Good Faith, and the Good People of America

We Democrats have been through some wrenching and terrible times in the past few elections. Mention 2000 and Al Gore, 2004 and Kerry, or 2006's supposed Democratic majority in the House, and you'll be opening some wounds that haven't quite healed.

I remember vituperative, bile-filled articles like this, which talked about how those of us in the Blue Urban Archipelago wanted those in rural Red America to maybe take a flying leap. Or worse.

Hard words, and hard feelings. I remember thinking how deeply I hated anyone who voted for Bush in 2000 or 2004, summed up by this London newspaper headline: How Can 59,054,087 People Be So Dumb? Those were hardly constructive feelings, and indeed things got worse.

I bring these up not to inflame past divides, but to underscore what a disastrously and bitterly separated country we were, until recently.

We've discovered that we're not so apathetic after all--just bruised from past cycles of emotional investment and disappointment. Look at how eagerly we responded to the recently concluded primary season, and to Obama's message of hope and change. Some of us can turn on a dime and change allegiance to candidates, but others are taking longer. And in part, the compromised, suppressed votes, and downright stolen elections of the near past are why.

But in thinking about this past week, we die-hard Obama supporters finally came down off our post-nomination highs and realized that on FISA or the Supreme Court ruling on handguns and the second amendment Obama will not always align with a progressive agenda. What's more, he is out of necessity courting the center to win the general election. That's been disconcerting. Wait, aren't *we* the child you love best? Whadya mean you need other people to get on board so you can get elected?

And some of us have wondered if Obama really is like every other politician who says what he needs to get elected and then plays politics exactly like the ones he disdained in the primary. Our trust is fragile; it's been abused for so long.

So we got a little taste of parting company with Obama on issues that matter. Bound to happen. Me, I'm glad for the objectivity it created. If we bond too closely to Obama, we risk believing that he is the Messiah. If we bond to one another through the work of continuously sustaining our democracy, then whoever's in the Oval Office really will have to respond to us.

What gives me faith is this: if Obama were the same-old same-old, he wouldn't have built an incredible grassroots Get-Out-The-Vote machine in all 50 states. He wouldn't have handed us the tools and the means to voice our approval or disapproval and to hold his feet to the fire once he gets elected. He wouldn't have asked us and expected us to organize in order to revitalize our beleaguered democracy. If he wasn't placing faith in our ability to hold up the democratic end of the bargain, would he have taken the risk of pushing away federal lobbyist funding for his campaign and for the dangerously underfunded DNC--a move that only makes him more beholden to us, not less?

We may not always agree with the stances Obama takes, but we will have the apparatus to lean on him to move him according to our interests. This is how I know he's acting in good faith.

And I have to say that as a result of his campaign, I'm feeling warm and fuzzy toward Iowans, who had the courage to launch the Obama campaign and are now trying to piece their lives together after the terrible flooding there. Pennsylvania, definitely warm and fuzzy...niiiiice. I'm beginning to see the possibilities in the midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, a region we coastal snobs find it all too easy to dismiss as "flyover country." The mountain states don't seem so hostile and removed; Colorado seems downright friendly. I'm starting to look at the south differently--South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia...they aren't places hidebound by stereotype but states where I can imagine fellow Obama supporters from all walks of life. In fact, people there are astonishingly good-looking. <*wink*>

I am starting to feel connected to my fellow Americans in ways that seemed completely impossible before. We realize we want the same basic things and instead of importuning a remote and elite figurehead for them, we can start bringing those things about ourselves. I think Obama helped us all see the power of grassroots organizing, and I see it as a gift we citizens have to make good on. It's our job to grow and renew our civic culture.

I'm disappointed that other plans keep me from the big Unite for Change parties tomorrow today, but I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves alongside my neighbors as we head toward the general election.

And you know what? All around America these bake sales and MoveOn parties and Unite for Change events--this is what unity looks like, just as much as two of the front-runner candidates coming together, in a pantsuit and a tie of the same baby blue, to elect a Democrat to the White House.

Cynematic blogs at P i l l o w b o o k.

Comments

[Gunfighter]

Well done, Cyn.

I have reposted something at my blog from a few years ago, that I think is very relevant to to this post. Give a look if you get the chance.

http://gunfighter1.typepad.com/warrior/2008/06/the-rest-
of-america---a-report-from-flyover-country.html

[deb]

this is what i was thinking, but, again, you've managed to say it twenty times more adeptly. and with better adjectival use.

and probably fancier punctuation.

xoxo

[Lawyer Mama]

Ah, yes. I was incredibly angry too. And I lived in one of those flyover states for 10 years. Although, I guess their voting record explains why I no longer live there. But they're expressing the same concerns about the future of our country as us east and left coasters. That's incredibly heartening. Great post, Cyn!