On the cusp of this historic election I find myself walking down memory lane.
Sixteen years ago on election day 1992 I stood above a crowd gathered in front of Cornell’s student union building, Willard Straight Hall. As a student leader in those days I had been invited to speak by the Get Out The Vote group organizing the rally. It wasn’t long before I had tapped my inner wellspring of activist anger and was thundering to the crowd about how we stood on the brink of “ending twelve years of Republican tyranny” in the White House. The issues were different then: a nasty recession, the first war in Iraq (and consequent fears of a draft), huge Reagan deficits, Clarence Thomas. From the gay angle, there was the failure of Republicans to even say the word “AIDS” in public until hundreds of thousands of people had died, as well as discrimination against gays in the military.
Bill Clinton, the Man from Hope, stood poised to capture the White House and usher in a new era of more progressive and tolerant policies, including his pledge to end the ban on gays in the military. People were angry at the status quo, and were excited at the prospect of change. Much like today.
The sheer joy of celebrating Clinton’s victory was short-lived. Fast forward two years and I was in law school in Washington, DC. I remember gloomily passing by newspaper stands on my way to class that cold November morning after the 1994 election, all of which blared that Republicans had re-taken both Houses of Congress for the first time in decades–and that a new conservative revolution led by Newt Gingrich was on the rise. Clinton had made a strategic blunder in focusing on gays in the military and Hillarycare too quickly after being elected, before ensuring that the Congress would be on his side. My gloom was tempered by a bit of “serves you right” at the Democrats–I had been incensed by people like Sam Nunn who had displayed their homophobia and ruined Clinton’s effort to end discrimination in the military. I buckled myself in for what would end up being twelve very long years of political exile for progressive ideas and prudent government.
Four years ago I despaired that this country could re-elect such a vile and incompetent man as George W. Bush. My hatred for him was and continues to be visceral, representing a complete repudiation of a personal style that extols ignorance and anti-intellectualism while pushing a hard-nosed “my way or the highway” way of doing things. My fears have been vindicated again and again–from the never-ending disaster in Iraq, to Abu Ghraib, to Katrina, to his assaults on the environment and civil rights, to the mismanagement of the economy. Hopefully there will never again be another president elected that is so uniquely capable of turning everything he touches into garbage.
In the depths of my despair following Kerry’s defeat in 2004 I turned to a speech being circulated on the Internet, a victory speech by a heretofore unknown Senate candidate named Barack Obama. I didn’t hear it personally, only read it, but I found his speech utterly compelling, as he called out to not a Red America or a Blue America but a United States of America. It was chicken soup for the soul, and I wrote it into my personal blog as a bit of consolation. Little did I know I was pondering the speech of someone who is very likely to be elected president in 2008–in fact, I had forgotten I’d even heard of this man as early as 2004 until I recently dug back into the depths of my blog.
Now, here we are again–at another inflection point in history. The country is much the worse off than in 1992–having just suffered an economic crash, many people’s retirements impeded or ruined, bogged down by war without end in Iraq, with many jobs shipped overseas and never to return, hopelessly addicted to foreign fossil fuels, and increasingly threatened by worldwide climate change.
The Republicans are about to pay a heavy price for allowing the country to go to waste in the way it has under their rule, as they face not only presidential defeat, but a diminishing of their numbers in Congress not seen in over a generation. In troubled times people have woken up to the fact that the Republicans were very good at using cultural wedge issues to win elections, but were very poor at governing in accordance with their supposedly conservative philosophy. There has been nothing conservative about record levels of deficit spending and reckless wars. Republicans have lost the true soul of their party, and they are about to be cast into the wilderness until they find it again.
Once again, a man arises from the most unlikely background to bring a message of hope and change at a time of deep despair. Anyone who thinks that Obama is going to be a cure-all panacea for everything the nation faces is a fool–his power to change things will be limited by the sheer size of America’s problems and the rising price tag for resolving them. But at least the man has a vision for how to bring morning back to America after a very dark night.
Even if he lacks the power to do it all then he at least has the power to sit by the fireplace, just like FDR did in is fireside chats, and speak to my soul in re-assuring tones about how we as Americans are united and strong enough to withstand and overcome these difficult times. Obama has the power to inspire with his ideas and his rhetoric, something Americans very much need right now.
I look to the young people passionately criss-crossing every state looking for Obama votes, and I fondly see a younger side of me in them. I’m older now, busier, not as energetic or angry. As a friend of mine said recently, I’ve now entered the “donor” stage of activism. That’s ok, but I sometimes wish I still had the time, energy and passion as I did back then. What they’re doing is so damn important–not just for Obama, but they’re hopefully also re-igniting the youth vote as a powerful and continuing voice for change even after the election. As for me, I will happily fund their efforts as best I can.
And I will also drive old ladies to the polls for Obama come Tuesday. I’m not so old yet that I can’t put boots to the ground on the Day of Reckoning. My activism boots are old and dusty, but they still feel damn good to wear on occasion. I will help win Virginia for Obama.
GO OBAMA!
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{ 1 comment }
i cant believe how much soft tyranny all this spending is
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