Compelling stuff from Henry, at Crooked Timber:
Before the speech, if you’d asked me which candidate I’d support if I could vote, I’d have said Obama. After the speech, it’s quite different.
I’ve lived in the US for the last four years as a permanent resident, and been quite happy here. Hearing Obama speak made me feel for the first time that I genuinely want to become a citizen of this country and a part of the larger project that he talked about, regardless of specific disagreements I might have. You hear a lot of guff in politicians’ speeches about how great America is; Obama seemed to me to be challenging America to be great, which is a very different and much riskier thing, as well as something I find much more compelling and attractive. [My emphasis]
I had the same feeling–the part about challenging America to be great, rather than taking it as a given. Perfection is a process–or a project–not a state of being.
Obviously, I already am a citizen. But when I hear the vitriol from the right–the authoritarian right, not the Reverend Wrightaa–I often feel the instinct to give up that birthright citizenship. They are not talking about the America I was taught in my youth to love by my (mostly very pro-Reagan) family.aa The American right is certainly not talking about the America the founders thought they were establishing.
On the other hand, when I hear Obama speak, I feel I am hearing genuine authenticity about what it means to be a citizen of this country. Yes, he is a politician, and by profession I am primed to be skeptical. But I think I can tell when a politician is sincere. I believe Obama was when he spoke on Tuesday, when I felt I was listening to real patriotism in action. And a call to action.
Henry notes that it’s easier for an academic to say nothing, because “we’re not supposed to talk about sincere personal commitments without some degree of ostentatious sighing, display of jaded skepticism etc.” Yeah, that’s how I approached this contest from the start. But the more I heard, the more I became convinced that Obama has a really unusual combination of personal qualities that could result in a transformative presidency.aa The speech was substantive and compelling as it touched a whole bunch of “third rails” of American politics. Yesterday, after reflecting upon the speech, I finally opened up the Ladera Frutal account to send my token contribution to the campaign.aa There are times to be a spectator and times to be an analyst. And then there are times to get involved in what might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a difference. Can one man really do it? No. It’s up to us. And Obama is the first politician with a realistic chance of winning the presidency that I have heard say precisely that.
The comment thread below Henry’s post (up to 112 comments, at last check) is worth perusing, too.
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- As I just said over at PoliBlog: “We should draw a very clear distinction between Falwell [or Hagee and others] and Wright, and not conflate them… One said that G-d punished America… The other said that 9/11 was blowback for American government policy abroad. I would hope we could tell the difference here.aaa
- It is interesting–to me, anyway–that I think I might have convinced my mother to vote for John Anderson in 1980. Or maybe she was just humoring me (no, not mom). But she had been very, very pro-Reagan when he was Governor and radio personality, and in his presidential run in 1976. And most of the immediate family was pretty Reaganite. And Nixonite. (Long story of family ties that I might reveal some day!) So, I had an early, but unthinking, identity with the California-style Republican party (even though my list of early political heroes–Muskie, Nader–included no Republicans). I often say it was Reagan who pushed me out of the Republican party.aaa
- Don’t ask me to define that. I am not speaking as an academic at this moment (in case you hadn’t noticed).aaa
- The first of many such tokens, I suspect. As long as he remains a viable pre-candidate and continuing if he is the general-election candidate.aaa
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