5 Days Until the Election!!!
30 October 2008
I am a scholar, a teacher, and a political junkie. This is a great time to be alive! For all the troubles with our nation's economy and foreign policy, there is a palpable excitement about the election next Tuesday. Talking with students, colleagues, friends, and people around the country I can feel the rumbles of an earthquake beneath my feet. If Barack Obama can hold on to his apparent lead and win this election our political and policy landscape will change.
Why do I say that? Not because Obama is a genius or a savior of any kind. In fact, he does not seem to have compelling answers to many of our greatest challenges.
Obama's election will be an earthquake because it will show a different side of America -- one that is progressive in spirit, tolerant in sensibility, and hopeful in energy. He represents a drastic stylistic shift from the sharp edged rhetoric and bombastic posturing of political figures -- Republican and Democrat -- over the last decade. He promises, like Franklin Roosevelt perhaps, to bring citizens of different backgrounds, interests, and aspirations together in a new kind of governing coaltion. This will not be another New Deal, but perhaps a New Progressivism.
Only time will tell, but I think people feel this change coming. Change, however, is not easy and it is not always for the better, We will see about that too...
What do you think? Do others feel a similar political earthquake beginning to rumble beneath their feet?
Why do I say that? Not because Obama is a genius or a savior of any kind. In fact, he does not seem to have compelling answers to many of our greatest challenges.
Obama's election will be an earthquake because it will show a different side of America -- one that is progressive in spirit, tolerant in sensibility, and hopeful in energy. He represents a drastic stylistic shift from the sharp edged rhetoric and bombastic posturing of political figures -- Republican and Democrat -- over the last decade. He promises, like Franklin Roosevelt perhaps, to bring citizens of different backgrounds, interests, and aspirations together in a new kind of governing coaltion. This will not be another New Deal, but perhaps a New Progressivism.
Only time will tell, but I think people feel this change coming. Change, however, is not easy and it is not always for the better, We will see about that too...
What do you think? Do others feel a similar political earthquake beginning to rumble beneath their feet?
| 1. November 02 2008 10:20 AM | Reguardless of who is elected on Tuesday, it is still up to us, the American citizen, to really be the agent of change in our country and the world. A group of organized citizens can bring more positive change to a community or individuals in need then any governmental program or tax dollars, there is so much money that becomes political waste, no matter who holds the presidency, congress, or the senate. I would encourage anyone be they a support of McCain or Obama to get involved in their community if they really want to see things imporve in our great country. --Posted by William Kletzien | |
| 2. November 02 2008 08:42 PM | I agree 100% with William Kletzien. Political change only comes from hard work at the community level. The president cannot change our lives and improve our society without local activism. I see the president as a facilitator and a motivator, especially for young people. I hope the next president will inspire my students and others to think more deeply and broadly about what they can do for their society and their world. After 9/11 young people hungered for a calling, for a cause. Our leaders -- Republicans and Democrats -- failed because they did not articulate a bold and transformative calling for the young. I hope and expect that the next president will try to fill this void, to inspire citizens to do more for the future of our society. I am very optimistic about the next 4-8 years. --Posted by Jeremi Suri | |
| 3. November 04 2008 01:02 PM | Dare I hope that the electorate will see past the hot air, the irrelevant issues, the populism and actually realize that this is potentially a watershed election? In my opinion, Obama's election will speed up our return to membership in the World Community, not only because he has said that would be a policy of his, but because his election will speak volumes to the majority of the World's people who are not white. In fact it will also speak volumes to Europeans who are.
As to programs and policies, a President Obama, like all Presidents, will be forced to the center and that is good. Clinton veered left at first, but the disaster of his Medical plan was a factor in electing a Republican Congressional majority in '94. Clinton moved to the middle and we got Welfare Reform, possibly his administration's biggest achievement. That Republican Congress went too far the other way and it cost them in '06 and will probably continue to do so in today's results. Even a "Veto Proof" Senate majority will not be literally that because Democrats replacing Republicans have, for the most part, had to run on a Centerist or at least Center/Left theme because their districts are "Red" not :"Blue". Additionally, it seems to me, we have weak Congressional leadership. Whatever Pelosi and Reed are, they are not Sam Rayburn or Lyndon Johnson. Interesting times, to say the least. --Posted by Robert M Rosenberg | |
| 4. November 04 2008 08:45 PM | To Bill Tishlers question and Jeremi's comment, I wonder if any of you viewed the CNN Forum hosted by correspondent Christiane Amanpour entitled: The Next President: A World of Challenges. The forum aired in early September and included five former Secretaries of State from Nixon through Powell. If I may briefly summarize, all seemed to agree that our position in the World needed to change...that we needed to nurture alliances with our natural allies and collaborate with them on policy initiatives and that we need to engage in dialogue with our adversaries at significanat political levels.
For example, Kissinger stated in the forum, "Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran. And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it. And, therefore, I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary of state level" Secretaries, Baker, Christopher, Albright and Powell agreed with this position as well.
Perhaps this new spirit and energy we feel from Senator Obama is that he presents himself as one more likely to engage our country a process that naturally leads us to a position of leadership in the World...not the result of the U.S. arbitrarily imposing it's will, making threatening, strident speeches but rather a policy that evolves out of the building a mutual trust with our natural allies and positions us to present a united front against those who would threaten the peace...Iran being only one example.
America needs a consensus builder, a team player and inspirational leader at this point in our history. Perhaps in Obama, we have found what we so desparately need. --Posted by Alan Greene | |
| 5. October 31 2008 01:52 PM | Re: “New Progressivism”
The Progressive reforms of old that sought good government locally also created the belief in our society that America has a historic duty to be the policemen of the world. Do you see a significant shift in American Foreign Policy if Obama is elected? --Posted by William Tishler | |
| 6. October 31 2008 02:23 PM | Great question, Bill. Yes, American progressive ideals often encourage a foreign policy of expansion. I think we might see that with a President Obama, especially in places like Darfur where he might feel inclined to take more of an international leadership role. I do think, however, that a President Obama will emphasize multilateral engagement, working more closely with allies and talking more directly with international adversaries. --Posted by Jeremi Suri | |
