What’s It

All About,
  
Barack?

  
By Hank Edson

    
Is it just me, or has America already gotten tired of the 2008 presidential campaign, more than a year before the actual election? Has the corporate media winded itself in its frenzied impulse to hype meaningless content 24/7? Why does it seem in early October 2007 that the 2008 campaign has already come and gone, complete with YouTube presidential debates, “fundraising primaries,” and book tour after book tour? In the eerie emptiness of campaign news, we have a moment of contemplation available in which to reflect upon the strange Twilight Zone of historical moments in which we presently find ourselves.

This is the first presidential campaign in over 50 years with no incumbent president or vice-president seeking the oval office. We find ourselves not only at war, and not just the unjust aggressors in that war, but also the duped people of a democracy now confronting the tragedy our house has wrought upon both itself and the world. We have the most sinister and powerful vice president and the worst president in history. For the first time in history, we will spend over $1 billion on this presidential campaign. Meanwhile, we have an unprecedented Pentagon budget, an unprecedented level of national debt, and a spreading housing crisis. The economic engine of China, like a baby dragon, which is slowly coming of age feeding on our debts and our trade imbalance, will clearly outsize us, if it remains intact, as the world’s foremost economic power. Furthermore, the Presidential race has started earlier than ever before. The states are competing to move their primary election dates forward as far as possible. And we have for the first time a woman presidential front-runner, a serious African-American contender, Mormon contender, and Latino contender. And it’s still a year away from the actual election and it seems no one has anything to say except that the pollsters say Hillary Clinton is more and more likely to win—as if the pollsters understand what the voters are thinking about November 2008 here in the odd light of October 2007.

What’s it all about, Barack?

This is a particularly fair question for Barack Obama. Barack was catapulted to the forefront of national politics in a manner that has never before been seen in the history of American politics.

From his platform as a law professor and state senator who had achieved the prestigious distinction of becoming the first president of the Harvard Law Review, Barack was invited to play before an audience of 9 million people as the Tuesday Night Keynote Speaker at the 2004 Democratic Convention. This invitation came just as he was running for the United States Senate against a fill-in candidate after the Republican Party’s senatorial nominee had to leave the race in the midst of a sex scandal. The alignment of the stars that seized upon Barack’s considerable talent and ushered him first into the Senate and then into the race for the presidency is just another aspect of this Twilight Zone period in American politics.

Barack is fond of telling crowds at campaign rallies, “It’s not about me, it’s about you.” While the stars have shown favorably upon Barack Obama through the first two acts of this political drama, during this lull in the campaign when all forward motion seems to have ceased and the actors in the pantomime have momentarily lost their interest, it seems natural, even unavoidable, that Barack Obama might somewhere be drifting in contemplation, wondering how it is that the winds of good fortune have suddenly gone slack.

This is a good thing, a necessary thing. There is still a year to go after all! Here in the third act, our hero must make the decision that will permanently alter the trajectory of our drama. The best fortune Barack can have at this moment is for the winds at his back to stop blowing so that he has time to understand and value the nature of the propulsion he will give to his own campaign from here on out.

It’s never been about him, but it’s never been about us either. It’s time for Barack to figure out what’s it all about.

Leadership is a mysterious quality. It often arises from the people when the people have a clear vision of right and wrong. Out of the throngs, an individual steps forward who voices better than anyone else the ethical imperative the people are demanding. Thus, before there was Martin Luther King, Jr., there was Rosa Parks and behind the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. came a legion of people who were just as tired as Rosa Parks. In King’s case, "it" was thus about both him and us and yet it was also fundamentally about something more.

Like the leaders of earlier rights movements, Martin Luther King, Jr., brought unique leadership skills to the table and put them at the service of a dream millions had long been cherishing. Most importantly, it was the Dream that was transcendent, not his leadership, not our longing. It was a highly specific vision King articulated and the nation responded, “Yes, that’s it; that’s my dream, too.” When we asked Martin Luther King what "it" was all about, he told us "it" was about ending segregation, about the right to vote, about overcoming racism and the violence of war, and about recognizing and advancing our shared humanity. There was no need to think about the candidate or the people; all eyes were on the prize.

Not all leadership comes from a people’s movement, however. Some of our greatest President’s achieved their honor by recognizing a threat to our national existence and by making a response to that threat a non-negotiable first priority. For Washington, there was no option but to simply outlast the British military. For Lincoln, there was no option but to preserve the contractual union of the states under the Constitution. For FDR, there was no option but to prevent the creation of a Europe united under the rule of Adolph Hitler. Again, when we asked these presidents what it was all about, they told us: it’s about our survival as a nation.

Up to this point, Barack’s stump speech has had an empty self-reflexive foundation that mirrors back to the people their unidentified longing for a concrete vision as itself the vision at the center of the campaign.

Up to this point, this tactic may in fact have been wise. Recognizing the unusual nature of his meteoric rise to national prominence, Barack was smart enough not to let his success go to his head. It wasn’t so much his own talent (of which he has much) that made him a contender as it was the people’s desire for a contender.

This is not to say that his campaign has been without content, but that it has been without the particular vision that we, the people, have been unable to articulate and have turned to him to voice.

It is not necessarily a fair demand to make of a candidate. If we don’t know what we want, why should he? All the same, when the excitement of having found a contender wears off, sooner or later, we want the contender to prove him-or-her-self by giving us what we want even if we don’t know what that is. Thus, the winds of fortune cease to blow and a lull ensues in the midst of the presidential campaign. What’s it all about, Barack? It’s not about us and it’s not about you. And it’s about more than intelligent, pragmatic, politic, good judgment.

Is there a threat to our survival as a nation? Is there an ethical imperative that must be advanced? From whence comes our tremendous longing and how are you going to quench it? Did the stars align to place you at the forefront of public awareness in the midst of this Twilight Zone in American history simply to allow you to employ your talent? Among the leaders in the Democratic Party is there really a shortage of talent?

I believe this passionate longing in the American people that has embraced your campaign and championed your virtue is not the work of a talent vacuum, but rather the turmoil and transformation of a society in spiritual crisis. We need a vision of ourselves and we need a leader who will help us articulate and advance it.

Without this vision, our nation is in peril. Acquiring this vision is an ethical imperative. We cannot go on as we have been going on. The path we have been traveling on is not sustainable and is not moral.

When we begin to formulate a clearer vision of who we really are and who we want to be, the vision will be specific, detailed, and unified by grand and passionately advocated principles. We will know where we want to go and all the multitude of things we have to do to get there. The vision will dominate. It will not be about you and it will not be about us, but it will be about how to advance our shared humanity.

There are thousands of visionary voices in our society offering wise propulsion into a better, brighter future, but, for this moment in history, none of these voices has been chosen, as you have been, to receive the opportunity to challenge the existing political order. This is the moment in your campaign, when your vision for the future, not your biography of your past, needs to emerge ascendant above the pragmatism and polish of your political rivals. There is still more than a year before the election. Don’t think about what the polls say; it is the stars that have brought you this far. If you read the stars correctly, this moment is the greatest opportunity they have given you yet. 

Copyright © Hank Edson 2007

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