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I loved Jon Stewart's summary of the SOTU. Maybe it was insulting or a bit of a downer for the President to focus so much on the negatives, but personally I'm glad the he used the opportunity to give a big F-U to everyone who has stood in the way of actually substantially addressing the problems we face as a nation (including both Republicans and Democrats, the media, big business, and even himself), because frankly that's how a lot of us are feeling about it all too. The issues are too serious to keep up all this partisan/media crap. Enough with tea parties and false accusations and empty rhetoric and obstructionism - we've got problems to solve. Let's get on with it.

We got spanked the other night, and we needed it.

Labels: Obama, politics

I found this video to be rather inspiring:



Basically the video is about being the change we want to see in the world by pledging to do simple, practical things to make the world a better place - things like helping at a food pantry, smiling more, giving to Unicef, buying a hybrid, or conserving water. This is what I found to be inspiring - it's an important reminder that each of us can do something to help others, no matter how big or small.

The video also has a slight political overtone as well, since it begins with a quote from President Obama, and has a couple of pledges about "being of service to Barack Obama". It was these aspects of the message that led parents in the Salt Lake City area to protest it being shown at an elementary school assembly (the article about this is how I encountered the video in the first place). Personally, I agree that it probably shouldn't have been shown in a public school context. And I have to admit that I too was a little uncomfortable with the pledges to be of service to Obama. While I generally like our President and (mostly, though not entirely) agree with his agenda, I'm not simply going to blindly follow wherever he leads without question. Besides which, I also agree with the critic in the article who pointed out that Obama is here to serve we the people, not vice versa. If they had pledged (as JFK exhorted us) to be of service to our country, that would be less problematic. But of service just to one man? I'm not down with that.

However, that's not all the protesting parents took issue with. They also went on to decry some of the other pledges as "leftist propaganda". For instance, as the article notes:

Gayle Ruzicka, president of conservative Utah Eagle Forum, said the video was blatantly political. She said other offensive pledges [besides ones not to give the finger while driving, and to replace one's obnoxious care with a hybrid] included... pledges to not use plastic grocery bags and not flush the toilet after urinating.

"It's very inappropriate to show a radical, leftist propaganda piece that political to children," Ruzicka said. "If parents want their children to learn about those things and do them in the home, wonderful, fine, but it's not the place of the school to show a one-sided propaganda piece to children without parents knowing about it."

Cieslewicz said such values should be decided in the home, not at school.

"They shouldn't be troubling our youth with the woes of the world and making them feel like we're in slavery or they have to worry about how many times they flush the toilet or if they have a plastic water bottle," Cieslewicz said, referring to pledges in the video to "end slavery."

These complaints I have much less sympathy for. Issues like energy and water conservation, and especially something like ending modern day slavery should not be seen as partisan political causes. These are things that should concern any responsible citizen and moral human being. Is it "leftist propaganda" to say that we should take care of God's creation? Is it "leftist propaganda" to declare that slavery is a moral evil and should be eradicated? Are these people so deeply entrenched in the culture wars that they can't bring themselves to support any cause that they perceive to be in any way associated with "the left", no matter how self-evidently righteous it is? Is it really more important for your side to "win", than for you to help millions of slaves go free?

At any rate, check this video out. It has a great message, even if it takes a couple of missteps. On a personal note, Emma was looking over my shoulder as I was posting it to my Facebook profile, and she insisted on watching it. Afterwards (and after I explained to her what a "pledge" was), she decided that she wanted her pledge for making the world a better place to be that she would say "I love you more". That, to me, was even more inspiring than the video. :)

Labels: Obama, politics

I watched Obama's speech last night and the Republican response by Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, and have to say that I'm just getting more and more fed up with the constant hypocrisy and seeming collective amnesia that comes through in all the Republican rhetoric. These past few weeks they've been continually criticizing Obama for things that they did themselves when their guy was in office. For instance:

1. They stonewalled Obama's stimulus package as profligate government spending, forgetting that they themselves approved similar bills (both the TARP bailout and the stimulus checks that were mailed out earlier last year) under Bush's leadership.

2. More generally, they criticize Obama for "big government" policies, ignoring that it was Republican controlled congress and Presidency that led to a massive expansion of the federal government and turned the surplus of the Clinton years into a trillion dollar deficit during the first six years of the Bush presidency.

3. And even on little things they seem to have amnesia about who is to blame. For instance, McCain tried to criticize Obama for the upgrade of the Presidential helicopter, which he claims cost more than Air Force One, conveniently forgetting that it was Bush who requisitioned this upgrade after 9/11. (Of course, given McCain's age, it may have very well been real amnesia.)

