Amazing Grace: Hallelujah and Get to Work
Americans wake today to a new dawn, a new possibility. You don't have to drink the kool aid to appreciate how extraordinary this is. We will look at one another with new eyes. We are a better, bigger, more generous, more optimistic people than many -- particularly the Rove's acolytes in the McCain campaign -- assumed.
And the world will look at America with new eyes. For a shining moment, we will be once more that city on the hill, the example of a free people choosing a remarkable new leader. A similar choice -- the son of a native born woman and an African -- could not happen in Europe, in Japan, in China or much of Asia. Amazing grace.
It wasn't easy. It took a candidate of remarkable intelligence, discipline and ease, organizing a truly exemplary campaign. It took the worst financial catastrophe since the Great Depression; the worst foreign policy debacle in Iraq since Vietnam. It took the self-immolation of John McCain. It took Americans deciding not to fall for the old politics of division -- not this time.
But this victory is grounded in far more than the campaign or the candidate. This is a country disfigured by slavery from the start. The Constitution even dictated that slaves would count as three-fifths of a person for apportionment (even though they couldn't vote). 150 years of slavery; 100 years of legal apartheid, known as segregation; a slow and hard struggle to overcome.
Yet this same country was founded on an idea -- that all men (and now women) are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That same Constitution that counted slaves as less than human guaranteed the right to speech and assembly, freedom of and freedom from religion. Each generation has been given the opportunity and the mandate to struggle to extend freedom and to make America better.
Many sacrificed; many died to get to this day. Obama, as he knows, stands on the shoulders of giants. So this is a time to celebrate ourselves and to honor those who came before. Hallelujah
And now the work begins. Obama inherits the desert -- with the situation far more dire than many, even now, understand. Manufacturing is at levels not seen since the deep recession in 1980. Consumers are cutting back spending. The banking system is still reeling from losses and shocks. The recession now has gone global. Homeowners have lost $5 trillion in housing values.
So forget about the routine chattering class babble about how America is a "center right" nation and Obama must "govern from the center." (For a good mashup of quotes from ThinkProgress, go here. David Sirota tracks the "center-right watch" from ourfuture.org, here.) With independents and moderates looking more Democratic and liberal on issue after issue, the claim that this is a center-right nation was misleading even before this election. Americans are voting for a northern, liberal, Ivy League educated, African American, former college professor to be president, someone who campaigned on raising taxes on the wealthy, affordable health care for all, investing in new energy, getting out of Iraq and against trickle down economics. Conservative nation?
Govern from the center? Americans voted overwhelmingly for change. And to be successful, Obama will have to be bold. In reality, the center has moved. Bob Rubin now is for a large, deficit financed fiscal stimulus. Conservative SEC Chair Chris Cox now tells us "self-regulation" doesn't work, and calls for re-regulating the banks. Alan Greenspan admits his ideology blinded him to reality -- or at least that he got it wrong. "We're all populists now," says Will Marshall, a leader of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Wall Street wing of the party.
Mandates are not given; they are claimed. Majorities do not form; they are forged. The center is not frozen; it is molded by events, moved by leaders and movements.
But this beltway clamor about the center serves as a warning to progressives. The entrenched forces of the status quo are already in motion. Obama takes office as the Reagan era comes to a close, bankrupted by its own failures. But change, as Obama says, isn't easy.
Even the best presidents need to be pushed to act. Even the most calcified Congresses can be driven to move. The best of the New Deal -- Social Security, the Wagner Act that gave workers the right to organize, Fair Labor Standards that gave us the weekend -- came not from Roosevelt's first 100 days, but two years later, in what became known as the Second New Deal. And that was driven in large part by an active and mobilized labor movement, and by the growing political threat posed by a populist left -- Huey Long, Father Coughlin, Francis Townsend -- that gave Roosevelt both reason and excuse to move. "I agree with you," Roosevelt reportedly told labor's Sidney Hillman, "now go out, and make me to do it."
Obama will need that same kind of pressure. We will need to build an independent progressive movement to push for reform, to challenge those who stand in the way. So celebrate tonight. And then get ready to work.
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god help us all
Why don't you go watch Faux Noose or something?
We live in the countryside in a county in Texas where you rarely see a Democrat sticker for anyone or anything. When I went into the voting booth I felt like I was casting into a void. Although the natural world here is paradisiacal, virulent fundamentalism, crowded prisons, and "family" values are the rule. Yet, all over the town nearby, private volunteer institutions are raising money for the poor and addicted every single day. It is surreal. They just don't see the connection that, politically, they are acquiescing to and supporting the very legislative, economic, and judicial imbalances that create the pathological culture/system that they attempt to materially resurrect, while everything that is vital to their very survival and progress - a sustainable environment, an equitable economy, humility in our foreign policies, and a meaningful and a culture - is rapidly devolving all around them. But we don't have time to wait for them to wake up. Although itself arrogant and corrupt, only the Democratic Party today can possibly adapt and take the new directions necessary to save our nation.
