Obama Kids

If you read Barack Obama’s website, you’ll note that there are frequent refer- ences to “The Movement.” For Obama’s earliest supporters, many of them in their teens, 20s and 30s, their involvement to date has not been in a political campaign, but in a social movement for progressive change; Obama is not their candidate so much as their hero. So it was not surprising to read the article in today’s New York Times, “Political Realities May Pose a Test to Obama’s Appeal to Young Voters,” which explains that some of these young folks felt “marginalized” in Denver and, in general, are feeling uncomfortable about their hero’s behaving like a politician. “We understand the politics of compromise…,” says 19-year-old Ian Bowman-Henderson, “…but we picked him because we didn’t want the same kind of politics – that’s what set him apart.”

Just the other night, I was talking to a friend about the Democratic Convention, and I said that I was happy for these kids that they had a movement to be part of, recalling how connected and productive and grown-up I felt as part of the movements of the 60s and 70s. But as I learned when I volunteered for the McCarthy for President campaign, the rules change once you start working the big room, the White House. That’s just how it is. Working within the system means just that.

I sincerely believe three things: (1) Obama is a politician who is also a genuine leader, one of the first we’ve had in a long time; (2) Obama indeed wants to bring a fresh approach to American governance, but he has to get elected first; (3) Obama cannot win without the efforts of his young, brave army for change. He needs his Movement to hang in with him in order to make it. Let me say that again: Obama cannot win without the efforts of his young, brave army for change. He needs his Movement to hang in with him in order to make it.

If you’re serious about wanting to effect meaningful change in this country, you cannot afford to be impatient or over-sensitive or self-involved, let alone petulant. Being truly connected, productive and grown-up requires drawing strength from within yourself and from each other, as well as the object of your adoration. And you have to trust your leader to know what’s necessary as well as what’s good, and stick with him for the entire process.

It’s much easier, much less frustrating, to not care and to not be involved in making change. It’s hard work and the fun part is small – but the larger, ultimate victory can be thrilling. Can you imagine how differently the country might have developed if, in the wake of the King and Kennedy assassinations in 1968, people had engaged in unprecedented mass expressions of non-violence and commitment to peaceful change, instead of rioting or walking away, and letting McGovern lose to Nixon?

You must register everyone you can, convince the unconvinced and undecided, rouse the politically lethargic and soothe the politically enraged. You must remember that the disciplined, committed conservatives will be working very hard to defeat you. Nothing can change, or be repaired, or be achieved, unless Obama gets elected first. Mahatma Gandhi told his followers, “Even if what you do is of little significance, it is of vital importance that you do it.” Play whatever part you can, no matter how small. Don’t lose heart, don’t lose sight, don’t let go. The weary veterans of past campaigns are depending on you.

Savoring the Moment

This is a picture of my parents, an inter- racial couple who were married for over 45 years. These lifelong Democrats did not live to see an African-American accept their party’s nomination for President, or to vote for him this coming November. They were great fans of the Clintons and I often wondered during the primary epoch who they would have been rooting for leading up to the convention, and if they would have been in agreement on their choices. But I have no doubt that after hearing Obama’s acceptance speech, they would have answered the call for Democratic unity and gotten behind Barack. They would have enjoyed this convention, and been deeply moved by the historic milestone of the first black candidate of a major party officially launching his full campaign on the 45th anniversary of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And they’d have gotten a special kick out of the fact that Obama is actually biracial, just like their own sole offspring. We shared many conventions together. I’ve missed my folks a lot this week.

I’m securely on board the change train. Obama spoke very well, talked very straight, and said the things that needed saying. I liked the way he took John McCain head on without being insulting or mean; that he warned against the Republicans’ tendency to “make a big campaign about small things”; that he referred unflinchingly to long-contentious hot-button issues: abortion, gun control and gay rights, among them, and called for sensible compromise in an imaginative approach that is undeniably new in American politics. He cited more than two dozen specifics of his strategy for change and, overall, succeeded in looking forceful and presidential.

I’ve absorbed just a little of the Republican commentary on the Democratic convention and have been absolutely stunned by their nastiness, outright lies, deliberate misinterpretations, and playing all the other cards of obfuscation and fear in the political deck. I imagine that John McCain watched Barack Obama’s acceptance and went into a swoon of fury and surprise; what else could explain his selection of a conservative hockey-mom for vice president? I think Obama will make chopped meat out of him in the debates, and that, much like Humphrey Bogart as the uber-paranoid Capt. Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, McCain will unintentionally show his anger and lack of qualification and be felled by them.

