This morning, my father called. He is a principled Republican who voted for Bush twice. For the last seven years, it's been hard talking to him about politics at the dinner table, but it's been even harder hearing my progressive friends talk about "all those stupid people who voted for Bush." "My father is not stupid," I would retort, exhausted by the political rancor. That's all beginning to change.
"I read the book you gave me," my dad said this morning, after finishing The Audacity of Hope. "I don't agree with all of Obama's politics, but I hear myself in him. He doesn't demonize people. He's the voice of a new generation; reminds me of Reagan and Kennedy. I'm a pragmatist, but I feel really hopeful and inspired by this movement. It could really bring the country together."
My father has switched to the Democratic party for the first time in his life just to vote for Barack Obama in California's primary on Tuesday. I take it as a sign. Obama alone can reach people like my father, who would never support a Clinton dynasty in the general election. Obama alone can unite conservatives and liberals, young and old, people of faith and non-believers, black and white and everyone between. Obama alone can inspire an entire generation of disenchanted young people like me to take ownership of our country.
In the end, the choice between Clinton and Obama is not between their policy differences, which are nuanced, nor between their respective experience, for Obama's two decades as a public servant is plenty preparation. The choice is between two different kinds of presidents: Clinton is an executive, Obama a visionary. Clinton proposes to accomplish a set of goals, Obama aims to transform and revitalize our very culture. Cliniton reinforces the old walls, Obama breaks them down so that my father and I find ourselves standing on the same common ground.
The choice is between a well-polished argument that only reaches people on the same side and a poem that touches the very core of who we are:
http://www.dipdive.com
If we listen carefully, there is a bit of hope singing inside of every single one of us. Yes. We. Can.
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