I’ve pinpointed what it is that I find appealing about Obama. It’s his rhetoric of hope. I don’t like cynicism, exclusion and fear in my politics any more than I enjoy it in my personal relationships. It’s one reason why I fled institutional religion.
In his Iowa victory speech, Obama repeated one of his favorite refrains–that his campaign is about moving away from the tired old debates and divisions. “We are choosing hope over fear,” he said.
These words strike me to my core because they define my daily struggle. It’s easier to hide behind shades and iPod headphones than it is to strike up a conversation with a stranger and make a real human connection. It’s easier to trudge away in a secure but unpromising job than it is to pursue what truly makes you feel alive. It’s easier to have someone spoon feed you watered-down ambrosia than it is to strike out to find Heaven on your own.
Fear is easier than hope. The Bush Administration rules by fear. Most candidates in this campaign try to appeal to voters through fear. Given this context, there truly is an audacity of hope. And in this one instance, hope has conquered fear.
Here’s a few more excerpts from an earlier, pivotal Iowa speech:
This party…has always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we led not by polls, but by principles; not by calculation, but by conviction…a party that offers not just change as a slogan, but change that America can believe in.
Lobbyists have not funded my campaign, they will not work in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people.
I don’t want to spend the next year or the next four years re-fighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s. I don’t want to pit red America against blue America. I want to be the president of the United States of America.
I believe the American people are tired of fear and tired of distractions and tired of diversions. We can make this election not about fear, but about the future. And that won’t just be a Democratic victory; that will be an American victory.
That’s why I’m asking you to stand with me; that’s why I’m asking you to caucus for me; that’s why I am asking you to stop settling for what the cynics say we have to accept. In this election — in this moment — let us reach for what we know is possible. A nation healed. A world repaired. An America that believes again.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Deborah // Jan 4, 2008 at 6:57 am
From Ezra Klein this morning:
Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I’ve heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves, to the place where America exists as a glittering ideal, and where we, its honored inhabitants, seem capable of achieving it, and thus of sharing in its meaning and transcendence.
Obama is the only politician who has reduced me to tears (for a good reason). The first time was 2004 — the convention speech. The second time was last night as he channeled FDR’s 1933 refrain that hope is not “foolish optimism,” but a conviction that something better is possible:
“But we always knew hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it.”
2 Lessie // Jan 4, 2008 at 7:52 am
You know, I was really pretty set on voting for Hillary this time around. My deepest woman wants so badly for a woman to finally be there in the spotlight, making real decisions for our country and while I didn’t agree with everything she said (although I have yet to agree with everything any of the candidates say), I was ready to vote for her.
But really, Obama’s platform of change and hope really does speak to me and I’ve been seriously considering changing my mind. Even though it’s not always true, sometimes a lack of experience really can bring a fresh, unsullied look at things and make things better all around.
3 Deborah // Jan 4, 2008 at 8:14 am
The first paragraph is Ezra Klein, the second paragraph is me, the third is Obama. Problems with
4 Deborah // Jan 4, 2008 at 8:15 am
. . . tabs.
I think I’m sleep-deprived!
5 John // Jan 4, 2008 at 10:02 am
Deborah, thank you for sharing these great quotes! What a marked contrast with the Bush’s speeches, which are certainly not elevating or hopeful (more despair inducing).
I hope you get some sleep this weekend!
Lessie, I would really, really like to see a female president. Just not this one. I am thrilled, however, that a predominantly white heartland state was willing to caucus for a young black man over more established whites. Even if he doesn’t win the nomination, he’s already made history. I see Obama’s candidacy ultimately as a healing one.
6 xJane // Jan 4, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I would really, really like to see a female president. Just not this one.
yeah, I feel that…
7 Rich // Jan 4, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I’m hoping that my fear that this guy is gonna get assassinated is just the worry gene I inherited from my mom! What is not to like about this guy? Three cheers for the (hope of the) demise of the status quo!
8 Lessie // Jan 4, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Yeah, I have to agree that I’m thrilled at Iowa’s acceptance of a young black man as well. Would that Idaho could ever do the same. And yeah, I’m moving towards that opinion about Hillary as well. I want a woman president, but maybe it will have to be a different one. Some time later, maybe (I’m thinking about studying political science, maybe I could do it–HA!).
9 Rich // Jan 5, 2008 at 8:50 am
Huh, this seems curiously timely.
10 EDISON // Feb 22, 2008 at 6:32 am
To my friend burnt mind
Hope over fear BS
“Choose hope over fear – Kennedy “
In his New Year message the Liberal Democrat leader said Labour and the Conservatives were united in relying on fear and “populist scares”.
He said his party was the one of hope and was ready for a 2005 poll.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4137701.stm
Hope over fear
“Lula said it best: “Hope won over fear.” In a decisive victory with a record 83 million votes cast, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT) - known everywhere as Lula - became the President-elect of Brazil last night with 61 per cent of the total.”
My note: he was secretly addressing bankers!
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=2550
The modern origin may of all this propaganda technique probably was “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself “ . ( Roosevelt ), said in a very serious crisis, not unlike the one the USA may be in less than a year.
My advice: choose hard working real economy, over spending. Learn about the reality of the country, the powerful interests that drive aggression and exporting industries to countries that utilizes semi-slave workers , and than exports to people that buy what they don’t need with money they don’t have. Common people are managing being worse in character than politicians
11 Gregory Alexandr // Feb 23, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I believe HOPE is one step pass FEAR.
There is the ingrediant for people to understand the extend of the statement made above. Our local communities with our neighbors have been inundated with statements from the press, politicians regarding the issues of war, the threat of war, dangerous individuals or nations which pose threat to our country, FEAR within our imagination is real to you and I, threat of harm to our love ones can be the catalyst for the FEAR/HOPE canundrum. I say this because there are many of our neighbors who refuse to understand our country treats their tax paying base with senseless statements like, ‘We are choosing hope over fear.’ We never feel hope previous to fear.
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