A Long Time Coming, a Victory for Us All
Related subjects: J.E. Robertson, Opinion, ThoughtPossible.com, U.S. Politics, Vote 2008 Comments (1)
ThoughtPossible.com :: I have long felt, as so many Americans do, a profound emotional attachment to the ideals we always speak of when we talk about our founding revolution, our enlightened democracy, our progress toward a freer and more just world. And I have always aspired to see those ideals put on display, not just by an historic moment, but by the collective awareness of millions of impassioned American citizens. This moment in history is a sea change in our collective mindset, and a victory for all Americans.
We now see that what we preach as a nation of ideas really is possible in the reality of our democratic processes. We now see that hope is not a convenient illusion, but an engine for cooperative action and a bridge to the actual achievement of great things made improbable by a cynical environment. Obama’s victory demonstrates that the hope that “We Shall Overcome” is not just the province or the labor of an oppressed people, but the dream necessary for us all, if we are to have a chance to be what we seek as a nation.
His victory demonstrates that we are in fact working to overcome the sinister dangers we came through in the worst and weakest facets of our national character. It was amazing to see how many people, of all races and ages, were found to say yesterday, either for having cast their vote or for witnessing this historic event, that they had “never been so happy” as they were in playing a role in this. It may be difficult for those who supported the other party to see this, or to accept it so early on, but even they won a great victory against the darkness of impossibility last night.
[ad#cafsen-intext]
While the work of governing is serious and the task of the moment monumental, and there are countless risks embodied in pitfalls of the moment, the nature of Obama’s victory is a basic expansion of possibility and wellbeing for us all. It is not merely symbolic. What some might refer to as the symbolic value of his victory means we all now live in a more complete, more self-aware, more evolved society, and our democracy —the role each of us might play in its work— is stronger and more dynamic for it.
President-elect Obama may be facing the single most challenging array of crises since FDR took office during the Great Depression. On most policy fronts that need tending, he will inherit a disastrous situation, each of which requires genius strategies, a cooperative political environment, and funding that will have to come from somewhere. Obama won in part because his consistent, comprehensive message was not just about hope, it was about a framework within which such effective leadership might be possible.
We should all, no matter what our political persuasion, at this moment look with an open heart at the real matter of Barack Obama’s political philosophy, his policy goals, his approach to governing, look with an open mind at what it is he proposes and what he asks of us, as a united people, and wherever possible rise to the occasion of embodying that goal of an inclusive politics, a politics that draws good ideas from wherever they may come and replaces barriers and battlements with dialogue and reason.
This is our chance to be what we always say we hope to be. This is, as Obama said in his victory address last night, the beginning of a period of historic change across our nation and political system, not the culmination of it. But it is vital to recognize that this change is not about one ideology being imposed on those who believe in another —Sen. Obama was always clear this was not the nature of his vision—, but about a cooperative rising to meet the challenges of our times, with a renewed civic passion and a renewed willingness to work together toward a better world.
CafeSentido Partner Sites:
[...] A Long Time Coming, a Victory for Us All I have long felt, as so many Americans do, a profound emotional attachment to the ideals we always speak of when we talk about our founding revolution, our enlightened democracy, our progress toward a freer and more just world. And I have always aspired to see those ideals put on display, not just by an historic moment, but by the collective awareness of millions of impassioned American citizens. This moment in history is a sea change in our collective mindset, and a victory for all Americans. [...]