I am glad you posted this Sara. If you hadn't I was going to.
OOOHHHHHH!
This will SLAY the Republicans. I can just see them falling down in the streets, all over America, yelling:
OBAMA, OBAMA, KUMBAYA, KUMBAYA!!
YESSSSS! This will ABSOLUTELY win is the election.
We can now all fold up our tents and go home.
It's not oratory if it doesn't argue for something definite. Particularly if it only propounds things you can't argue with. Hell if change is your only metric Bush has been the biggest agent of change in the post war period. You have to be specific about the ways and means before a set of objectives can be good things.
Pull up true oratory by MLK, JFK, FDR, RFK, Lincoln, Churchill, any of the founding fathers or even Cicero. Read it. Notice that you can immediately tell the most critical issues of the day, and very specific positions and associated ways and means. Also notice two things about those positions: first,they are obvious and accepted facts now. Second, back then they were literally "stuff that could get you killed" and a large percentage of those orators got killed for saying what they said. That is true oratory, unpleasant truths, hard choices, arguing what is right rather than what is popular, and having the sheer guts to not only say it but say it happily and forcefully even when it may well cost you your life.
That's oratory, get back to me when you see some.
You should use this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T...cU&
feature=user
It's 4:29. The one you have isn't synced right.
Great video. I loved the little bits of spanish and sign language and the instruments. 11/10.
... back then they were literally "stuff that could get you killed" and a large percentage of those orators got killed for saying what they said.
SteveK | 02.02.08 - 6:32 pm | #
A lot of slaves got killed for saying, Yes We Can be free.
A lot of women were burned at the stake for saying Yes We Can control our own pregnancies and have childbirth without pain.
A lot of gays have been killed for saying Yes We Can love and partner with those of our own gender.
A lot of women around the globe have been killed for saying Yes We Can earn our own living, walk freely without male escorts, vote and lead in government.
A lot of men and women have been killed for saying Yes We Can love each other although we have different skin pigmentations.
Yes We Can is a radical thing to say. It leaves an open space for each of us to fill in.
We know instinctively that the fulfillment of Yes We Can's details is up to each of us in our own lives and in our own way. Yes We Can invites us to participate directly.
And John Edwards is out, so who are you going to wait for, SteveK?
I’m going to see if I can cross-post from a blog by a woman who goes by jm. She has knockout post up about Obama’s Denver appearance. Jm is a performer who really gets crowd energetics. This is from the post’s comment thread:
I was utterly amazed when I watched his SC victory speech, the first I'd heard and seen, and you're right, even on TV he's electrifying. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing and that this revolutionary was actually nearing the WH. He's so serious. He never smiles when he speaks, never panders, and still the people feel joy.
I've never seen a politician like him here and I'm glad I got to see him live.
It's going to take a miracle to get him to lead our country, but then, it's taken a miracle to get him where he is now.
Steve, I think there's a potent argument to be made that telling this kind of story about what America stands for -- and who we have been and can be again -- is not particularly safe these days. If you don't think that's the case, look at the above comments -- including yours.
Nobody dares to consider that he might be right. We're all too jaded and cynical to buy it now -- and that cynicism is, quite literally, killing us as a culture and a nation. Every other problem we face -- and they're all huge -- will just keep waiting out there until we take the first step, and start believing that we're competent to fix it, and trusting each other enough to knock off the hard-case act and make the attempt.
Until we take the first step, there's probably not much left that's even worth salvaging. And people who aren't willing to allow themselves even that much hope are dooming all of us to failure.
This is excerpted from a post at http://www.raginguniverse.blogspot.com/, by a blogger who goes by jm.
The Obamalypse
The United States is having a religious experience. From far left field in the cosmos came a lean, energetic upstart who was chosen as the receptacle for this collective urge. I guarantee he's as shocked as you are. It's not over yet. … [M]y whole life has been a religious experience. So this is right up my street, a sensation I adore …. Needless to say, I was a high school cheerleader, and the most exciting experiences back then were the Friday afternoon pep rallies right before the night games with all their electric wattage and blasting tubas. Our school had the best football team in the Southern Tier of NY state.
So I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Wednesday I attended the Obama rally in Denver to get a clearer picture of what is going on and here is my report ...
