Obama Mania

Barack Hussein Obama's popularity has been described as "cult-like," as if he were "the second coming," or a "spiritual leader." He came out of near oblivion to sweep aside the heir apparent of the Democratic party, to the great distress of her supporters. He held rock-star-quality rallies of tens of thousands of people. He wooed huge crowds overseas. His rhetoric moved the young and apathetic, the cynical, the disenfranchised, to come to the polls on November 4th and vote for the first time in their lives, driven by a slogan that came right out of the populist movement play book: “Yes, we can!” What does all this mean for his presidency?

It means that the expectations for him to succeed are higher than for any president before him. People have hung their hopes for a better future on him, in a time that looks to become more economically troubled than any other in our lifetimes. Those who lived through the Great Depression, like my father, who is presently 82 years old, were mere children then. He and his brother and their carefree friends did not know that an economic catastrophe was responsible for their sustained poverty. What they found out as they grew older, though, was that they lived in a nation that cared to improve people's lives. And now, although it is unclear what exactly the President Elect has planned to do about the economy, what is clear is that he cares about the little guy, the everyman, the plumbers and the bakers and the nurses and the factory workers and the people of color, to a much more genuine degree than the people who stood on stage with clothing and accouterments that were equal to the worth many people's homes, who didn't even know how many homes they owned, or who did not know the meaning of the words that were coming out of their mouths in endless, circular, winking and nodding streams of message-managed shrill-sounding snarkiness.

The choice was clear for those who ached for real change, change that looked different and talked differently than the usual politicians did, change that came from somewhere other than the regular places, without having to constantly insist upon his differentness. This change came from exotic lands, with foreign tinges, and against huge odds. This change was articulated eloquently, calmly, reassuringly, and was in touch with the capabilities of new technology. This change attached himself to the reassuring familiar without compromising his own strengths and eloquence. This change was full of clear intelligence, good ideas and sound judgment. This change offered something that had not been offered to the American public in many, many years: Strong Leadership.

I must admit that I am one of the starry-eyed enthusiasts for the phenomenon that is Barack Obama. I came to this position as a cynical member of the “angry left,” disheartened by a nation that refused to look critically inward, that was too proud to admit her wrongs, let alone deem to right them. I decried that vacuum that was sucking the lifeblood and the vitality out of our nation, that was allowing our elected officials to become corrupted by lobbyists and campaign financing, causing politics to bring out the worst in us, driving us to mind-numbing degrees of mediocrity, the vacuum being one of Leadership. I was depressed and disgusted and longing for a real leader to come forward and show us the way out of our national morass. So when I first read an excerpt from a speech back in June of 2006 by a young Senator from Illinois titled, "The End of Small Politics," I began to believe that maybe there was some hope for the future of this nation, after all.

“Whether it's the war or Katrina or health care or outsourcing, you'll hear people say that, now, surely we've come to a moment where things have to change. And there are Americans who still believe in an America where anything's possible; they're just not sure that their leaders still do. They still believe in dreaming big dreams but they suspect maybe that their leaders have forgotten how.”

That became his stump speech, so the ideas have become familiar to us all. But looking back now, I am reminded how moving it was to witness for the first time. It is the basis of his forward-looking message of hope. It is the magic formula behind his magnetism, and it explains everything there is to explain about why he has been elected to be the next President of the United States of America. Everyone who heard Obama speak can attest to its power. Looking back now is something like listening to a Beatles song and understanding why they are so beloved all around the world. There is something almost mythical there, that was not molded by star-makers or handlers, something organic that hits the right note in the human heart, an honesty that cannot be faked or conjured up by a committee of seasoned writers and “experts.” Such authenticity cannot be manufactured.

This is why “Obama mania” is not just a passing fancy or misguided spiritual movement. What observers need to recognize in Barack Obama are those qualities that have gained him so many supporters, his strong leadership abilities and vision for this nation. The guy gets “it,” in that he understands what is wrong with our politics and the way government is functioning now, and he wants to return it to a government that is “for the people, by the people.” He is not just the voice of a generation, nor of a race, nor of a specific religion, nor even of the political left, even though he embraces ideas that have emerged out of younger generations and people of color and Christianity and the progressive movement. If everyone were to put their guard down and actually listen to the premise of what he is saying about how to change the government, so that it can become an agent of the people that it is supposed to serve, then they might just also see the legitimacy of his argument for what it is, as a reasoned challenge to the status quo that has not offered an inspiring and positive vision of what our Democracy should be able to achieve.
We all know the rest. We also know that the Beatles were right when they said, “We're more popular than Jesus.” They were just ahead of themselves a by few decades. Try turning on the radio and listening how long it takes for a new cover of an old Beatles song to come on, if not the Fab Four themselves. Or look for the DVD of "Paul McCartney in Red Square" and learn how the Beatles brought down Soviet Communism, not Ronald Reagan. What I am saying is that there is something to rock star popularity like theirs, or like Elvis'. These things are not just fads. Real, genuine, artistic genius, which introduces something extraordinary to the world, is enduring. Some movements really are revolutionary, and really do carry the exceptional power to change the world.