As I watched President Obama give his victory speech (*throwing out a fist bump to all*) last night, it was clear he was tired. But I have never seen him look more determined (those hand slaps on the side of the podium are the "tell").
I thought is was one of the most powerful speeches I've ever heard him give. Of course that doesn't mean that he said anything we haven't heard from him before. But those of us who understand what he's trying to do know that he'll just keep at it until we get it. He's going to keep working to knock down those walls of cynicism and division...asking us to find our common ground as the basis for hashing out our differences, claim our citizenship, and sustain our hope.
Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won't change after tonight. And it shouldn't. These arguments we have are a mark of our liberty, and we can never forget that as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter — the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.UPDATE: Be sure to read xpostfactoid's take on the speech...absolutely brilliant analysis!
But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America's future...
Now, we will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to get there. As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It's not always a straight line. It's not always a smooth path. By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock, resolve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward.
But that common bond is where we must begin...
The role of citizens in our democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us; it's about what can be done by us together, through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That's the principle we were founded on.
This country has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that's not what makes us strong. Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores. What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on Earth, the belief that our destiny is shared - that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations, so that the freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights, and among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great...
And tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope.
I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the road blocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.
America, I believe we can build on the progress we've made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunities and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or who you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight. You can make it here in America if you're willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America.
He has successfully branded the Democrats as the party of cooperation and Republicans as the party of division. GOP helped enormously. In raw numbers, it will mean that Dems have a much larger pool of possible voters.
ReplyDeleteThere was a lot of talk from GOPers who are on the outs about how the party has to change, etc. But if they don't pander to their base, they lose the 27% who approved of Cheney's performance in 2007. You take them out and the GOP can't win Alabama. At the same time, you can't appeal to the 27% and at the same time appeal to people of color, or women. Any choice they make they lose a ton of voters.
I can't see how the GOP squares the circle. Being "winners" is so important in their rhetoric, but they need to put themselves in a position where they lose a couple cycles. They need to go in the wilderness for a while if they're to survive. I don't think they can. Then again, I didn't think San Diego would elect Filner.
I loved this speech. I think he saw it as the last speech of his Presidential campaign, and he wanted to savor the raucous atmosphere with crowd going wild, feeding off of that energy and cranking it up to 11. You can't really do that in an inaugural address, or state of the union speech. I think it's his favorite part of campaigning.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a perfect bookend to his keynote in 2004, which I would argue was the first speech of his presidential campaign. He announced himself to the world then--ready or not, here I come. I definitely heard the echoes reverberating last night!
On a personal note, I was glad that he hit a rhetorical bullseye (that he missed in 2004) with this: "We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America." This, to me, is the quote that people 100 years from now will associate with Barack Obama.