Why I Support the President

Recently, I sent a "Reply All" response to two forwarded email "warnings" which contained the right-wing's standard, unsubstantiated, assortment of fear-and-hate-mongering claims that president Obama, and the Democrats, are destroying the country. One of them ended with the question,

"WHERE DO WE GET THESE MORONS?"

Rejecting the writer's assumptions, I chose to affix that label to a different group and replied:

Where? You find them under rocks writing bullshit email messages like the ones you keep sending. They get their ideas from FOX "News" and hate-and-fear-mongers like Michelle Bachman, Rush Limbaugh, and a host of other right-wing ideologues, none of whom would ever allow facts to interfere with their idiotic positions and proclamations.

"Just say no" didn't work to win the "war on drugs," and it won't work to turn a bunch of narrow-minded, southern bigots into a majority political party.

But what the heck; keep doing just what you've been doing, right-wingers. That way the adults will stay in charge.

This morning, I got the following response from one of the "Reply All" recipients:

George,

Keep reminding yourself you put these people in power and you better back them. You better hope they do the right thing but so far I'm NOT impressed!!

What follows is my response, which I hope adds a bit of clarity and rationality to what began as little more than political bickering:

Mike,

If you want to understand why I back president Obama, pick up a copy of one of his books (Dreams from My Father or The Audacity of Hope) and read it.

The first is an autobiography in which he discusses openly and honestly many aspects of his life which most politicians would hide under the carpet rather have them exposed to the light of day. Obama is not afraid to look into the dark closet of his past and confront the monsters lurking there; nor is he afraid to have others know about them.

One could argue that George W. Bush also faced his personal monsters, and I would not disagree. However, Bush's solution was to latch onto the external assurances offered by religious and political fundamentalism. Barack Oabma, in contrast, found strength within himself. It is the strength of those willing to accept that life does not follow absolute rules dictated by the powerful, no matter how comforting those dictates appear to be in the short term.

In the second book, Mr. Obama details his philosophy of politics and government. An excerpt from the prologue should illustrate exactly why those on the reactionary right as well as the radical left are afraid that he might succeed.

I am a Democrat, after all; my views on most topics correspond more closely to the editorial pages of the New York Times than those of the Wall Street Journal. I am angry about policies that consistently favor the wealthy and powerful over average Americans, and insist that government has an important role in opening up opportunity to all. I believe in evolution, scientific inquiry, and global warming; I believe in free speech, whether politically correct or politically incorrect, and I am suspicious of using government to impose anybody's religious beliefs–including my own–on nonbelievers. Furthermore, I am a prisoner of my own biography: I can't help but view the American experience through the lens of a black man of mixed heritage, forever mindful of how generations of people who looked like me were subjugated and stigmatized, and the subtle and not so subtle ways that race and class continue to shape our lives.

But that is not all that I am. I also think my party can be smug, detached, and dogmatic at times. I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don't work as advertised. I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers. I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.

Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. Which perhaps indicates a second, more intimate theme to this book–namely, how I, or anybody in public office, can avoid the pitfalls of fame, the hunger to please, the fear of loss, and thereby retain that kernel of truth, that singular voice within each of us that reminds us of our deepest commitments.

Those who share your political views fear such honest commentary. In fact, they must reject it is an expression of honesty outright because such thoughts call into question the absolutist underpinnings of orthodox conservatism. At the same time, those on the left harbor suspicions that this man might "sell out." In my opinion, both views are myopic.

Based on what I have seen so far, Barack Obama recognizes and even embraces the natural tension of an internal debate between seeming opposite positions, whether within an individual or in the country at large, because he has learned that such tension, while uncomfortable in the short term, offers the only reliable path to growth.

In the meantime, Mike, you keep reminding yourself that America is made up of more than a bunch of folks driven by hate and fear.

George

PS: Thanks for helping me write my blog post for today.

I'm beginning to see the possibilities and benefits of having a blog. ;-)