Meanwhile, Obama has to get elected, which I’m now more hopeful will happen, thanks to the army of 85,000 campaign workers who were energized by the convention and its history-making candidate. Peggy Noonan, the brilliant political writer with seriously wrong-headed views, said in today’s Wall Street Journal that “Mr. Obama left a lot of space for Mr. McCain to play the happy warrior next week. He left the Republicans a big opportunity to wield against him, in contrast [to Obama’s seriousness], humor, and wit, and even something approximating joy.” Joy? If the Republicans are joyful, all that feeling reflects is the contentment and sheltered reality of the nation’s upper crust. That any working and middle class persons connect with those people never ceases to amaze me.

I’m giving myself the privilege of ignoring McCain and his minions for the weekend, so I can just enjoy the extraordinary fact that an African-American with a world-class mind and an innovative biracial understanding of polarizing issues is running for President of the United States. My parents would have wanted it that way.

The Audacity of Defiance

After I watched the third night of the Democratic Convention, I saw the film The Defiant Ones, Stanley Kramer’s 1958 classic tale of racism and redemption starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. For those of you under 50 or just not a fan of old movies: The Defiant Ones tells the story of two prisoners escaped from a chain gang, one black, one white, neither enamored of the other, forced to work together to survive because they’re chained together. Animosity gives way to cooperation, but they are ultimately overwhelmed by the powers that be, and betrayed by someone who could have been an ally but is corrupted by a desperate need to escape her circumstances, too. In the end, by the time the men are caught, they’re unchained, but united by friendship. It occurred to me that the movie could be viewed as an interesting and disturbing metaphor for the 2008 election.

Those who believe that racial prejudice and social division in America – still the unconfronted elephant in the room of this campaign – have been largely overcome by law and time, are (a) mistaken and (b) not understanding the true process of unity. Whites and non-whites will never band together because of social dictates to do so, but rather, because everyone will finally recognize that our mutual survival depends on our ability to cooperate. And our ability to cooperate will inevitably arise out of our capacity for dealing with confrontation, then rising above it. Both our unspoken woundedness and our politeness are keeping us apart.

I’ve long believed that our country would never unite unless there was some massive calamity, like California breaking off and floating out to sea, or we were visited by aliens from another world; not until we were faced with the little green men would we be able to accept the black, white, brown, yellow and red of our shared humanity. The task ahead for the Obama/Biden team is to effectively convince White America that the Iraq War and the national debt are a massive calamity and we’ve already been visited by aliens: the Bush Administration and its neo-con devotees who live in a rarified other world and are green with greed and self-interest.

During his acceptance speech tonight, I hope Barack Obama can find a compelling and appealing way to explain that we are indeed chained together by recession, inflation, oil-dependency, corporate outsourcing, the cost of war mongering, the burden of debt and the stress of insecurity. I hope he’ll say that if we unite to survive, we can overcome the powers that be before they destroy us. I hope that argument can convince enough white people to vote for a black man. Otherwise, it’s back to the chain gang for us all.

Portrait of a Lady

The much-anticipated speech by Michelle Obama on the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention was preceded by a folksy speech by her brother and a biographical film produced by Ken Burns and narrated by her mother. It all left me feeling good, but very subdued. She looked lovely in a light green dress against the stage’s blue background (enough color differential to stand out but not look too bold...) with a broad expanse of décolletage (not revealing, just enough to subliminally say I’m Open...).

She spoke beautifully and her accomplishments, detailed in the film, were undeniably impressive. So I found it discomfitting that she had to do what she was there to do: make herself and her husband seem less scary to White America. The reason she had to do this was, of course, never acknowledged, let alone addressed: the fact that there are millions of Americans who have had no first-hand experience of middle-class blacks – and that’s really what they’re revealing when they say they don’t yet know who Obama is.

White society has been programmed by pop culture and the news media to think that the black underclass and its hip-hop/pimps & hos ethos are what define African-American perspective and experience. They don’t understand that Michelle Obama’s deliberately Mom-and-apple-pie performance was born not of political artifice, but of the genuine and demanding values of the black middle-class, which is historically rooted in church, family, community, education, and a stringent work ethic. As a group, they are very private, proper, focused, and firmly cognizant of the fact that to be black and successful in America still requires that one be ten times better (more disciplined, more proficient, more accomplished) than the white competition. And it’s always competitive, always, and exhausting, because you can never let your guard down.

Understanding this demographic profile helps explain why the Obamas can seem aloof and elite, a little stiff, a little humorless, somehow insincere. A few years ago, I worked closely with a middle-aged black woman who was the president of a long-established non-profit organization. She confided to me that, as was once expressed by writer Toni Morrison, she does not entirely trust white people. She has many valued white colleagues and good white friends, but there is a part of her that is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. If Mrs. Obama privately feels much the same, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, nor could I fault her.

