Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick offered a curious contrast in his Democratic Convention speech earlier this week. He deemed Senator Barack Obama a man of vision and compared him to the policies and programs of the Bush administration. He concluded that America needs vision, not "more policies and programs."
Such a sentiment almost came across as an apology for a candidacy that has been plagued by criticism of "lack of substance," and "celebrity politics" from its inception. In addition, Patrick's contrast set up an antithetical relationship between vision and policy that is both unnecessary in government and foreign to religious tradition.
Biblical prophets cast vision and proposed policy. They offered apocalyptic hopes for future (and current) generations and brought clear indictment to failed policies for the poor, while proffering concrete practices consistent with such vision. People need hope and structures that enact those hopes. People require proscriptive vision and prescriptive vehicles. When Martin Luther King proclaimed his dream 45 years ago from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he was careful to document policy issues such as states' rights and the statecraft of federal government (critiquing charges of "interposition and nullification" from southern states) in his journey to the demographically diverse mountaintops from which freedom should ring.
Last night's speech was Obama's great opportunity to show that vision and policy do not live in separate worlds. Indeed, his speech needed to reflect the appropriate balance of what African-American Christian ethicist Peter Paris has called the "political idealism" and "political realism" that combine to form "political wisdom." Political realism without vision becomes crude pragmatism. Political idealism without political realism degenerates into irrelevancy and a disconnected otherworldliness. In the prophetic tradition, the best of a prophet's otherworldly offerings set the context for change in this life. Could Obama pull this off?
We got the hope, we got the vision. And yes, the "policies and programs" deemed antithetical to vision earlier in the convention came rushing in amidst the framework of Obama's campaign ideals. Tax cuts for 95 percent of working Americans, equal pay for equal work, investment in support for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families, development of alternative energy sources, and commitment to investment in education from early childhood through college came rolling down like waters. Fair treatment of gay and lesbian relationships, a relentless pursuit of Al-Qaeda, accessible health care for all Americans, and protection of workers' pensions before CEO bonuses came rushing as a mighty stream. The policy came through -- and then the return to vision.
That return expressed itself in a commitment to a form of debate that seeks common ground on the problems we face. The new politics pressed calls for reasoned debates among those who disagree on how to handle unwanted pregnancy, same-sex unions, and other issues that have drawn a fundamentalist stridency from all sides. Obama appealed to a democratic spirit of rigorous debate and discussion and to the common purpose at the root of the American dream.
The speech was not perfect, nor all of the answers emotionally satisfying for this observer. As an African-American Republican whose party affiliation predates the right-wing hijacking of the party, I still have views of policy that differ greatly from Obama's. As an evangelical Christian, I am diametrically opposed to his views and votes on how to deal with unwanted pregnancies and same-sex unions. But I am all for the need for a different style of debate and statecraft, even if some of Obama's own behaviors, such as dissing and ditching Jeremiah Wright, reflect the old politics of expediency. And I will vote for him.
I will vote for him because of the hope for a new form of debate and a commitment to some of the policy proposals he has advanced. And I will vote for him because he is Black. That may seem heretical in a "post-racial" society, but I am not alone in saying that post-racial is not a-racial. To be truly post-racial is not to deny the history and realities of race, but to remember and think of them differently. Forgiveness, in the biblical tradition, does not mean to forget what has happened, but to overcome the bitterness inflicted and to remember the pain of the past in ways that empower the future -- to use them as occasions to rise above the hurt and seek justice that precludes others from past pains made present.
And so I remember the pain of slavery, segregation, and discrimination. I remember the national consensus on denied opportunities to minorities that led to Thurgood Marshall prodding a judicial activism in 1954, because legislation would never lead to justice as long as electoral politics reflected a national culture of racism. I remember being a child of the '60s and believing that if a Black man were ever elected president, it would be in 2000 or 2020 because, at the time, every president from Harrison in 1840 to Kennedy in 1960 who had been elected in a year divisible by 20 had died in office (and I couldn't get it out of my mind last night as I watched the speech that someone might shoot Obama before my eyes on national television; I let out a sigh of relief when he was finished).
I will vote for him because I choose to remember the racial past differently, for only then can we envision a post-racial America where the oppression of the past becomes a springboard for courageous living in the future. The new terms of the debate proposed last night give me that opportunity. We have the opportunity to live in Paris's notion of political wisdom for the first time in a generation.
Harold Dean Trulear is associate professor of applied theology at the Howard University School of Divinity.
