Barack Obama's Unbounded Constituency

[illinoisprogressive]

Here is the other posting by the two writers. I really liked what they say and their writing.
So this is the other one I wanted to Share.

Barack Obama's Unbounded Constituency
By James Hansen - May 20th, 2007 at 11:30 pm EDT
Also listed in: *Students for Barack Obama* | Los Angeles (LA) Grassroots 4 Obama | UCLA Bruins for Obama 2008

Barack Obama's Unbounded Constituency

By James Hansen and Scott Safranek

Barack Obama confronts political challenges with an unyielding desire to build consensus. He creates real discussions with hostile audiences, seeking out would-be antagonists and engaging them in surprisingly disarmed exchanges. His broad appeal affords him a real chance to establish a sweeping Democratic majority in 2008 and beyond. But Presidents do not simply win and lose political battles; they determine the political climate. Barack Obama seems uncommonly fit to clear the air of our poisoned debate and put to rest the unnatural rightward creep of our politics.

In fact, he seems to enjoy a surprising affinity with his opponents' constituencies. Barack Obama's support of reproductive rights, gun control and stem cell research made him an unlikely guest at Pastor Rick Warren's Orange County mega-church last December. His invitation to speak on World AIDS Day riled many in the evangelical community, but the Senator was not cowed. He stood before the assembly and argued that AIDS cannot be fought with mere calls for abstinence and monogamy; condoms must be made more widely available. He chastised them for "too often ... point to the unfaithful husband or the promiscuous youth or the gay man and say 'This is your fault. You have sinned.'" He ended by reminding them that their faith demands they address the needs of all who suffer, from the Africans orphaned by AIDS to the victims of Katrina, from the gang members of South Central to the 47 million Americans without health insurance -- that these traditionally liberal causes should be what binds us together and not what drives us apart. The evangelical congregation gave Senator Obama a standing ovation.

Barack Obama's connectedness with Americans of all political stripes has yielded important legislative results. In his first years in the Illinois State Senate, Obama worked with Republicans to craft Illinois's first ethics reform in two decades. The legislation, supported by Illinois Progressive Interest Research Group (PIRG) and other good-government groups, was widely regarded as some of the toughest in the country and, despite significant initial resistance within both parties, the bill passed with near unanimous support. Later, in the US Senate, Barack Obama saw the need to update the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars and trucks, which had been stagnant for 20 years. Undaunted by this issue's historically poor track record among conservatives, Obama enlisted the help of Republican Richard Lugar, the senior Senator from Indiana. Together they assembled uncommon bipartisan support for yearly increases and other measures described in their Obama-Luger-Biden bill.

Democratic primaries often present voters with a dilemma. Confronted with the coming general election, it is natural to give weight to the candidate more palatable to Independents and moderate Republicans. But primaries are also about electing leaders and forward thinkers, the idealists who exemplify the best our party has to offer, the reformers who offer the potential for transformational change. This time around Democrats are lucky. Barack Obama rescues us from this traditional compromise. The promise of Barack Obama is not the promise of triangulation, of mediocrity rushing to a safer middle, but the promise of our entire political spectrum working together to achieve progressive goals. Welcome to the politics of persuasion.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/members

[Colobo]

1. Good read, thanks!