Audacity of Hope
Mabe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futie. Or mabe trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters.
But I dont think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst f all the politcal and cultural battles, but who have found a way in their own lives, at least - to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves. I imagine the white Southerner wh growing up heard his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guys at the office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his own son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, an is just as tired of the drug dealers in front of those buildings as he is of the bankers who won't give him a loan to expand his business. There's the middle aged fminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who paid for her teenager's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants and Wal Mart associates who hold their breath ever single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children that they did bring into the word.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturit to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be comromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a oint. They dont always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.
But I dont think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst f all the politcal and cultural battles, but who have found a way in their own lives, at least - to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves. I imagine the white Southerner wh growing up heard his dad talk about niggers this and niggers that but who has struck up a friendship with the black guys at the office and is trying to teach his own son different, who thinks discrimination is wrong but doesn't see why the son of a black doctor should get admitted into law school ahead of his own son. Or the former Black Panther who decided to go into real estate, bought a few buildings in the neighborhood, an is just as tired of the drug dealers in front of those buildings as he is of the bankers who won't give him a loan to expand his business. There's the middle aged fminist who still mourns her abortion, and the Christian woman who paid for her teenager's abortion, and the millions of waitresses and temp secretaries and nurse's assistants and Wal Mart associates who hold their breath ever single month in the hope that they'll have enough money to support the children that they did bring into the word.
I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturit to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be comromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a oint. They dont always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between things that last and those that are fleeting.
They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.