I am a decade older than Professor Trulear and two decades older than Senator Obama. Although a person of faith, I am frequently temped by cynicism when it comes to politics. Although I have not voted since I cast my ballot for Jimmy Carter in 1980, I too will vote for Obama. Not with the same wide-eyed enthusiasm with which I would have voted for JFK in 1960, had I been old enough. Sen Obama's candidacy of change reminds me of nothing so much as Kennedy's New Frontier. The nation needs a vision even though we remember Kennedy's failure to deliver on civil rights and his putting us on the slippery slope to Viet Nam. So I know enough take Obama's convention litany of policy promises with many grains of salt. I will vote for Obama in part because he is half African. I have always supposed that we would never have a black president in my lifetime. American is not yet ready for a black president, but having a half-African present raised by whites is a step in that direction, just as having a Jamaican-descended and then Stanford-faculty black secretary of state for eight years has been. Nor have I any illusions that even a black, slave-descended president could solve all the problems of African Americans, any more than black mayors and representatives have. But these are all steps in a process. I was surprised by God's grace when the Berlin wall fell and apatheid was dismantled in non-violent revolutions just over a decade ago. I am ready to be surprised again.
Harold Dean Trulear's article captures the essence of prophetic engagement. Prophetic voices offer analysis, hope, vision, public policy and reflection. Prophetic voices also foretell of the future without compromising core values of the faith.
Barack Obama's candidacy does offer change. His rhetoric, his ideals and his ability to negotiate difficult political minefields are subtle departures from the past.
Is the candidacy perfect? Not at all. Despite all of the talk about empowering young voters, his core campaign investments (human and financial resources) are pretty traditional.
If Obama is elected president America would be well-served to reexamine a statement by Jeremiah Wight- the day after he becomes president prophetic voices "will be coming after him" to insure accountability.
America will also be well-served to reexamine Rev. Trulear's article. It is thoughtful, balanced and prophetic.
Eugene Williams
Los Angeles
I too will vote for Barack Obama but not because he is Black but because he is a tremendously better than the alternative---McCain-Palin. Admittedly Obama was not my first choice, Hillary was where I placed my support. I believe that she had the political chops to stand up to and respond to the inevitable. Frankly, my hope is built on God and Christ not Obama----I did not need him to give me hope because I have that within me yet I know there are others who are not similarly situated. Nonetheless, I am cautiously optimistic that those who are inspired by Obama will continue to be so beyond November 4th and January 20th. I pray that those youthful and not so youthful strong supporters of Obama will educate themselves to ACT---to struggle, protest, write/call their congress persons and peacefully resist & replace those who ignore poverty, violence and nihilism domestically and internationally, and work beside those community organizers and other workforce developers who work to place people in tremendous need in the midst of rising unemployment and underemployment rates. The rhetoric must move beyond the mouth and begin to burn the hands of those of us who are able to be the change that occurs beyond the words----Barack may have the vision but without the managers, the community organizers, the workers on the ground-----the visionary message of hope is nothing!
Once again Dr. Trulear has expressed views that are both insightful and quite exceptional. I am a life long Democrat and I, too am voting for Senator Obama. Excluding the obvious reason; I am a middle aged Christian African-American woman and I never thought that I would ever get the opportunity to vote for an African American for President of the United States. Unlike Dr. Trulear I actually share quite a few of Senator Obama’s views and policies.
I find the possibility of this man being elected to the highest public office in the land almost overwhelming. Dr. Trulear expressed it perfectly. Vision and Policy do not live in separate worlds. The two should go hand in hand in order to move us in a positive direction.
This is a huge opportunity for the citizens of the United States especially those of us that call ourselves Christians to come together and put those differences aside that have plagued us for hundreds of years; bigotry, hatred, racist attitudes, our slave mentalities, our crabs in the barrel ethos, our elitist attitudes and most of all our fear of the new and unknown. I often think about the other world leaders and how they view us as a nation and how they seem to have embraced him and his vision for the United States as well as his vision for our relationship with the rest of the world. This image is very powerful and should not go unnoticed. It is clearly time for a change. Senator Obama’s election would clearly be a change like no other that the world has ever seen.
Let us not forget that our nation has to clean up the debris left behind the Bush administration; the war and the economy immediately come to mind. There are also feathers that have been ruffled by the U.S. globally and must be resolved with alacrity.
Trying not to sound too emotional, I feel that Senator Obama’s rise to power is not coincidental. I believe it is his time. He is extremely bright, he is well educated; the Senator has lived his life as if he knew he would want to one day position himself to take this step. He has a beautiful family; he is a loving husband and devoted father. He exemplifies all of the family values that we have always held in such high esteem. His multicultural background represents all of America not just one faction. He clearly represents the world of which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke.
Hopefully in November we will all unite and share his vision for a better America and vote him into office thereby allowing him to implement some new policies for a brighter future for us all. As Dr. Trulear so succinctly stated; learning Political Wisdom. Any change begins with a vision.
Gradine
Atlanta, Georgia