Obama's Speech Was a Window Into Next-Generation Politics

[DrFunkenstein]

While I thought that the speech was amazing - perhaps the best since MLK - I believe that it is NOT a singular speech, but something of a piece with his presentation of a new way of politics. He has talked often about throwing out the old political textbooks and redrawing the maps of our national consciousness. We have now seen that these are not "just words."

He urged us to heal old wounds and come together. He told us that he could lead us, but that change would only happen when he accepted our part in the national and global dramas unfolding around us. Obama didn't want to make us feel good, he wanted to inspire us into action - to look at old problems we believed were insurmountable with fresh eyes and say to ourselves, "yes, we can."

The speech he gave yesterday, again, was amazing. But it was hard - not for him politically, but for what he demanded of the American people. Hope isn't just some four letter word to him. He proved that yesterday. With a degree of courage to avoid the safe politics of mere damage control, Obama put his faith in the American people that we can transcend, rather than bury deeper, our pains and our fears.

Obama's speech was a testimony to the biggest truth: that the truth itself, though costly, shall ultimately set you free.

The level of deep understanding, wisdom and clarity that Obama demonstrated yesterday was something that he will bring far beyond any matters of race.

It is something he will bring to the health care debate, to discussions of global warming and our culture of convenience, and - perhaps most importantly - to matters of foreign policy.

Where others may use our military and defense spending as a stage for political theater, Obama has shown the ability to discuss the war on terror in a way that allows for its complexity, but retains a sharp degree of moral and strategic clarity.

While others choose to puff their feathers as a hawk, with hundreds of thousands of lives at stake, Obama has shown that, more often than not, it is through the hard road of peaceful solutions and improving the lives of the suffering that we walk upon the road to victory.

The old textbooks just won't do, as Obama says. The stakes are too high. The "fierce urgency of now" demands that we look to a new generation of politics to deal with this young century.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Know the truth

and the truth shall set you free.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Yes.

To both of you. Yes.

[rudy23]

3. He embodies the idea that we are not in a black and white world.

It never was, but it's less so than ever now.

This is another solid reason why he does well with young voters--it's not about cultish devotion, no matter how bad the detractors want to paint it as such.

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. The guy was in a lot of political trouble, so he whips out an MLK

speech that essentially says nothing in a transparent attempt to cover his ass. That's the new politics?

[DrFunkenstein]

6. The Speech Hardly "Says Nothing"

Please go back and read it. Try to imagine Obama will be Clinton's VP if that helps you see it a little more clearly. It is one of the deepest statements on race spoken in a political context since the civil rights movement died out in submerged frustration, disappointment and anger with the death of Bobby Kennedy.

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. There was something new in that speech? Original?

[jackson_dem]

13. He said racism is bad. I was shocked to see a politician take a courageous stand against racism

Even though he failed to take that stand for 20 years. :sarcasm:

[The_Casual_Observer]

14. "Just say no to Racism"

[Rainbowreflect]

9. I feel very sorry for you if you could not see how amazing

& radical his speech was.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. I feel sorry for you that you are so easily duped.

[predfan]

5. For those of us boomers, and for the benefit of younger DU'ers,

let me put the feelings and words of Rev. Wright into perspective. The murders at Philadelphia, Mississippi , June of 1964, occured AFTER the Beatles first came to America, and for a lot of us that first appearance on Ed Sullivan was like yesterday. I'd expect the vicious racism of the 50's and 60's is just as fresh on my African-American friend's memories today as well.

[uponit7771]

8. Right, class-ism is going to more prevolent then racism in the near future

[DrFunkenstein]

11. Obama Will Take The "Two Americas" Struggle to The Next Level

Because of his rhetorical skills, bizarrely maligned around here, he can bring the struggles of the forgotten back into the American consciousness.

Rather than accepting that welfare mothers and illegal immigrants are responsible for your financial problems (even in triangulating "reform"), Obama has the courage to break right through the standard assumptions and speak directly to what is at the heart of our economic disparities and offer solutions that would never get through Congress in lesser hands.

[RYOMYO]

10. Your post shows a lot more thought invested than the speech. n/t

[polichick]

15. You're absolutely right - this isn't "your father's" politics!