The best part of Michelle Obama’s appearance was the very fact of it. You could see the pride in the expressions on black faces throughout the hall, young and old alike. Here was this poised, pretty, black woman, a successful lawyer, a loving wife, a devoted mother, a loyal daughter, standing before them preparing to be First Lady. First Lady! It was a triumph a long time comin’. But this is politically correct 2008 and we’re not allowed to use the “R” word, so nobody could give voice to the miracle.

Who would have thought that when we finally had a black presidential candidate we’d have to pretend not to notice? Race, its mysteries and its miseries in our divided America, will continue to rear its pointed little head as the campaign continues. I wish this convention could crack it open, like a piñata filled with spiders and stars.

Conventional Wisdom

In past presidential election years, I’ve always looked forward to the conventions. The Republicans consistently offer constructive aggravation: enough bullshit, self-righteousness, heartlessness, cluelessness and corn to inspire sputtering rage and get my heart racing. Conservatives are my cardio. I’m confident I’ll get my work-out again this year.

The Democrats are a dramatic comedy, it’s always a mixed emotional bag with them. They engage me as I look at the delegates who, despite all their silly campaign “flair,” radiate with a fair amount of intelligence/literacy, a refreshing quantity of diversity, and a few gratifying moments of grace. I’m happy to see the old warriors and the new hopefuls and the treasured icons. I still remember with teary fondness JFK Jr.’s appearance at the 1988 Democratic Convention: John-John, the toddler who saluted his slain father’s coffin, all grown up into a smart, dashing young man not yet a media rock star. And I remember the pride and hope and exhilaration I felt hearing Barack Obama speak for the first time at the 2004 Convention. A friend called me right after and said “We’ve just heard the first black President of the United States.” A lot of blood and politics under the bridge since then.

This year, I feel like I’m about to tune in to the finals of American Idol – only in this case, the eventual outcome really matters. There were times over the past 18 months that I thought we’d never get here and it’s still three more months to Election Day. So it’s essential that the Democrats put on a really good show, since it seems that’s what politics is in 21st century America, where the cashiers at fast-food restaurants press register keys with pictures of food instead of numbers. And they shouldn’t worry that the TV ratings for the Convention won’t come anywhere near those of the actual American Idol (neither may the subsequent votes), it must still be spectacular. It has to have the power to wash away the heavy crusts of cynicism, bitterness, indifference and distrust that coat so many Americans. Like George Burns said when they asked him what was the secret to great acting, “The thing about acting is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you got it made.”

We need some creative liberal artifice to combat complacent affluence, war mongering, profiteering and oppression. The conservatives cry “Class warfare!” like it’s a bad thing, but we are in the midst of a most desperate class war and the poor, working class and middle class are losing, big time. The Democratic Convention must be a splendid kick-off to the battle royal ahead.

The mainstream media has done and is doing a piss-poor job of covering this campaign with any real measure of gravitas and humor, intelligence, and insight. I hope they shape up for the Convention and the remainder of the campaign – but I also hope I win the lottery; I’m not getting my hopes up. But hope springs eternal.

This is some of what I’m not hearing anyone say:

Because nobody wants to discuss race forthrightly and intelligently, no one has explained that Barack Obama may occupy the social category of African-American, but he is inherently biracial; I’m biracial and I know how this works. He is, by every fiber of his being, a conciliator. He has not been equivocating about his views and positions, he has been seeking common ground with the opposition. George Bush has no concept of the Loyal Opposition. Have his ignorance and arrogance made everyone forget what negotiation and compromise look like? Is our microwave impatience so all consuming that we don’t understand you can’t effect significant change quickly, or all at once, or before you get into power? Obama is not a revolutionary, he’s a change agent, there’s a difference.

Joe Biden may in some ways be the epitome of traditional Washington, but he’s also a decent guy with working/middle class sensibilities who is well-known, well-respected, and knows how the system works. Since dismantling the system before you have something concrete and effective to replace it with is, to say the least, counter-productive, it’s important to have a senior associate who’s got your back. Obama and Biden don’t make a good show-biz team and that’s unfortunate; that’s what Barack/Hillary would have been. But they make a good leadership team. Do we remember leadership?

This country is in astonishingly serious trouble and four more years of Bush-style governance could destroy us. Obama/Biden are not a panacea, but they are a viable alternative to genuine disaster. We should try not to make the Ancient Mayan prediction of the end of the world in 2012 a self-fulfilled prophecy.

I’m polishing up my non-flat, non-high-definition, TV screen. I have to remember to buy popcorn.