My “Audacity of Hope”
Barack-fever. Hussein-hysteria. Obama-mania. It doesn’t matter what you call it, there is no denying that Barack Obama has a massive, obsessive following in the lead up to the November elections.
While the Illinois Senator has less than four years under his belt in the U.S. Senate, he has already accomplished something that very few thought he could do: beat the Clinton machine in a primary. Now he has his sights set on beating John McCain in order to be the next President of the United States.
While his résumé in that regard sounds very impressive, I have reason to be worried about this obsessive movement. Earlier this year, a fellow Democratic Congressman expressed exactly what worries me about this man who wants to be President. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), said “This is not a campaign for President of the United States. This is a campaign to change the world.” That sounds just a tad overboard to me. I think that’s where Obama concerns me most. It is necessary to solve the problems here in the United States before trying to “change the world.”
This is not to say that everything he does concerns me. His popularity, liberalness, and ambition are all understandable to an extent – this is an election, you know. However, it is the scale of all of these things that concern me.
Being popular is not bad, but Obama is, in effect, running a campaign for President of the world – and I have a problem with that. His recent trip to Europe and the Middle East and the ensuing media frenzy (which back-fired on John McCain) ended up being a rally for followers worldwide, including nearly 200,000 people in Germany. I think we need to have allies, but I would also like to elect a President that is going to focus on the United States and not worry if Germans love him or not. He also used language at that rally that brought about images of a global community as he called himself a “citizen of the world.” I don’t know about you, but I pledge my allegiance to God and my country first and foremost, and the rest of the world further down that list. Being a good ambassador and gathering good will among nations should come after the election – not before – if he is as good at compromise as he says he is.
Please don’t get me wrong here. I appreciate some of what Obama has done. He has run (so far) a fairly clean campaign that has been full of energy and enthusiasm. I can’t criticize the man for doing that. However, I feel that I can criticize this man who wants to be President for presenting himself as something he’s not. And that’s where I disagree with his appeal to moderates.
As much as he likes to talk about being a moderate, he is far from it. According to the National Journal, he had the “most liberal” voting record in Congress in 2007. This is not my idea of a moderate politician who is able to work “across the aisle.” Obama seems to speak of “change” as a Washington outsider, but is really just another typical politician. He is no moderate and won’t be if elected.
Another worry to me personally when considering Barack Obama (and the state of the conservative movement as a whole) is his ability to attract young Evangelical Christian voters. This means one of two things: they don’t care about their religious beliefs when it comes to politics, or they don’t really listen to what Obama believes. And I think the latter is quite possibly the more likely one. All they hear is “change”, “yes we can”, and “hope,” and they immediately turn and follow like sheep. This is even more concerning to me than John McCain’s lack of solid conservative credentials. Sure, Obama has a plan, but can most of his followers clamoring for change give details about them?
Here is the point: Do I think change needs to come? Why, certainly. Do I think we need to have hope in America? Of course. Should America buy into the “hope” and “change” that Obama brings? On that one, I’m not so sure. The American people should look long and hard at what kind of change Obama brings to the table, before following him blindly through shifting positions and hollow words.
Whoever wins this election is going to have a lot to deal with anyway, but maybe I have the “audacity of hope” that the candidate who wins has experience made of more than just popularity.
Related posts:
