DISQUS

Danielle · 1 year ago

You have expressed so eloquently my exact feelings about Obama. He is not the 2nd coming nor is he the solution to the world's problem's. I think alot of people who criticize Obama supporters get this very fact wrong. We are not children to be lead by the hand blindly.

The political game is complex and involves one hand washing the other. If anyone thinks that it doesn't, then they are naive. If anyone thinks that Obama doesn't operate in those parameters, then they don't get it.

I'm tired of voting against eveything. It's exhausting. I've spent the past 8 years pissed off and angry. I want to be FOR something again. Obama is it in all his imperfection. He has to operate within the system. He knows it. He wants to win. Period.

He is the beginning, not the end. He is a step in a series of steps for not just Black America, but America period. When you talk about his candidacy inspiring civic action and participation in a way not seen in a long time, you are spot on. Maybe that is THE most important part of his presence in this election.

Keep on speaking your passion and truth. There are those of us who hear it.

rawdawgbuffalo · 1 year ago

Tell you one thing, she makes America look good. he has a Coretta.

Gene Koo · 1 year ago

"There's a cost to all of this." You're telling me! I've taken at least 8 days off work and have been consumed every spare minute I have trawling for garbage data off any site I can find.

Re: who contributes. It's well known that the bigwigs make sure to fund both sides of any fight, because it's too risky to be on the losing side. That's how the Dems were still surviving during the dark days of W. The K Street project was doomed to fail because corporate lobbyists are too smart to believe in a permanent majority. Of course Obama's taking money from the rich and powerful. Your boy in Philly is already an aspiring bundler.

I'm not sure if you know Zephyr Teachout -- former online organizer, now law professor -- but check out her HuffPost about the campaign returning her contribution because she's a registered lobbyist.

Anyway, all that aside. You're right on when you write, "My support of Obama goes beyond him and perhaps eventually even against him. My support is based on his ability to activate the civic gene in many more Americans." This is exactly what has gotten so many hard-core community organizers behind Obama. My former teacher and mentor to many Obama (and some Clinton) organizers, Marshall Ganz, is supporting him for exacty that reason. A possibility of movement politics. Which is not the same as what has passed for "organizing" in the past few decades. Alinksy-style, interest-based organizing has reached the limits of what it can accomplish. Every few decades we need wholesale renewal, not of our interests, but of our values.

The current political climate tells us that we are all individuals and that the genius of America lies in our ability to do good by pursuing our individual interests. There is truth in that, and that truth drove Reagan to the White House in 1980, together with the desire/fear to win the Cold War. But like any ideology, that one has run its course and has become pathological.

There is a need to recognize that government can be part of the solution, not just an obstacle. (Even Bush acknowledged that today in TN). Because government isn't some faceless third party -- it's the embodiment of our collective desire to be a society together, to uplift each other. Virginia and Massachusetts call it a "commonwealth." It's the idea that patriotism means sacrifice for your fellow citizen. And Obama is the only candidate who regularly uses "sacrifice" in his stump speeches.

You write, "My support of Obama goes beyond him and perhaps eventually even against him." That, I think, is also right. Every successful movement eventually slows, stops, and becomes the new Establishment for the next wave to overthrow. So I have no doubt that, 10 or 20 years from now, we'll either be the Old Guard that the youth rail against, or be revolting from within. That's the way of things, as Hindus recognize in the deity figure Shiva (who clears the way for renewal). But in this moment, right now, our new story has not even begun to be told. It's to early to look forward and see the dim outline of our eventual disillusionment.

That's what the fierce urgency of now is about. Idealism and the will and vigor to change comes only in flashes. If you blink and miss the lightening, you won't get another chance for a long, long time.

Susan · 1 year ago

Dear Baratunde,

Your thoughts and the comments below it are what the whole world should see. Please keep spreading your word. Yes we can!

I get incensed when people reduce this to a race of a black man and a white woman. That has sooooo nothing to do with it

Signed: An ex HRC supporter who now has her priorities straight!

Steven Thaler · 1 year ago

I fail to understand why there is no vocal outrage that the super delegates in the democratic party is anti-democratic and that these individuals can kill the will of the people. This is a secretive organization and should be exposed as totally anti-democratic.

Steven Thaler · 1 year ago

if we are all democratic why do not voice our opposition to the super delegate concept in the democratic party!

Joel Pollak · 1 year ago

About 10 years about I would have been excited about Obama's "movement" politics. I'm not jaded, but I've seen firsthand the consequences of what happens when people go along with a campaign just because it's a campaign. That seems to be the core of Obama's message: the campaign itself is the story. That's not good enough for me anymore. I want to know where a campaign stands on the issues. And Obama's stands continue to disappoint me. Also, his attack on McCain was pretty lame. That's all you got, Senator O?

That said, I think the concerns about who Obama owes are somewhat overblown. Cornel West made the same criticisms of Obama a year ago (you can find it here at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXj3_pjTTwg). I thought it was below the belt, seriously--the reason Obama wasn't at that conference was that he was launching his damn campaign! Interests are part of the political game, and that won't change, no matter how "engaged" we all become in politics. I think West was really unfair--and now he's rushing to endorse Obama, without so much as a decent apology, which is rather hypocritical. Enough said about that.

I'm not cynical about the possibilities of political engagement. I think politics is rewarding. But one thing I've learned, after several years in the political game, is that politics isn't everything. And thank God. What we need politics to do is make it easier for people to pursue their dreams. That means politics needs to get the hell out of the way most of the time. I'm more than skeptical of Obama's "movement" politics. I'm suspicious of it, because he's basically asking people to write him a blank check. We don't know who he really is--and he spends most of his book telling us that he doesn't really know, either. I'm less worried about who he owes and more concerned about what he actually believes.

t-c · 1 year ago

Thank you for this post. You express eloquently EXACTLY how I feel as well. This campaign is the first time I have ever 1) donated to a political campaign, 2) voted in a primary, 3) volunteered (phonebanking) in a political campaign. Pretty much most of my attention, free time, and non-free time in the past few weeks has been taken up with an obsessive googling of the news, reading of online discussion posts and blogs, and listening to analysis on NPR.

Obama is not the panacea to America's or the world's problems, but the grassroots level organization that he has inspired is the beginning of taking this country in a more positive and more engaged direction. I'm grateful to him for restoring my sense of civic duty, making me realize that THIS is what politics SHOULD be like, and restoring my hope for this generation. Frantz Fanon has said "each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it." While most Americans might not be quite ready for Fanon, they are on their way....