Finally I Hear a Politician Explain My Country Just the Way I Understand It

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/finally-i-hear-a-politician-explain-my-country-the-way-i-understand-it/387178/


Finally I Hear a Politician Explain My Country Just the Way I Understand It
"America is not some fragile thing." Words to live by.
James Fallows Mar 8 2015, 4:10 AM ET

snip//

And the riff near the end, with its artful repeated emphasis on we:

We were born of change. We broke the old aristocracies, declaring ourselves entitled not by bloodline, but endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights....

Look at our history. We are Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea, pioneers who braved the unfamiliar, followed by a stampede of farmers and miners, and entrepreneurs and hucksters. That’s our spirit. That’s who we are.

We are Sojourner Truth and Fannie Lou Hamer, women who could do as much as any man and then some. And we’re Susan B. Anthony, who shook the system until the law reflected that truth. That is our character.

We’re the immigrants who stowed away on ships to reach these shores, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free –- Holocaust survivors, Soviet defectors, the Lost Boys of Sudan. We’re the hopeful strivers who cross the Rio Grande because we want our kids to know a better life. That’s how we came to be.

We’re the slaves who built the White House and the economy of the South. We’re the ranch hands and cowboys who opened up the West, and countless laborers who laid rail, and raised skyscrapers, and organized for workers’ rights.

We’re the fresh-faced GIs who fought to liberate a continent. And we’re the Tuskeegee Airmen, and the Navajo code-talkers, and the Japanese Americans who fought for this country even as their own liberty had been denied.

We’re the firefighters who rushed into those buildings on 9/11, the volunteers who signed up to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. We’re the gay Americans whose blood ran in the streets of San Francisco and New York, just as blood ran down this bridge.

We are storytellers, writers, poets, artists who abhor unfairness, and despise hypocrisy, and give voice to the voiceless, and tell truths that need to be told.

We’re the inventors of gospel and jazz and blues, bluegrass and country, and hip-hop and rock and roll, and our very own sound with all the sweet sorrow and reckless joy of freedom.

Political speeches are masterworks of base-touching references to different icons and interest groups. This list in this speech is different from what most politicians would offer — you'll know that the GOP is serious about competing for non-white votes and thus for the presidency when you can imagine one of its candidates presenting a similar list — and it is one that matches my sense of what I love about my country.

snip//

The political tribalism of this moment means that Democrats are mostly welcoming today's speech, and Republicans and Fox News mostly condemning it. But these days Martin Luther King Jr. is quoted respectfully even at right-wing gatherings. When the political passions of the moment have passed, people of all parties will quote this speech as expressing an essence of our American creed.

[monmouth4]

1. He got going with such a rhythm and the perfect rise in voice I was looking for the

collection basket. That's how the priests of old days used to get us fired up....

[KG]

2. that's explains the need for endless wars against fake enemies, DHS, and the NSA, etc.

because this county is soooooo not fragile....right.

[babylonsister]

5. Bitter much?

Why don't you go start your own thread about how horrific this country is, while I will relish what happened yesterday, and the fact that many people are in this fight together.

Or don't. You are welcome to wallow in your negativism here; this is still a free country, and maybe that's what I'm celebrating, warts and all.

[calimary]

15. Sigh... it's ALWAYS easier to nitpick and tear down.

Trying to BUILD is ALWAYS harder. I've been facing that down elsewhere here - lots of naysayers because maybe the premise isn't absolutely immaculate or the argument is imperfect or it won't work or there's no use or there's no point or blah-blah-blah. People everywhere (not just here) LOVE-LOVE-LOVE to foul on a technicality. It's fun, after all. And it's easy! Shitting in the punchbowl or peeing in the pickle barrel is always fun. You feel smart. And hot. And hip. And iconoclastic or some such bullshit. And rebellious. And ballsy. And maybe you deflated the balloon just enough for everybody else that it won't ever get off the ground, and nothing will ever be done about the problem, and no drumbeat will be generated and accelerated until it's utterly deafening and unignorable and unavoidable anymore, and maybe we'll all just sit and be glum about it and complain and never get anything accomplished nor any problems solved or issues addressed - just like the naysayers do.

And then, WHAT exactly is won? What, exactly, is accomplished for the greater good, or for the sake of fixing a problem or addressing an injustice? Anything at all? Probably a whole boatload of NOTHING.

[lunatica]

10. Are you denying a single thing in that speech?

Because it looks like you are. Only the bad counts I guess.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. {Sighhh} n/t

[uhnope]

16. haters are never going to understand or accept or tolerate this speech

& that's sad.

[Cha]

3. "When the political passions of the moment have passed, people of all parties will quote this speech

as expressing an essence of our American creed." I hope so.

Interesting prediction from James Fallows that ends an excellent review of the President speech at Selma yesterday.

Mahalo, babylonsistah~

[azmom]

4. What a great moment in history!!!

What a gift to have this president at this moment in time.

[Enthusiast]

6. I'm always in favor of teaching the American people a bit of history.

We need to continue the lessons.

[mountain grammy]

7. This is beautiful.. huge K & R

A great speech by a Democratic president that tells us who we are.

[ewagner]

8. Saved for my personal library n/t

[world wide wally]

9. After hearing Obama's speech yesterday, I would say that he loves America way more than Giuliani.

But unlike Giuliani, I am not an asshole, so I won't say that.

[Pirate Smile]

18. I tend to think of it as a young child's

Hero worship type of immature love - imagining perfection & flying into denial rather than recognizing growth and/or a mature love seeing a person (such as a parent) clearly, recognizing their humanity and accepting their faults & quirks, and loving them anyway.

[Hekate]

11. KnR. From the first time I heard him speak, I knew this man saw my/our country the way I do.

That's huge.

[babylonsister]

12. Yes!

I was a Kucinich supporter for a bit, but when I realized he couldn't win, I supported our Prez, and have never regretted it.

[stopwastingmymoney]

13. I watched it in bits throughout the day, just finished

I am, again so struck by what an enormously talented person he is. Think of correspondent's dinners too. I feel very fortunate to have this President, in this time. He will be remembered for his grace under pressure, dignity and humor. I shudder to think what our world would be like under the alternatives.

Call me Obamalover, I don't care. I'm proud, he had me in 2004.


Mr. President, that was excellent

[MBS]

17. It was a wonderful, wonderful speech.

The best of Obama's speeches so far, IMHO, and that's really saying something.
He brought me to tears several times.
I felt like you: "THIS is my country," I thought.
I was proud of my president, proud to have voted for him, twice, and proud of my country.

I believe that this will be end up as one of the classic speeches in American political history, up there with "I have a dream", Mario Cuomo's 1984 speech, and others of similar impact. I heard Obama's 2004 convention speech in person, and, along with everyone else, rose to give that speech a well-deservedstanding ovation; but, honestly, I think the Selma speech surpassed that 2004 speech, in substance, style, and passion.

Wonderful.
I've printed out the transcript , for re-reading.

[MissMarple]

19. Fallows is great...

Just great.