Congratulations, President Obama!

It is no secret that I was ambivalent about Obama early in this election cycle. As a self-defined Independent, I had a distrust of political candidates of either of the two major parties. As a Filipino-American, I also had misgivings towards Obama’s possible approach to foreign policy especially as it relates to my original home country of the Philippines (where I am supportive of leftist opposition movements to the established elites in power). I even agreed with much of what political scientist and Obama critic Adolph Reed had to say regarding the insanity of relying exclusively on electing Democratic politicians as a way to enact a Progressive agenda.

It wasn't until my sister weighed in on what an Obama candidacy meant to her as a biracial Asian-American that I softened a bit. But still I harbored my doubts even as I announced my intentions to vote for the Obama ticket.

After the election results were announced last night, my wife and I walked around the U Street area in Washington DC surrounded by a jubilant, multiracial crowd of young and other adults. This was near midnight and it was raining. People were high-fiving, dancing and hanging out en masse in a spontaneous street celebration of Obama’s victory. It was at that moment that I forgot about my ambivalence and recognized the significance of Obama as the 44th President of the U.S.

• This was not just a normal victory -- it was a resounding landslide. Americans overwhelmingly voted to oust the Republican administration and to usher in, not just the candidate of the other major party, but a candidate who specifically ran on the promise and symbolism of Change and Hope. Obama's inclusive, post-ideological message which promised solutions to social and economic problems and cast itself as being above ideological or partisan rancor galvanized people in droves to support his candidacy by volunteering, giving money and voting in unprecedented numbers.

• Obama's campaign was a true, grassroots, up-from-the-bottom operation. Staying true to his community organizer roots, Obama's field operations were tremendously effective in mobilizing volunteers, voters and raising money. It is a cliche by now to say that the Obama campaign re-wrote the book on how American political and fundraising campaigns are conducted.

• I kept thinking to myself throughout the elections that if a Progressive movement were to truly become a reality, it would have to borrow its playbook on organizing, mobilizing and raising money from the Obama campaign. In fact, much of the leadership and membership for any theoretical Progressive movement will most likely come from engaged veterans of the Obama campaign.

• Many lefty critics (myself included) love to argue how Obama is not Progressive or Left enough. How he will surround himself with Establishment types to staff his cabinet and nothing will truly change under an Obama administration. But I can't remember the last time people felt joyful and exuberant enough in winning an election to flood the streets of Washington DC at midnight in joyful, spontaneous revelry. Obama's victory did that. Damn, I thought to myself last night. I am witnessing something special tonight. Obama may not be my type of Leftist politician but you have to admit that his victory and candidacy for the Presidency was meaningful to ordinary people in a way that no other political figure has been for a very long time.

So Mr. Obama, a hearty congratulations on a well-deserved victory. There will be time in the near future for me to be critical once again. There will be a time for engaged citizens and activists to mobilize to make sure that you enact your platform of Change. But right now, the unrestrained joy of the young (and not-so-young) celebrants who flooded the streets of Washington DC last night has become contagious and made a reluctant believer out of this crusty lefty Independent. Well done, Mr. Obama. Well done.

Cross-posted in An Ordinary Person.

I Wouldn't Have Believed If I Hadn't Seen It

Spotted over at the Revolution in Jesusland blog. Also check out the official site.

Yes We Can Around the World

I thought readers of this blog might get a kick out of this (hat tip to the Angry Asian Man blog) – Obama’s message “Yes We Can” translated in various international languages and marketed as a political/fashion statement on t-shirts.

Here are some examples in Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Vietnamese and Hebrew

If You Smell What Barack is Cookin’

So I’ve decided to forget about my qualified support for Obama and have decided to just plain support his candidacy for President. Why? My sister is also a blogger. After last Thursday’s acceptance speech by Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention she was moved to write something in her blog. This is what she had to say:

Little known fact: for about a year, while I was in high school, I contemplated a political career. I was a volunteer intern with the Democratic Coordinated Campaign in 2000, and I was hired as an intern for Senator Feingold’s office the summer between my junior and senior years. For a tiny while I thought to myself, you know what, I could be a damn fine president. Yes, I really did.

And then I realized, come on now, I’m biracial. I’m a woman. The daughter of an immigrant. It’s impossible in my lifetime. I can’t. I won’t ever be given the chance. Give up. And then I gave up.

Now imagine a girl, in high school, a teenager, mixed-race, black, Asian, Latina, native american, any girl who would have been held back by being who she was born as, imagine her having that dream today. And then watching Barack Obama’s speech tonight. And not giving up.

It’s the dreams of those young girls and boys that actually brought me to tears tonight, not anything that was said in that packed stadium in Denver. The tenuous hope, so easily taken away, that there could be a generation of children of color raised in an America with a biracial black man as its President. The dreams they’d be allowed to dream, and really believe in. The burdens of their parents that they wouldn’t feel at all. Just eight years ago, when I was in high school, dreaming, that seemed a complete impossibility. An impossibility.

I was wrong to give up, though I can’t take it back, my life is on a very different path now, and my heart is elsewhere. And I had my reasons not to hope. So far this election cycle I have been very, very doubtful about Senator Obama’s chances. He’s not President yet, he still may never be, but I’ve already been proven wrong. And I revel in it.

I didn’t believe that Americans were ready to nominate someone like Obama. Someone who looked like Obama, and had his background. I didn’t believe it because, as my family moved around the world, every time we moved back to the US, I was met with prejudice, nonacceptance, hostility, and ignorance. Not uniformly, not from everyone. But over and over again. In everyday incidences that, one by one, pounded it into my consciousness that I was not accepted, I did not belong, and it was because of what I look like, who my parents are, and where we come from. Somewhere in the back of my head, I believe that most people believe that I’m not a real American. And Barack Obama, a man with a background quite similar to mine in many respects, well, I couldn’t believe that people could put aside those prejudices that I’d felt so often in my life, and accept him as one of their own. I’m still not sure I do believe it.

But it’s not impossible anymore. And that’s enough to impress me, and amaze me, and humble me. I thought too little of America, because I was convinced that it thought so little of me, and of people like me.

Thanks for proving me wrong, Senator. You have my vote.

Liberal Arts Dude sez:

I must say I was very surprised reading the above from my sister. If you’ve read enough of this blog you will learn that I do plan on voting for Obama this coming November but my vote is a qualified one–Obama gets my vote but … and then a litany of disappointments and skepticism of the failed populist promises and betrayal of working peoples’ interests by the Democratic Party will follow.

Obama sounded like a true populist last Thursday. He said all the right things and got my hopes up that maybe, just maybe, he is sincere about this “Change” business and that if he wins in November, he will be able to change the culture of Washington DC and politics for the better. Because he is counting on the support and mandate from an organized and engaged citizenry. As he said, the election is really not about him -- it’s about us right? The citizenry whose hopes have been aroused by his candidacy and are now engaged and organized to participate in this grand experiment called Democracy.

I was impressed by the Obama campaign’s ability to elicit the type of response he did from my sister last night. Not a lot of politicians have been able to do that. Certainly not in my short lifetime. I’ve also never seen a campaign mobilize and raise money from so many ordinary people and get their hopes up.

An old story once said about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when a constituent met with him and made a great case for enacting reforms and policies. Roosevelt’s response: “That is all great. Now go out there and make me do it.” The story focuses on the importance and the role of the constituency in pressuring politicians from below in enacting the types of policies they want to happen.

Obama said he is running on a platform of Change. Let’s get out there and make him do it.

Cross posted in An Ordinary Person.

Barack Obama - Yes We Can

"Rumble Young Man Rumble"


Yes We Can