what Obama's done. I also love what Edwards has done. I do think we're into a new era of idealism in politics, and that's a thrilling prospect. I could be happy with Obama as president. My preference is still for Edwards.