I got there early in the morning as the line was forming outside Denver University's Magness Arena. It was cold, but I wisely wore one of my vintage thrift store fake furs so I was warm. I immediately made friends with the two gentlemen behind me, one white, one of a deep brown hue. We spent the next couple of hours discussing the government and the solutions to our country's problems. Then a woman joined us, a political science professor, and we talked political philosophy. When I told her my theory of collective control she said, "That's exactly what Marx said", then went on to state her concurrence with Marxist theory in its unadulterated state.
Finally 9000 of us were admitted to the arena. 10,000 more were in the gym and on the lacrosse field. We decided to stick together but I lost my boyfriends in the crowd. Then I saw them waving vigorously in unison from the sea of red seats, beckoning me to rejoin them, which I did. We continued the political conversation.
I was shocked by the absence of loud music. There was none. Just the murmur of the people. The feeling was expectant, but subdued. Eventually some speakers appeared to warm up the audience and after that, the music started. Again I was taken aback. It wasn't loud and the sound system was exquisite. First came James Brown singing I Feel Good, then a mellow Tracy Nelson number. Next was a laid back funky dance song, followed by Shout and a few more tunes, all low and mellow as the arena filled to the rafters.
A local football hero then took the stage in one of the most poignant moments of the morning. He said how nervous he was being up there. The audience was entirely sympathetic and helped him through, this large man who plays football before 70,000 people regularly. He again declared his nervousness. He was sweet.
Next the program started with the introduction of Caroline Kennedy and a feeling welled in my body. I didn't like Jackie and was neutral toward JFK, but I loved the kids. I remember her at the death and funeral and how tiny she was holding her mother's hand not understanding at all what was happening to her. And then there she was with her elegant grown-up body on the stage. She was soft-spoken. Very direct. Natural.
Then more waiting ensued while the main event spent time with the people in the gym and on the field. I've never seen that done before. Finally the music was revved up a bit and in came Barack Obama to the cheers of the crowd. Caroline sat behind him alone in a chair on the stage. She really is elegant, I must say.
Barack launched into probably the best speech yet of the campaign. His voice has gorgeous timbre and cadence, with good dynamics, not too dramatic, beautiful to listen to. Contrary to popular belief he is not mild, peaceful, and nice. Rather, he is defiant, outraged, serious, forceful, and fiercely determined. He has a way of clipping the ends of his phrases that sends rods of fire through the listener. Electric bolts. He talked about everything and the audience responded with most enthusiasm to the solution of the war situation and the rebuilding of the educational system.
One of the most exciting moments for me was when a lone voice in the arena shouted in reaction to something he said, sending the fire wand back into Obama. It was like a call and response in a church but much bigger. A strong voice. Spontaneous moment. Really good. Audience participation to the hilt.
He ended it with a short uplifting finale, shooting the fire in one last time and went onward to the handshaking, not his favorite part of the routine. The audience was satisfied and highly talkative as they meandered out into the winter afternoon.
"The future is not what somebody else tells us it is. The future is what we decide it's going to be."
He says, matter-of-factly.
"What a stunning piece of propaganda. And I mean that in a good way"
Yes, yes, yes. Gave me chills, it did.
Is it propaganda if the political movement didn't have much to do with making it or is it a group of people's belief being expressed? Outside of providing some speech footage I don't see a campaign doing much about this song.
In any case, may I suggest all those folks who seem so outraged at this man's effort to get America back on the right track try to at least find something substantive to complain about. The complaints are so shallow as to be worthless.
Yes America.
And so can you.
Get serious.
Get angry.
Get infuriated.
Get so pissed off that this worthless piece of douchebaggery was the first thing you saw this election cycle that made you actually think about the issues that will define your future.
Think universal health care.
Think affordable housing.
Think the global environment.
Think green US jobs.
Think green national productivity.
Think foreign debt reciprocity.
Think total economic destruction.
FUCKING THINK!!1!!11!!1!
This bullshit is 1937 era Soviet agitprop repackaged as 21st century mass opiate.
Get mad.
Get involved.
GET ANGRY!!1!!!11!111!!11!
Cheers.
Sara Robinson,
I really don't see Obama's having "devastating weaknesses". He has weaknesses but I would characterize none of them as devastating. His Senate office here in Illinois is not at all responsive to constituents and he is obviously not providing the leadership in the Senate that he should because he is campaigning. These are two things which I do not find appealing. But devastating?
Hillary DOES have a devastating weakness and its called the Iraqi AUMF in October 2002. I would not consider voting for Edwards in the primary because he voted for it and Hillary not even apologizing in the way Edwards did for that vote is unacceptable. She failed her most important test of leadership right there.
