Over at the Current, I attempt a meditation on how growing up in the Clinton era has shaped my view of them, and of American politics more generally - for good or possibly for ill.
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I'm just a little older than you and similarly have no recollection of a successful politics that transcended cynicism -- but instead of making me resigned to American politics being perpetually dishonest and dirty, that fact has made me hunger all the more for sparks of honesty and authenticity. There are moments in Obama's speeches and interviews where one actually glimpses a decent human being who believes in himself and his country beyond what the typical political game-playing usually allows -- that whole hope thing. Obama is far to the left of me politically, and I don't even care. It's the promise he brings of a politics that might actually engage our higher selves, no matter the policy ideology, that has won me over. Most of the adults I know are better than our politics has been -- more honest, more humble, less quick to pounce on others' petty flaws. Why can't our politics be better? 
Obama is far to the left of me politically, and I don't even care. It's the promise he brings of a politics that might actually engage our higher selves, no matter the policy ideology, that has won me over. Politics that "engage our higher selves" is not exactly a new concept and is largely if not entirely dependent on the oratorical skills of the politician in question. Clinton (Bill) had some game in this regard, what with his building a bridge to the 21st century and such. All in all his stump speech messages were just as affirmative and optimistic as Obama's (albeit with more jujitsu woven in) lest people forget. What we're sick of is the mechanics of winning elections and the need to continue campaigning while in power. Here Obama will find himself less immune to "old politics" charges, since the kind of pivoting and weaving required to knit together and hold a huge constituency is rarely morally edifying. People should vote for him, in my opinion, because he's shown himself to be a very good at an art form which hasn't changed all that much over the years, decades, centuries; not because he somehow trancends it.
People should vote for him, in my opinion, because he's shown himself to be a very good at an art form which hasn't changed all that much over the years, decades, centuries; not because he somehow trancends it. He's been basically honest, consistent, open, and classy, in the face of intense criticism and competition. That in itself clearly transcends the Clintons and the Bushes. Also, I believe his oratory at times climbs heights that haven't been climbed in U.S. politics in at least the last few decades. Maybe that's just being a very good politician. Maybe that's transcending what we've cynically come to think of as good politics.
He's been basically honest, consistent, open, and classy, in the face of intense criticism and competition. The best politicians come across as more honest because they better know how to avoid finding themselves in situations where overt dishonesty is required for political protection. One of Bill Clinton's major shortcomings, obviously. I think we can rest assured that Obama has to stifle as much honesty as the next politician. They also know how to control the game of seeming "open" when so much of what is required to survive politically involves behind-closed-doors machinations. That in itself clearly transcends the Clintons and the Bushes. Well, the two Bushes' political prowess seems to consist in being a member of the right dynasty at the right time, and Clinton's famed skill was always a tad overrated in my view. All this talk of his being the "most talented Democratic pol in years" at the time tended to obscure the fact that his electoral victories were pretty low wattage affairs against lackluster opponents.
I wonder whether a part of this has to do as well with a nostalgia for the Clinton years after 8 years of GWB. I'm a year older than you, and was a footsoldier in the Contract with America--I remember working against Jim Moran in VA's 8th back in '94, and College Republican dramatic readings of the Starr Report. But those of us who graduated starting in the Class of '01, the ones whose ROTC friends were first into Iraq, miss the easy money and relative peace of the 90s. Not to mention Clinton's venality paling in comparison to Bush's criminality. So there's that too.
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"Billary"?
Sheesh.
Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | June 4, 2008 2:36 PM