i think i figured it out

I’ve supported Obama for a while, but when I attended my caucus in February, I was almost equally supportive of both Hillary & Obama. There was just something about Obama that I was drawn to, but I couldn’t really articulate why I felt compelled to support him over Hillary Clinton. I mean, Hillary pretty much personifies everything that I believe in: she’s a successful woman who has acted as a leader and hasn’t apologized for being who she is. You all know how as women, we’re often marginalized, patronized, demoralized, or deligitimized because of our gender — and when we exhibit personality traits that society tags as “masculine,” we can find ourselves described as bitchy, pushy, or overbearing; have our sexuality questioned; and other nasty things. So as a feminist, I really felt like I was not being true to all the positive aspects of the feminist movement that Hillary Clinton represents. From a policy perspective, Obama & Clinton are fairly equal, although there are differences in the details — but their big-picture approaches and visions are so similar as to be nearly indistinguishable.

 

So since February, I’ve been trying to put words to my gut decision to support Obama, and it wasn’t until last night, listening to both of them speak, that I figured it out. From Obama’s speech:

[I]f we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals.

That was the part that got me — again. It’s the same message that Obama has been delivering to people. Where he has been criticized within the Democratic Party for promising change without concrete strategies to do so or for a perceived lack of experience demonstrating changes he has led to enactment, it is that last part of his speech that summarizes what his whole campaign has been about and why I support him. He isn’t promising to deliver a panacea of solutions on a silver platter; he is challenging each and every American who has felt frustrated, left behind, unrepresented, and disenfranchised to do two things: believe in a better alternative to the current situation, and do something to move our society to that better alternative.

Remnisicient of JFK’s call to action that indirectly has been tied to an increase in public service among my parents’ generation and the establishment of the Peace Corps, Barack Obama has said it’s time to stop standing on the sidelines, waiting for politicians to enact the policy changes you want to see happen. It’s time for you, America, to talk to your neighbors about ways to save money on gas and groceries and to ensure that your neighborhood doesn’t become a wasteland because of record foreclosures and jobs being outsourced. It’s time for you to believe in the power of yourself. The only role I play is to inspire you, to remind you, to encourage you, and to perhaps facilitate the infrastructure to empower you. My job will be to work to mitigate the barriers to your empowerment; my job will be to engage you and to encourage you. But my job will NOT be to do the work for you.

That’s the indefinable “it” that differentiated Barack Obama from Hillary Clinton for me: Hillary Clinton, with all her touting of experience and a desire to serve the people, almost overpromised without setting out a clear expectation that everyday people like you and I would have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty to achieve the policy changes for which she and Obama both advocated. I don’t want a president who’s going to promise me the moon when I know, I know that one person alone cannot change a dysfunctional system. I want a president who’s going to promise me the moon — but only if I’m willing to build the infrastructure to reach it.

Barack Obama has been clear from the day he announced his campaign in Illinois that his campaign was not about him; it was about the American people. I believe him. I believe that his origins as a community organizer are what propelled him to victory as the Democratic presidential nominee: He asked people to dream. He provided a canvass and encouraged people to paint the picture of the America they believe we can be — and he has told us that for that picture to become real, we now have to put down our paintbrushes and start laying the bricks and mortar of whatever it is that we painted — but WE have to do it. And that’s what a community organizer does: instills a sense of purpose in a community by finding a common bond, then empowers each member of the community to contribute his or her expertise to achieve an end that could not otherwise have been reached individually.