I'll take hope and action over cynicism anytime, because cynicism tends to make people disconnect - it certainly did that to me.
thanks for the report, Cherish.
I am amazed at the sarcasm and expectations combined during this campaign, first off, the song was done not in conjunction with the campaign AT ALL, they didn't know about. These folks made the song because the speech inspired them.
I would be suspicious if either candidate said they knew all the answers. I am more inspired to think we can figure it out together and more together. No one has all the answers before they get in the oval. They have the tools they bring with them, Brains, Integrity, A desire to serve, good people around them, good people supporting them.
Both candidates have plans, both have ideas. Who do you think comes with the best most complete tool box? And who can bring the most people along to help roll up their sleeves and do the work? That is your person....
that is your man/woman for the job.
not from the campaign, the song came about this way
Doesn't matter who did it. It's still a fascinating propaganda piece (and the fact that it came from elsewhere actually makes it more interesting, IMHO.)
Wengler, I find Obama's universal care plan too weak to support. It's doomed to failure, unless he changes it (and these things do change as the sausage gets made). On this matter, Hillary iright: You have to have mandated participation for the system to work. That's how every other functioning plan in the world works; and it's the hardest hurdle to get people over on the way to single-payer.
I also think that for all his happy talk, he's going to get steamrolled when the cons go off on him exactly the same way they did on Bill Clinton -- if not worse. There's a naivete there that I find dangerous. But if he teams up with a canny old dog as his VP -- someone who won't be played (Dodd? Biden? I thought maybe Richardson until the fool endorsed Hillary yesterday) -- he may do OK. People with high hopes have a long way to fall, which can ensure they get dashed much harder when it all hits the bottom.
Hillary is, well, Hillary. There's a Hillary who always wanted to be Eleanor Roosevelt; and one who's half-Nixon at heart. And you never know, in any given situation, which one you're going to get. AFAIC, the fact that she was on the Wal-Mart board and is part of the Fellowship creeps me out at least as much as her AUMF vote -- which I also think was an inexcuseable failure of conscience.
Like I said: devastating weaknesses on both sides. But they're the choice we've got; and, at this point, I'm happy enough to leave it up to my fellow Americans. We'll ride out the next few weeks and months, and all make up our minds together, I guess.
Gator, thanks for the backstory. The ability to inspire people to do something like this is, right there, a huge political gift that can take even a mediocre politician (and I'm not saying Obama is one) all kinds of places he might otherwise not be able to go.
In Massachusetts two years ago our David Axelrod-managed gubernatorial candidate used "Together We Can".
There were enough people pissed over sixteen years of failed Republican governors, sixteen years of failed Democratic machine candidates, and a Republican general election campaign worthy of Theodore Bilbo that "Together We Can" was enough to carry said candidate to a clear victory.
Well, today we know what the rest of the sentence was ... "Bring Casino Gambling to Massachusetts", a solution not mentioned in the election and I dare say not even conceived of as one for Massachusetts' stagnant economy. We expected new industry, not slot machines. The new governor is now quite unpopular among the shell-shocked activists that were once his base, and I doubt he'll be reelected. I certainly won't vote for him again.
That experience makes me very leery of another Axelrod candidate using a well-designed and beta tested propaganda strategy. Maybe Obama will live up to his supporters' expectations, as Patrick did not. But that's just a maybe, and that still isn't enough for me.
"This bullshit is 1937 era Soviet agitprop repackaged as 21st century mass opiate."
For some reason this comment made me realize what the song vaguely reminded me of: the "Old Shoe" song from "Wag the Dog." Which is not to say I don't love it.
"What a stunning piece of propaganda."
Indeed. And this increases my fear that Americans once again won't chose their next president based on good reasons, but simply on being hypnotised by an advertising camapaign.
GET ANGRY!!
I would prefer people to GET REASONABLE, but, so what, as long as they start to think. Thinking people may start wondering why the candidate whose every second word is CHANGE hasn't really changed so much in Senate so far. And they may ask themselves if they really want a candidate who has moved to the right of not-sovery-progressive Clinton in the last months, especially when it comes down to social security and healthcare.
Liberals fought very hard against republicans' social security fearmongering, and against republicans' arguments against unviersal healthcare. Where they misguided? Because now Obama comes along and stomps agaisnt exactly these two points in his speeches and ads. And still some believe he would be a good DEMOCRATIC candidate???
