Why I am supporting Barack Obama by Bill Jamieson
Why I am supporting Barack Obama
by Bill Jamieson
Why am I, a 64-year old white man, turning away from my demographic colleagues and supporting Barack Obama? The answers are found in Tryon, North Carolina: Hunter, Smith and Carson, my three grandchildren. My greatest concern is about the world they will inherit, and I feel a deep sense of urgency about the need for generational change in this country.
Most of my adult life has been spent in and around politics as a Democrat and a child advocate. While my generation of political activists (both on the right and the left) can be proud of our many accomplishments, we must also be honest about the failures. We should recognize that the mess our country finds itself in today is owed largely to our failures of leadership, our inclination to rename and recycle old solutions to new problems, and our reluctance to seek common ground by recognizing the truth in positions of people with whom we disagree.
The fact is that we are living on the borderland of time, hinged between 20th-century institutions and structures, and a 21st-century world yearning for fresh vision. Two paths diverge along the border: one honors the natural human quest for certainty as it circles around the status quo. The other follows a path into unknown spaces, spaces where a transformed, life-giving world can be birthed.
People (such as Obama) who follow the latter path will become modern-day revolutionaries, loved and supported by some while despised and feared by others. They will encounter a journey of twists and turns, winding through the complexities and struggles of our culture as they cross the border. These revolutionary leaders will employ new ways of approaching the seemingly intractable problems that confront us, risking the loss of what they have known in order to find promise in transformation.
Their biggest struggle will be with the keepers of the status quo, those whose power is rooted in complex institutions and practices that are revered but obsolete. These old institutions, programs, methods and thinking might offer short-term remedies. They might even succeed in temporarily preserving power for the existing hierarchy, but they will eventually lead to disintegration and decay.
This old order is guided by lobbyists and action groups whose vision is focused on today. It spans the political, social, business, media, education and economic spectrum of American life: from teachers unions to proponents of school vouchers, from universal health care advocates to the insurance industry, from corporate-size farms to advocates for food stamps, from the business/industrial complex to environmentalists. Ours has become a nation of factions and competing interest groups, and our government is frozen and polarized, a purveyor of incrementalism rather than an agent of visionary change.
The new leaders will be lobbyists for the future, the agents of a new vision. They will move beyond applying bandages and splints to broken structures and seek healing for our nation. To do this, to cross the border and walk through the hinged-door of time into the promise of transformation, they will need to redefine both problems and solutions. They will need to seek collaboration across political and ideological boundaries, and they will need to be open to new ideas.
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about America in the 1830s, but he knew then what faces us now: after a nine-month journey through the country he observed that “ A new political science is needed for a world altogether new” and that the first duty imposed on leaders of nations is “to adapt its government to time and place, to modify it according to circumstances.” We did that as a new nation, and it is time to do it again.
The problems facing us are large, and often don’t have unassailable right or wrong answers: war and peace, international relations, health care, social security, decaying infrastructure, economic disparity, environmental degradation, global warming, immigration, fiscal responsibility, and education. If we are going to successfully engage these and other crucial issues our leaders must draw us into a national conversation rather than defending an ideology or personal bias. Our goal must be to reach a consensus around the common good, rather than responding to organized pressure groups with a vested interest in the outcome. We need to learn how to listen to one another with an ear toward finding consensus, instead of for the purpose finding a weakness so that we can level a counter argument.
All of this comes naturally to Barack Obama; it is part of his political DNA. It is also the reason he seems painfully uncomfortable when the practitioners of old-style politics try to force him into their mold of bitter campaigning, one that is outdated but still operative in our election system. The world that Hunter, Smith and Carson will inherit holds boundless opportunities… both for success and failure. Barack Obama’s vision, intellect and strength of character hold the promise for finding the road to success and I am ready to follow him.
Friday, May 16th, 2008No Comments »
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