Republicans can go on trying to paint themselves as the party of "limited government" and "fiscal responsibility", but as it turns out, they only believe in those principles when they're not the ones in power. Until their actions match their words, I don't want to hear it anymore.

Labels: Obama, politics

This should be fun. PolitiFact.com has an Obameter, where they will keep track of how many of Obama's over 500 campaign promises he has kept, which he hasn't, and which are still in the works. Of course, this is politics, which requires that compromises be made, so naturally I don't expect that he will be able to keep all of them. And I'm sure that his political foes will use a site like this to attack him for the ones that he's failed to fulfill. However, I think it will be a good way to simply keep track of what he is accomplishing, to see that real change is actually happening. (For instance, after being President for less than a week, Obama has already made good on 5 of his promises and is currently working on 14 more.)

I heard about this on CNN, and they pointed out that Obama actually has a lot more promises to fulfill than Bush or Clinton before him ever did. In fact, Obama made more than twice as many campaign promises than either of his two predecessors, which I think goes to show that those who claimed he was all style and no substance weren't really paying attention. Nonetheless, that's a lot to live up to. Of course, I've already heard conservatives remarking that they hope (for the good of the country) that he doesn't actually fulfill his promises (since they obviously don't like his positions). Of course, since, generally speaking, I no longer share their particular political bent, I do hope that Obama fulfills many of his promises (though of course there are those that I dislike as well.) At any rate, I'm glad there's a website out there that will help all of us keep track of what our elected officials are in fact doing on our behalf.

Labels: Obama, politics

There were just so many inspirational lines in Obama's speech today, and I'll probably want to comment on more of them eventually. However, I was especially excited about this one:

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

Amen!

Labels: Obama, social justice

And even more than all the reasons in my previous post, this letter from Obama to his two young daughters, Sasha and Malia, illustrates why having him as our President makes me hopeful. He reveals both the heart of a father as well as his conviction to make life better for those children less fortunate than his own. If that truly remains his primary motivation, he will do well as a President.

Here's just an excerpt:

[Your grandmother] helped me understand that America is great not because it is perfect but because it can always be made better-and that the unfinished work of perfecting our union falls to each of us. It's a charge we pass on to our children, coming closer with each new generation to what we know America should be.

I hope both of you will take up that work, righting the wrongs that you see and working to give others the chances you've had. Not just because you have an obligation to give something back to this country that has given our family so much-although you do have that obligation. But because you have an obligation to yourself. Because it is only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential.

These are the things I want for you-to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world. And I want every child to have the same chances to learn and dream and grow and thrive that you girls have. That's why I've taken our family on this great adventure.

Read the full text here.

via Jesus Creed

Labels: Obama

I don't want to be naive about Obama and think that just because he's President suddenly everything will get better. Nor am I a political partisan to be overjoyed simply that we have a Democrat in the White House now. Not to mention that though there is far more that I agree with Obama on than I did Bush, I still don't agree with all of his positions or think he goes far enough in many areas (health care reform for instance). And of course my own Christian faith reminds me not to put too much hope in human leaders lest the State itself become an idol and object of devotion.

Nonetheless, I can't help but feel somewhat hopeful today. It's not just the inauguration of the first black President, though that alone is enough to make one hopeful about the progress made in race relations since Dr. King spoke of his great prophetic dream over 45 years ago. I am also hopeful because I honestly think Barack Obama will be a very good President. Nearly everything I've seen and read from him, I've been impressed by (and as a former Chicagoan, I've been following him quite a bit longer than most people from other parts of the country). Let me list just a few of the things that make me hopeful about him:

1) He's intelligent. By all accounts, he's the kind of guy who pays attention to details and really knows his stuff. In fact, he's a bit of a policy wonk from what I hear, which is a great thing in my book, since I want a President who goes beyond the speeches and rhetoric to pay attention to the specifics of what he is enacting.

2) So far he really has been a uniter, not a divider. That was his track record as a State legislator in Springfield, IL, and he has shown that same tendency in recent weeks as he's assembled his "team of rivals" for his cabinet, choosing people who don't always agree with him, but will give him more honest and diverse viewpoints to consider. He's also, on several recent occasions, expressed his openness to good ideas (especially in regards to fixing our economic crisis) no matter which side of the aisle they come from. I hope he keeps that up. And, besides his own actions, current polls show that he has an incoming approval rating of around 75%. Obviously the nation as a whole has largely come together behind this new president as well.

