Barack Obama is bigger than politics

“What candidate would you endorse for the 2008 elections?” This question was asked of Ned Lamont, Connecticut’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator last year, when he gave a humble speech in Shanklin about his inspiring yet ultimately disappointing campaign. He officially endorsed Senator Chris Dodd (because Dodd endorsed him) and noted the merits of Hillary Clinton (duly noted here), but then he said something revealing of how he really felt: “Barack Obama is bigger than politics.”

Although Lamont’s own “Stand Up for Change” received support from a single-digit number of Wesleyan students, when he arrived for the Barack Obama rally on Friday, with the slightly altered slogan “Stand for Change,” we came out in droves. Maybe it was just Kal Penn (I’ll say it: the man is hot), but I suspect Lamont’s earlier statement captured a truth, as well. Many of us have deeply-felt concerns that transcend our personal lives into the political sphere. The collective consciousness of this campus imagines America different than the place where we came of age, where the federal government is the root of all evil, and you have to align yourself against the system to use the words peace and democracy, justice and equality. It takes a lot for more than 350 of us to show our support for a politician. It has to be bigger than politics.

Obama sees our America as in great need of repair. He sees divisions that need reconciliation within our country and abroad. He knows this reconciling action begins with ending the fighting in Iraq. Obama sees that the war is not working, that our military presence is not furthering the causes of Iraqi freedom or homeland security. As a senator he courageously opposed this war since its beginning, and as president he is ready to end America’s unjust part in it. He approaches America’s international relations with a realistic view: he understands that nuclear proliferation is the source of WMDs that we need to address. “I hold few illusions about our enemies,” he writes in “The Audacity of Hope,” and he has already begun the dialogue that will rebuild our alliances, a construction that is essential to our national security as it faces many threats.

Barack Obama sees Americans struggling at home, to find jobs, to pay for college, to get decent health care. Obama sees the systems that are supposed to provide security to the American people as broken: health care, education, and the economy. As a senator and a presidential hopeful, he has begun the difficult work of re-imagining them and taking the bold action necessary to rebuild them. His healthcare plan thoughtfully combines efforts to expand coverage to uninsured Americans and lower costs. He sees that “No Child Left Behind” did not live up to its creed, that schools in America perpetuate a system of injustice along racial and socioeconomic lines, and that education needs to be made a true priority if America is going to keep up in the global economy. He knows that the U.S. needs to sustain our economy and our relationship to the environment by ending our dependence on fossil fuels and creating renewable energy resources. The Americans he works for are the middle and working class, and he feels the promise of America is to provide for them, to maintain the safety net built by FDR in the New Deal. Obama’s ideals are to heal and unite our divided American States, and his realistic action offers to sustain these United States of America.

This election means more to us than the political process ever has before. For many of us, it is the first presidential election we can vote in, and, at the same time, all our studies reveal to us the singularity of this moment in history. As our campus joined the country for the Focus the Nation teach-in about climate change, we were united in the sense of urgency, for America to become a leader instead of the leading cause of the problem in the struggle that will define our time: our fragile humanity’s hope to cling to our planet in the twenty-first century. The odds are against us because we face the consequences of our past mistakes. Globally we face regret and despair, yet the opportunity is here now to begin changing, to join with other countries in the world peacefully to see if we all can survive. We cannot do this without hope. Barack Obama embodies the audacity of hope. He is the leader of a new politics, a new America, and the best world we can hope for after the legacy Bush left for our country. Our moment is now; it is a political and historical moment, but it’s bigger than that. To students, Obama’s message is “Change You Can Believe In:” “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington.…I’m asking you to believe in yours.”