I am not a crazy fan girl and I know neither candidate is going to be perfect in anyway, But I want to hope. I want change. And I want to believe in something--- otherwise what is the point of fighting at all. I believe we can change things for the better. we have to.
As an old cynic, I know that no candidate is perfect, but i am surprised at how many people are against Obama simply because he offers hope. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with being positive and pleasant. He grew up in Chicago politics which is known for being rough and tumble... any naivete you are seeing is just not there in the candidate.
@Gray,
So who are you going to vote for since you seem to have problems with both candidates?
---------------------
...We're all too jaded and cynical to buy it now -- and that cynicism is, quite literally, killing us as a culture and a nation. Every other problem we face -- and they're all huge -- will just keep waiting out there until we take the first step, and start believing that we're competent to fix it, and trusting each other enough to knock off the hard-case act and make the attempt.
What we kimosabe?
Let me launch the first intergenerational ICBM into this argument.
Older folks are tired. You've spent your lives fighting sometimes for good reasons alot of times just for the sake of fighting but you are tired, jaded and cynical. I guess you've earned the right to be. But if I can speak completely inappropriately for those of use born after Vietnam and Watergate, those of us where the right wing takeover of the country was something that wasn't a personal affront to what we worked for when we did have the energy, could you who are our elders stop claiming that your weariness is like some bit of DNA that you can pass onto your children.
I'm still not sure that I support Obama but his message about this being about the future resonates with me.
I supported Edwards not just because of his compelling message but also because maybve just for once we could talk about something of substance not just old slights, draft dodging and Nixon.
He talked about what was going on right now and what needed to be done.
I can only hope that Obama will show that kind of focus.
But as Sara said and I agree with her the problems we face require not only competence but energy and yes god forbid hope.
For the older folks on the board, can you put your personal pain aside just for once? Can your recognize that yes the acrimony has killed a part of us and let us work TOGEHTER without all the fighting and fix things.
Believe me we young folks absolutely want to do the hard work. We know it won't be easy but you don't make it any easier when all you seem to offer is pessimism.
The Maryland primary is 2/12. With Edwards out I don't know who I will vote for. Hillary would unite the ReThugs and I find the Obama Cult very disturbing.
Obama, if he wins the nomination, would do himself a lot of good by picking Edwards as his VP.
Then there's *this* from the WAPO, FWIW:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp...8020102663.html
The orcs of the Elephascist Party and the Corporate Holodeck Media [the Elephascists' indispensable allies] have not spent the past 20-30 years smearing Obama in the way they've been smearing HRC. If and when Obama emerges as the nominee, they'll turn their smear factory against him.
"...but his messages about this being about the future resonates with me."
Messages are talk. Talk is cheap. Where's the beef? Why should I believe Obama isn't just another corporate servant like HRC?
Ivory Bill, I agree with you that talk is cheap but as a young person in this country I want to vote for someone that understands that we aren't going to solve our present problems with squabbles about where were you when from 40 years ago.
I'm not sure if Obama is the candidate for me but I do like that he isn't afraid to actually talk to young folks like me who will be doing the heavy lifting in cleaning up the mess we've created.
cherish:
A lot of slaves got killed for saying, Yes We Can be free.
A lot of women were burned at the stake for saying Yes We Can control our own pregnancies and have childbirth without pain.
A lot of gays have been killed for saying Yes We Can love and partner with those of our own gender.
A lot of women around the globe have been killed for saying Yes We Can earn our own living, walk freely without male escorts, vote and lead in government.
A lot of men and women have been killed for saying Yes We Can love each other although we have different skin pigmentations.
Notice a pattern, it's always Yes We Can very specific and controversial action. It's the latter part that's dangerous.
Bush says Yes We Can win in Iraq. Do you support him?
"Yes we can" isn't radical if you don't complete the sentence, its banal and more than a little pandering.
The more ambiguous you are the more popular you will be. But the downside to this is that a generic mandate is a foundation of sand. To quote some true American rhetoric:
These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Right now Obama seems to be a Rorschach test particularly for his supporters. I haven't seen more expressions like "I don't know if Obama...", "I think that Obama will..." and "We'll have to keep up the pressure on an Obama administration to ...". That's blind faith responding to charisma not a response to oratory.
Ask yourself, do you have to assume what Gore is really saying at the end of one of his recent speeches, same with Dodd on FISA or Kucinich on impeachment.
