Waiting, For The World To Change

I think the most interesting thing about the reaction to the speech is how muted it is.  His usual supporters love it.  His usual critics dissent somewhat from it, but not by much. But mostly, people hold back.

I agree.

For what it was, I think it was a graceful, thoughtful, well put together speech.  He answered some questions.  He gave Wright, and his own politics, context. He gave shape to the perspectives we have on race in this country and stated, honestly and simply, the function of anger, particularly anger in the black community, on these issues.

But another question nags... what was that speech?

Riverdaughter criticizes the oblique nature of his observations of the racial tensions within the campaign; I think that's debatable, but I think "oblique" explains some of the trouble the speech leaves in its wake.

All along, the problem I've had with Obama's campaign has been the underlying vagueness.  The notion of "change" has been non-specific, the policy proposals largely absent in his rhetoric and remarks (I know, I know, it's all on his website). And, this, at the end of his speech, is as close as he comes to any kind of specific proposals about "change" in the way our government and our politics work:

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

Mr. Obama "wants" to talk about many things... and yet he never quite does.  He wants us to change these, admittedly, difficult things... but offers few proposals as to actually how we might go about that, not in his speeches, and only in the most general outlines elsewhere.  I have no problem, none at all, agreeing with his assessment of the nature of the tensions over race in this country.  Absolutely none.  But there were two additional things this speech needed to do, to really break through the storyline thats developed in the past few weeks  - a specific notion of change, and more than an exhortation to come together, a sense of what we do when that happens, or what we do, when we can't.

One speech can't change where we are as a nation; I said it before, and I'll say it again (and probably more often, as the campaign continues).  But the reason this campaign isn't over, the reason why we have a choice, and in many ways, it's so damn difficult, is because Obama represents the best of who we are.  It's just that Mrs. Clinton represents, for me anyway, the best of what we can do with what we've got. 

I'd love to say we need both; but what i think we need most, is the part where we work within the framework we have, not sail off in search of a frame we like better. I want us to be better people, I want the world to change. I want to believe in the world Barack Obama sees.  But it's not the one we have, and not everyone is going to get on board for where I - or Barack Obama - want to go. Not everyone is on board for that journey, and we'll wait a long, long time... waiting for the world to change, for people to be better than they are, and not hold the resentments they hold. That's the reality. It's not pretty, or nice. And it won't change with a speech. And I think what's happened, this afternoon, is that lots of people are too polite, or too nervous, to say it. Consider it said.

Comments

[BEW]

But do you think it help with the Pastor Wright problem? My concern is that while this may not hurt him in the primaries, it may hurt him in the general election. What do you think?

[CognitiveDissonance]

I want us to be better people, I want the world to change. I want to believe in the world Barack Obama sees. But it's not the one we have, and not everyone is going to get on board for where I - or Barack Obama - want to go. Not everyone is on board for that journey, and we'll wait a long, long time... waiting for the world to change, for people to be better than they are, and not hold the resentments they hold. That's the reality.

That's a very apt assessment. As a baby boomer, it reminds me of my journey from the idealism of the '60's and all the progressive movements to the realism of where we are today. It's not that I've ever lost the yearning for racial justice, civil rights and acceptance for women and gays, responsible environmentalism. It's just that I now understand the very real obstacles to achieving those goals. I see that dichotomy in this election. Obama represents who I might have voted for in my youth. Hillary represents what I understand is needed to overcome the obstacles and move ahead.