Living in what is the California equivalent of Julianne's county, things are in many ways very parallel, and yet these private community efforts, are also a way for progressives or liberals to join with conservatives to show that we are all in this together. I dont think there are that many Democrats who don't already believe that we ALL have to be working with each other to get America out of the hole we're in. Frankly those of us in this type area have a lot to offer in helping to bring us together. And no it won't be easy it won't happen quickly but we do have a historic chance to help realign our country. The first half of the jingoist quote... My country, may she always be right, but my country right or wrong. We are working to correct what's wrong
“I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: ‘Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’” -- Senator Carl Shurz, speaking at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 1899. His original of this statement was on the floor of the Senate in 1872.
Recognize the conditions and the call for response? Funny how history repeats itself, especially when one does not read history, nor seriously heeds the words of George Santayana.
Wow. If I lived where you live, I'd move to Massachusetts. We do things right.
You'd be welcome in Oregon. Beautiful beaches, beautiful mountains, liveable towns, nice climate and LOTS of liberals!
Maybe, maybe not. I can speak only for myself and for my wife (I know how she voted since we voted absentee). We voted for Obama and Democrats for the first and possibly the last time in our lives. We did this because we were firing George W. and the "Bridge to Nowhere" Republicans because they talked like conservatives but voted like socialists (e.g. installing the airport security thugs, bailing out wall street, not apologizing for the bridge to nowhere). Republicans have little tolerance for being taken for granted by their Party, unlike too many Democrats seem to have for their Party. As long as he Democrats don't over-reach to the left by, say, use the force of government to 'balance talk radio' or coerce people into government-approved health care plans, then we are willing to give the new regime a genuine chance.
I'm a passionate Obama supporter and think you are dead wrong.
Obama is going to win tonight !!!.. We need a leader to stop the outsourcing..He is the one !!!
I agree - once Obama is President, we must let him know that we agree with his message of change, and that we'll support him (including contacting our leaders in Congress) as he moves forward.
The celebration is tonight. The work begins tomorrow!!! Let's join hands and GET IT DONE!
thank you Doctor Dean.
Liberal means, among other things, generous.
I believe Americans are a generous people.
Let's take back the word liberal.
It doesn't have to mean "wacko" anymore.
The Rush's of the media have had their day.
Time for them to shut up and sit down.
In reality the center was never as far right as the pundits made it out to be. Republicans were able to bamboozle middle-class voters with bullcrap about "family values" and phony patriotism. But when you polled people on the real, kitchen table issues the result showed that most folks agreed with Democrats right down the line. This year the Democrats finally ran on those issues instead of trying to compete on the Republicans' turf and they blew the Republicans out of the water
HALLELLUJAH
Mr Borosage you have made my day !!!!
I have made this CLAIM that AMERICA is or should be a CENTER LEFT country.
ONLY that chattering class who kept repeating the center right country line like GOEBELS
made it otherwise.
ALso the decency of the American people who were afraid to say HEY GOV. we need your help!!!
now that Wall Street has cried for help, People should realize that they can get help too.
LONG LIVE THE CENTER LEFT GOVERNMENT with a moderate approach to solving problems by UNITING people.!!
HALLELUJAH................THANK GOD.
MODERATION TO THE LEFT OF CENTER .
"...So forget about the routine chattering class babble about how America is a "center right" nation and Obama must "govern from the center."
Yah, Baby. That's what I'm talkin' about!
Let's not forget that the whole world is watching. This is historic for many reasons and everyone knows it. It's a beautiful example we are setting here. Believe.
* So forget about the routine chattering class babble about how America is a "center right" nation and Obama must "govern from the center." *
Right. On.
well, on NPR yesterday, a european political reporter was explaining that america is totally right-wing compared even to the farthest right in europe. 100% of european leaders support Obama, who is, by all accounts, right of the most right-wing parties in any country in europe. as an example, he pointed out that NOT A SINGLE PERSON in europe believes that universal health care is optional, or that the government is an inappropriate centralized insurer. he was also commenting on how the europeans were laughing so hard at palin on most of her garbage, but especially her "obama is a socialist" tear, since they know what socialism IS, and Obama is nowhere near it.
so, depends on your perspective, i guess. i feel that america is a super right wing country, is hugely ignorant and xenophobic and that we need Dennis Kucinich to get in there and respond to calls to move to the left...
Obama better win! I'm sick and tired of all this "trickle down wealth" nonsense.
I'm ready for some trickle up poverty!! YAY!
TRICKLE UP WEALTH is better said.
You should never be for POVERTY
I predicted in 1996 that america would have tricke up poverty and I WAS right and 2008 has proved it.
with OBAMA and the democrats,,,,,,,,,,,,trickle up wealth should happen because if the lower incomes are doing better, then they will be better customers and clients and renters etc.................................
do you get me?? Beach runner good night and good luck.
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