3) He really can, almost single-handedly, repair America's standing in the global community. It's no secret that Obama is practically a rockstar in many foreign countries. His name, his race, his personal story, not to mention his policies and positions, all speak to what is possible in this nation, and is inspirational to millions around the world. I hope this personal charisma will be combined with the new policies of openness and respect toward the rest of the world (no more of this unilateralism crap) to bring a new era of international cooperation.

4) Speaking of his personal story, I personally am given hope by the complexity of his background. Son of Kenyan and a white American, African-American in complexion (and therefore in the eyes of society as well) and yet raised by white relatives (and therefore more able than most to understand both perspectives), raised for a time in a foreign culture (and thus, once again, able to see the world through multiple different lenses), having given up a lucrative legal career to be a community organizer and use his skills to help those less fortunate... all of these experiences and more indicate to me that he is amply prepared to be exactly the kind of leader we need right now - someone able to weigh multiple viewpoints and competing truths, and choose a course based on what is good for all, not just for his own party, or even just his own nation. (BTW, for a great, and closer look at Obama's story, check out the new book by my friends Bob and Ariele, Barack Obama: An American Story.)

5) Obama's election campaign was one of the best I've ever seen. He raised his money (mountains of it) not from the usual cabal of special interest groups and lobbyists, but from millions and millions of ordinary Americans. He avoided the dirty politics and smear tactics that have become almost standard these days, even when his opponent was sinking to that level. By all accounts he listened to his campaign staff with respect, and yet was not controlled by them, sometimes sticking by his own convictions despite what might have seen most politically expedient (for example, his choice to respond to the Rev. Wright controversey by giving a substantive speech on race relations - written by himself, not a speechwriter - rather than just sweeping it under the rug as many pundits and advisors thought he should do). And through it all, he responded to every attack and every crisis with his usual implacable calm, cool-headedness. Let's hope he carries all these traits with him into running the country as well.

6) Not to mention that his wife is just really cool. Just as smart as he is and a lot funnier, though also as down-to-earth as you'd expect from a Midwestern mom from a working-class background, Michelle Obama will make a great First Lady.

And all this has mainly to do with who he is or what he's done in past. I won't even get into the things I'm hopeful about regarding his policies and campaign promises. All I want to say is that I think he is definitely the right person for this job right now. He is what America and the world needs at this moment, and while I know he will never be able to live up to all of our hopes, I don't think it is illegitimate to still be hopeful.

I also know that if Obama is going to fulfill any of these hopes it will have to be because we help him. As Jim Wallis often says (and as Obama has ripped off from him) "we are the ones we have been waiting for". Now that Obama is in office, it's time for all of us to get to work to fix the problems confronting us, and to make this world a better place, not just for Americans, but for the "least of these" all over the world. And that's one more thing I like about Obama - he's constantly reminding us of that fact. Over and over again in his campaign he referenced the fact that none of this was about him alone - it's about all of us pulling together and working together to realize our hopes. And I do have hope that that is possible.

Labels: Obama, politics

I still have too many thoughts swirling in my head to write anything coherent about the election of Barack Obama. There are just so many things that I want to say about it. The first black president. The first multi-racial president. The first postmodern/post-Boomer generation president (can we finally get past the 60's?) The first president in my lifetime that I'm actually excited about. A president that can actually restore the respect that America once had among the world community. The message that someone with his face, his name, and his background communicates to the world about what America can be.

The election itself excites me too - the record turn-out, especially among younger voters. The shift of power/momentum to a younger, more diverse, and more progressive America. A new kind of campaigning that refused to stoop to mud-slinging, that maintained integrity and a steady hand, and that relied on the people for funding, rather than on big corporate lobbyists and other wealthy special interests groups. The landslide victory for Democrats, which I believe is necessary in order to start fixing so much of the damage caused by the Bush Administration over the past 8 years.

Anyhow, I'd love to talk more about all these aspects and more, but I just don't have the time and can't seem to pull my thoughts together coherently enough anyway.

Labels: Obama, politics

First off, I have a lot of respect for Reverend Michael Pfleger, the white pastor of Saint Sabina Catholic Church, a primarily African American congregation on the south side of Chicago. He has been a passionate activist in those neighborhoods, working to make life better for the people there for decades now. That said, I think his recent comments about Hillary Clinton, accusing her of being a white elitist and possible racist, were totally wrong and inappropriate.