By the way, is it cynical to campaign with a blatant homophobe not renounce him, but later give a stirring speech on accepting gays and lesbians?
si, se puede.
SteveK --
"Don't tell me we can't change. Yes we can."
In the SC victory speech. Obama prefaced Yes We Can with stories of those who have stuck with Yes We Can when it looked impossible. Slaves who sought freedom, women who sought the vote, workers who sought fair labor laws. My favorite was the woman who had worked for Strom Thurmond, who now tutors inner city kids and works for Obama.
"Yes we can win in Iraq" --- for W's statement, the opposition was not based on CAN we, but SHOULD we? Look how many people (millions marching against the war all over the world in 2003) understood the lies at work in that agenda.
Are there lies at work underneath the hope Obama is inspiring? SHOULD we heal the nation? SHOULD we repair America? SHOULD we create more jobs, health care for all, peace between the races, peace between nations? SHOULD we rebuild the Gulf Coast for all classes, not just the rich?
Yes We Can, in the end, is not about what Obama can or can't do. It's what WE can do, as Americans and neighbors, human beings all.
BTW, h/t to baltogeek, most of that "doing" is going to be done by the young. If Yes We Can gets young Americans invested creating, sustaining and fighting for the changes that must happen, let the Obamalypse roll down like water.
And just to be clear, it's Hope I've been converted to -- not necessarily Obama. Because hope is not about the politician, it's about what happens between people who begin to see that they are not alone, and that what they share as a value is being openly celebrated as worthwhile and doable. Hope exists in people, and it's being stimulated by Obama's speeches. This hope in people is the basis for change. People, individually, can change when they have hope. Numbers of people can create change in their communities and in the larger society.
I have no doubt that a speaker who inspires people the way Obama is discovering he can inspire, cannot help but be changed by the words that come through him. I agree with the blogger jm whom I cross posted above: Obama is probably as shocked by all of this as we are.
Whether it's Obama or Edwards or Kucinich or some other voice, WE are the ones who are going to do the work, WE are the ones who have thirsted for hope, and WE are the ones discovering what is possible we look at each other in hope and start talking, listening, thinking, dreaming.
Anger exhausts and poisons us. Hope rejuvenates.
"If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark."
--St John of the Cross, 1542-1592
Funny, it's been more than an hour since I last posted, and there aren't any other posts.
Soooo ... at the risk of somebody accusing me of "hijacking" a thread ...
The words of the man who made the video might be helpful here.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wi...-
w_b_84655.html
Thanks Cherish, I tried to post that too, but haloscan was going wacky today. I thought it was just hitting us in Asia, but apparently not.
I went out and bought a black eyed peas cd yesterday just to say thank you. (plus it is good stuff)
I wanted to share some love with Baltogeek, too.
Oh, baby -- your four regulars here, all of us in our late 40s, have spent our lives on the interface point where boom gave way to X. We're just old enough to be considered part of the Boomer cohort; but too young to have sucked in the juiciest part of the 60s, or to have had our lives utterly defined by Vietnam. We've lived our whole lives in the shadow of Boomer sturm und drang -- and have seen enough that you'll often find us standing with the Xers over in the corner, rolling our eyes at the latest Boomer drama.
For my part, I am so damned over the 60s I could scream. To me, the biggest benefit of our two Dem front-runners is that, for the first time since 1992, we're not going to have to re-fight Vietnam as part of the election. I'm also noticing, for the first time, how really beaten-down the old Boomer activists are after 30 or 40 years of fighting mostly losing battles. They're getting battle-weary and gunshy. (Al Gore may be the poster boy here.) They've seen and done enough, and are ready to give it up to younger hands. And a lot of them, as you note, are simply past the reach of their last hope. I suppose if you'd been through what they've been through, you'd be pretty cynical by this point, too.
And so now it's our turn to take the revolution they started, and finish it. Their generational job was to tear down the old establishment, and work out the blueprint for what a new one should be. Ours -- X and Millennials -- is to do the work of rebuilding all those institutions on the foundation of those new values.
The forces arrayed against change are many and mighty. We are, without question, going to take some serious beatings and sustain some serious losses -- including, no doubt, our innocence.
So I'm glad to hear that you're up for it -- that you're willing to nurture hope and entertain some new visions. So am I. Let's get 'er done.
