The Audicity of Hope

Let me preface this by saying that I am in no way a political person. I vaguely know who our politicians are, and usually only when I am required to know so, like in a Presidential race or something along those lines. But it is not because I am disinterested. No, it is because I am disheartened and since the first time I voted at 18 years of age, I have not connected with a single politician that is out there.

When I was 18, I voted because it was a privilege as an American Citizen, and I was proud that I finally could. I voted Democrat, because my parents had always voted Republican, and I knew that I did not hold most of the same beliefs about personal rights as they did. I voted at college, where everywhere you turned, someone was handing you a VOTE! button or pamphlet or whatever, and it was the "cool" thing to do. I have not voted in a single election since.

I have been chastised by many when I tell people this, as they gasp in horror at my flat out refusal to exercise this certain inalienable right, but let me explain. Since I could understand what it meant to be an American Citizen, and since I could make some sense of the bits and pieces I have learned throughout the years about our electoral process, I have firmly believed that in order for me to endorse a certain human being, a certain candidate, a certain American Citizen to represent ME and what I believe in, I have not found one that even remotely covers the bases. Not one.

Maybe it's because every politician gets up on their podium and preaches what they think I want to hear. Maybe it's because every politician has a smug confidence about them that screams LIAR! Maybe it's because, no matter who is up there, it is conservative vs. liberal, Republican vs. Democrat, Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Wrong. Any hope I have in finding someone to represent me gets lost in the he said/she said crap that sums up the final moments of any election in my voting years. I don't buy any of it. I want someone to stand up there, tell it how it is, how it has to be, simply state "I don't know, but we'll figure it out because we have to", and not only appear to be a decent human being, but to actually BE one.

Being from Illinois, I'm sure I am inundated a bit more with the golden boy of politics right now, Barack Obama. He's everywhere right now, a Presidential hopeful, a family man, a nice guy, a seemingly real person. He's a newbie in Washington, which helps him in more ways than it hinders him. And I am intrigued. Completely smitten. And, shall I even suggest, hopeful.

I'm reading Mr. Obama's latest book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream, and though I have barely made a dent in it, I find myself with dog-eared pages where something he said simply grabbed me, motivated me, made me nod my head. I've read and re-read several paragraphs, not only because the man is highly intelligent, but because I can hardly believe a politician can still see the world of the common man so clearly. I want him to run for President, I want him to save us from ourselves, to restore the world's awe of America, or even more simply, to represent our country and not make us look like complete idiots.

"The gap between what we deem appropriate behavior in everyday life and what it takes to win a campaign is just one of the ways in which a politician's values are tested. In few other professions are you required, each and every day, to weigh so many competing claims--between different sets of constituents, between the interests of your state and the interests of the nation, between party loyalty and your own sense of independence, between the value of service and obligations to your family. There is a constant danger, in the cacophony of voices, that a politician loses his moral bearings and finds himself entirely steered by the winds of public opinion.

Perhaps this explains why we long for that most elusive quality in our leaders--the quality of authenticity, of being who you say you are, of possessing a truthfulness that goes beyond words."

Is it possible for a man who seems to understand to NOT become jaded and bought out while in Washington? Is it possible that he can steer himself in the right direction, which is the opposite of all those who have gone before him? And if he can, can he win? I, for one, certainly hope he is all that he appears, and when the time comes, he will be sworn in as President of the United States. He will have my vote, because instead of talking and talking and talking when he is with the common people, the core people, of this country, it appears he is actually listening to what they have to say.

"Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines.: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters.

But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way--in their own lives, at least--to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves....I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish bewteen what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between left and right, conservative and liberal, but htey recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting.


They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."