Nevertheless, I'm sick of the media making a huge deal out of yet another shocking thing said by some pastor, and trying to pin it on the candidates he supports. I'm especially fed up with the huge double standard in the media. Conservative religious leaders (Falwell, Robertson, Hagee, Dobson, etc.) have been saying crazy and offensive shit for years and yet usually it barely makes the news and of course almost never sticks to whatever Republican candidate they are backing. And yet all of a sudden the news media has discovered that liberal pastors have passionate opinions too, and sometimes express them in rather extreme ways, and have apparently decided that Democrats, and Obama in particular, need to be held accountable for every wacky thing these ministers say, regardless of the politicians' own views are or how often they denounce said pastors.

Enough already. Let the politicians speak for themselves and let the pastors fill their necessary role as prophetic voices to those in power, without assuming that either one represents the other. The news media needs to find something better to talk about - like howabout the actual issues for a change? (Which is why I was glad to see that the Obama campaign chose to spend yesterday talking about their Iraq policy rather than give undue attention to this largely irrelevant story.)

Labels: Obama, politics

From The Audacity of Hope:

I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face as a country. It's what keeps us locked in "either/or" thinking: the notion that we can have only big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate forty-six million without health insurance or embrace "socialized medicine".

It is such doctrinaire thinking and stark partisanship that has turned Americans off to politics. This is not a problem for the right; a polarized electorate - or one that easily dismisses both parties because of the nasty, dishonest tone of the debate - works perfectly well for those who seek to chip away at the very idea of government. After all, a cynical electorate is a self-centered electorate.

But for those of us who believe that government has a role to play in promoting opportunity and prosperity for all Americans, a polarized electorate isn't good enough. Eking out a bare Democratic majority isn't good enough. What's needed is a broad majority of Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and independents of goodwill - who are reengaged in the project of national renewal, and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interests of others.

I think he makes a good point about how those who have an ideological interest in making government as ineffectual as possible have nothing to lose by degrading the tone and respectability of political debate. I remember arguing almost exactly that point myself many years ago in a college paper, back when I was a Rush Limbaugh-loving, Republican/Libertarian that thought that the best government was as little government as possible. So if partisan polarization was a way of limiting the government's influence, I thought that was a good thing.

Labels: Obama, politics

Andrew Sullivan had an interesting article in The Atlantic Monthly recently about Barack Obama. His premise is that Obama, by virtue of his upbringing, his racial complexity, his age, and his experiences is probably the first presidential candidate who can actually move us beyond the Left-Right, Black-White, Secular-Religious polarities of the Civil Rights/Vietnam Era which have been defining American politics ever since the 1960s (what Sullivan calls "Boomerism"). He suggests that what more and more Americans have in common these days is this sense of complexity that Obama embodies - a feeling that the old categories don't describe us very well anymore, that we are "both/and" rather than "either/or". In other words (my own, not Sullivan's), Barack Obama is the first postmodern candidate.

Towards the end of the article Sullivan sums up his point like this:

To be black and white, to have belonged to a nonreligious home and a Christian church, to have attended a majority-Muslim school in Indonesia and a black church in urban Chicago, to be more than one thing and sometimes not fully anything—this is an increasingly common experience for Americans, including many racial minorities. Obama expresses such a conflicted but resilient identity before he even utters a word. And this complexity, with its internal tensions, contradictions, and moods, may increasingly be the main thing all Americans have in common.

Throughout the article Sullivan also details several other specific ways that Obama bridges old divides; in his approach to faith, for instance. He points out that Obama had a Muslim father, was raised by a secular humanist mother, and converted to Christianity as an adult. His faith is genuine, and yet complex. He understands and speaks (authentically) the evangelical language of conversion, and yet without embracing the absolutism of evangelical extremes. Sullivan quote a speech by Obama given last year in which he describes his religious conversion. I was thoroughly impressed. Obama said:

One Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, he would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to his will, and dedicated myself to discovering his truth and carrying out his works.

That is an expression of faith that I, and I believe many others, can identify with. Elsewhere Obama has said “Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts.” That kind of "faith with humility" is something that resonates well with a postmodern generation.

Another point Sullivan makes about Obama's bridge-building abilities is in regards to the image of America that he will project to the world. He asks us to consider the following hypothetical situation:

It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.

It's an interesting, and electrifying possibility in my opinion. In a way that no other candidate can, Obama typifies both what America really is and what it ought to be - diverse, complex, inclusive, welcoming. The article makes a number of other excellent points, and does a good job of describing many of the reasons that I do support Obama, as I've said before, not as my "ideal" candidate (if such a thing exists), but as one that I could nevertheless get behind. If he wins, Obama could become our first truly postmodern president.

Labels: Obama, politics