Count me in, Mrs. R. I'm in that same gray (tut-tut!) area, younger than Boomer and older than X. (There's a show tune in there somewhere ...)
I'm all for hope renewed, with eyes open and feet on the ground.
I'll save my hopes for the next world, thank you very much. Stick a fork in this one; turn it over; it's done.
IBW and baltogeek both might appreciate this post from Brilliant at Breakfast:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blog...le-in-
this.html
I know I sure did.
Maybe "Yes We Can" 2.0 can include Studs Terkel and Howard Zinn -- and Granny D, for that matter!
i don't have a horse in this race. as a canadian, my franchise is elsewhere. but as someone whose life will always be effected by the decisions of the behemoth to my south, i am constantly worried by how you folks conduct yourselves and chose to exercise your leadership. at this juncture there is not one potential candidate left that inspires anything better than creeping dread in my belly.
it is impossible not to be amazed and impressed by the often brilliant spirit and will of the american people. at the same time, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the sad dereliction of that wonderful document that is supposed to be the foundation of your republic, the constitution. obama is inspiring hope in a few and a seemingly orgasmic response in a few others (sorry cherish but i snickered through your mash note).
but from where i sit that vaunted hope is empty and without substance. i can't see that hope informing a plan of any real sort. where is the hope that one of the candidates will re-institute the rule of law, slam the doors on gitmo, return habeas corpus, dismantle domestic spying and surveillance operations and punish those that committed such crimes against the people?
hope is wonderful, the world needs more of it but it has to be focused when that hope is political. how does this hope extract troops from iraq, foster the actual rebuilding of that nation which was broken by the reckless actions of your nation? how does that hope rebuild the respect and trust in america that has been shattered and shat upon by nearly eight years of failure, arrogance, dishonesty and evil?
america has one hell of a lot to answer for and a herculean task ahead, you have allowed your nation to become the augean stables, how does obama actually plan to clean out the filth and corruption? pretty rhetoric and stump speeches set to third rate celebrity tunes won't manage it.
meanwhile, to your north, we're stuck with a snarling loaf of gwb inspired conservative putrescence and no viable alternative. sorry. hope is not something i see much of, no matter how dreamy the candidate might seem.
Pretty,
Yes, the work of changing what we have to what we want is monumental.
But how can we even begin without hope -- and without shared hope?
Cynicism never begins anything. Despair never begins anything. Anger does a little better, but is quickly exhausted and turns bitter.
Pretty, your concerns aren't unusual. But you're asking for the end result to be handed to you right at the beginning. Pretty - everybody who's so querulous - envision your OWN goal, your OWN result, your OWN plan, your OWN changes. The environment coming into being, energized by Obama, is your chance to take action.
We are at the beginning. Resepct it as a beginning. Obama is acting as a connector for people who already know, subliminally, everything he's saying but are shocked into wakefulness, readiness, openness, cheerfulness, inventiveness, willingness, by hearing - from his level of society - what we know to be real and true.
I'll try to make it clear again -- it is not the man himself who is so important, but the environment being built between people that is the bridge to change.
Because that change is OUR job. We do it ourselves. Person-to-person is where Yes We Can happens.
pretty shaved ape: "america has one hell of a lot to answer for and a herculean task ahead, you have allowed your nation to become the augean stables, how does obama actually plan to clean out the filth and corruption? pretty rhetoric and stump speeches set to third rate celebrity tunes won't manage it."
BINGO. Feel good speeches avoiding the hard choices we face will not produce a mandate worth having.
cherish, hopes can be dashed. determination and steadfast will are less easily breached. hope is not a plan. hope is a beautiful wish but many wishes never come true. the failure of the democratic congress and senate to manifest the will to stem this president's unitary lust for unfettered power undermines any hope that i might muster for the donkey party.
the stamina, stubbornness and self directed nature of the donkey, symbol of the democratic party, is little in evidence. what good is your hope in the face of the milquetoasts and eager collaborators of the current party? where is the stated will of the party to back a mandate for actual change as opposed to flowery rhetoric? where is the platform delineating those hard changes and turns away from the current course?
the current sad crop of democrats have no such will and your hopes are not being heard or heeded by them. your hope left the campaign early in the body of chris dodd, a man who had the will to confront the issues of justice, rule of law and peaceful repatriation of troops. his party would have none of him. your hope was ignored in the smirking treatment afforded dennis kucinich, a man whose ideals and intelligence are unmatched by any of the contenders left standing. why? optics and the dumbing down of the system.
this is the race for the people magazine version of the presidency. obama, clinton... whatever. while they are certainly willing to capitalize on your hope, they aren't campaigning on it or beholden to it. they are campaigning on the millions of dollars wrested from the clutches of the usual suspects. you can start your notion of change with all of the hope in the world. without a plan, hell, without demands made of your representatives and without those demands being heard and acted upon, hope is like a lovely pudding.
sure is sweet and then it is gone.
