Cynical Partisan Divide?

To Rovian Republican politics, to the politics of cynical partisan division, Barack Obama responded:

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.

Source of this selection from Barack Obama's Convention Speech: MSNBC.MSN.com

Barack Obama: A good and thoughtful speech

Except for a few places where he stumbled just a bit in the delivery, Barack Obama gave a fine speech at the Democratic Convention. He had tough things to say, some specific promises to make which one hopes he and a Democratic government can fill, and some steely challenges for John McCain. Here are a few quotes I jotted down quickly:

• "We love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight."
• On the politics of the Republican party: "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as a person to run from."
• "At defining moments like this, change doesn't come from Washington; change comes to Washington."

The speech addressed some specific criticisms lobbed against him: against his patriotism, against his judgment, against his popularity. He spoke movingly of his family, of his mother, his grandparents, of the missing father in his life. David Brooks said that this was a good speech but not a political speech. The historian Richard Norton Smith said that it was a great speech, not one that will probably be written in stone--but that any perceived shortcomings will not matter if Barack Obama has an inaugural speech in his future.

I started getting a little worried, however, that Obama wasn't going to mention Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on this historic anniversary. That tip of the hat came at the end of Obama's speech, but it was just that--a tip of the hat. For a few minutes I watched Tavis Smiley (whose program I used to watch more regularly when I lived in Central Time Zone), whose guests for a brief post-convention analysis were Dr. Cornell West and Julianne Malveaux. West and Malveaux both were disappointed in the speech and felt that Obama should have shown more gratitude for the hard work of African-Americans who made it possible for a black man to accept this historical nomination. Malveaux said: "I think the brother dropped the historical baton."

I think Obama is trying to bridge at least two divides here: a political divide (or, more accurately, the partisan divide) between Republicans and Democrats and a racial divide between whites and blacks. It's a precarious balance. He will not be able to meet everyone's expectations. He will be, I hope, the first of many African-American presidents, men and women.

Here is Kevin Drum on Obama's speech. I also really liked the first quote that Kevin copied from the speech.