it was never about the guy (or gal)
I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you. For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time. America, this is one of those moments.
The powers-that-be will always try to tell you that you can’t make a difference. But that is and always will be bullshit. This year, the Dems grok it. The promise of America has always been about the little people. This isn’t some brainwashed mob following some messianic figure out into the desert. These are people who have been kicked into the ground for the last eight years, who finally realize that, by banding together with like-minded people, they do have the power change things. Obama is only one person. At best, he can only try to get the doors open. It has always been, will always be, only ourselves who can get us over the threshold.
Maybe that’s why Obama supporters take it personally when Obama gets attacked. Never mind that most of the stuff flying out there is ill-informed, ignorant, fabricated, distorted. Rove-style, Republican talking points, all sensationalism, no substance, not even tenuously rooted in reality. Attacks on Obama get interpreted as a personal attack on one’s decision-making capabilities. It’s pretty damn insulting to call someone a hypnotized sheep who is following emotion rather than reason. It’s pretty damn insulting to call someone a fawning, fellating fanboy. But the fact is that Obama didn’t choose us, didn’t convince us, didn’t trick us, or bribe us into following him. We chose him.
I know that idea makes the powers-that-be shit themselves.
Ultimately, getting Obama elected as president is just a means to an end. That end has always been, will always be, to make America a better place, not just for ourselves, but for anyone who wants to join in and share the work.
This is not just wishful thinking, sitting on our hands while watching the talking heads practice their punditry. This is about rolling up your sleeves and jumping into the deepest part of the mud, about the long hard hours of work put in to build something great, in honor of all the lives ground down and sacrificed, all for this idea that we hold in our heads, this thing that we call “America.” Our history has always been one of struggle, of striving against impossible odds, and of nonetheless prevailing. And the present is no different.
Today I am damn proud to be an American. Here’s to always striving to make it a better place. Here’s to remembering that you and I, as small as we are, can always make a difference. Hope is not just some warmed-over, prosaic sentiment. It’s a way of living your life.
Go ahead and spout your gospel of despair. Talking shit and insulting people never got anything done, never changed anything. You can criticize. Or you can create. It’s a free country.