Pretty, I said it before and it is my point - don't look to the candidate, look to what happens between people when hope is aroused and alive. Look at what people - individual human beings - are able to create together when hope lives.
I am a middle-aged lady at the threshold of 50 years, I've worked in politics and non-profits and corporate and entertainment and I can tell a few stories about hopes crushed and disappointment ground into my face.
Frankly, it all taught me the difference between hope and illusion. It created my determination and sharpened my will. It clarified my hope, and refined my mechanism that detects both hope and bullshit.
Will and determination are asleep until hope awakens them.
What I hear you say, Pretty, is that in your vision hope is dead and we are dead and all is dead and it's over.
Well, that's your experience. You've given up because nobody's handed you the Answer on a platter.
But then, you don't have a horse in this race, do you? You have your own adventure to find, and plan and remake and revise and lose and rediscover and live. I hope you generate the energy to live it. I hope it brings you joy.
cherish, i don't mean to be argumentative because i respect that this isn't my fight. i'm actually very glad that people are finding in obama a ray of hope. but you are electing a man (or a woman) and that person is facing a hell of a task in changing the course of your nation.
all of the energized people in the booth on election day, super. but the candidate that takes the oath of office is the one that holds the power in and of the moment. if that candidate is elected without a clearly defined platform beyond hope then you've written a blank check. hope is a wonderful thing, what is it you're hoping for? what is the collected energy of you and the other hopeful going to achieve?
"everything he's saying but are shocked into wakefulness, readiness, openness, cheerfulness, inventiveness, willingness, by hearing - from his level of society - what we know to be real and true."
i'm asking just what is it that you know to be real and true? i haven't heard anything much from the obama campaign that i can hang a policy hat on. don't look at the candidate? sorry but that strikes me as naive. i'm closer to 50 than i care to admit and i've led a pretty eventful life, the rhetoric and delivery are spot on, they just happen to be content free. lots of sizzle, where's the darn steak at? and what exactly is "his level of society"?
"What I hear you say, Pretty, is that in your vision hope is dead and we are dead and all is dead and it's over."
not by a long stretch. my version of hope gets me up every day to badger my member of parliament, to write and to question, to research and to share. i'm getting to be over the hill but i'm chasing big dreams the whole damn way. my version of hope relies directly on having an idea of something to work toward and then putting my shoes on the pavement and working for it. i'm saying what if obama is the best of the remaining lot, there'd better be something inside the shiny wrapping.
america's a funny place. i had a similar discussion with a friend who is also enamored with obama. she told me flat out that kucinich couldn't be elected because he was short and had big ears. no wonder bush got re-elected.
"You've given up because nobody's handed you the Answer on a platter. "
i don't want a platter or a capitalized answer. i want to hear a platform that addresses some of the big issues facing the electorate. jeez louise, you're installing someone as the most powerful person on earth for a period of four years, i really want something more than a few choruses of bobby mcferrin. there is one president. where does the candidate stand on the big issues and how will he achieve the political consensus necessary to steer the ship of state away from the flipping waterfall? if you aren't asking those questions nothing i say can help. you think i sound cynical or defeatist, i prefer the term realistic.
Thank you for the clarity in your words, Pretty. And for your determination and will which you demonstrate every day.
I'm really ready to set this down, because I know my enthusiasm for the quality of energy being inspired, and less concern about particulars, is counter-intuitive to a lot of people. I must insist that this Hope Thing is a beginning, and should not be squashed with too many detailed demands just yet. There is plenty of time for that. Planning and policy will come, you know that -- you know that. Folks like you and me, Pretty, will be up in the Glorious Face about details and plans, when the time comes. A beginning that is full of joy, hope, energy, communication and creative, inventive fun fills the spiritual storehouse of everyone who gets involved. When the cold, harsh days come, that joyous, hopeful beginning will feed us and keep us working for the details and the plans and the goals.
Let's move on now. We've all got things to do.
Commenting by HaloScan
