Listening to President Obama's elegant eulogy for Ted Kennedy on Saturday, I was struck by the differences between the two great orators, and also by the epic struggle Obama is facing right now in trying to advance their shared ideals.
Kennedy was a lion. It was his great roar of passion that so often won over constituents and colleagues.
Obama is a famously cool cat. While sharing many of Kennedy's political goals, his oratory is built on reason and clarity. He employs low-voltage words that aim to stimulate our frontal cortex, the part of our brain that considers, compares, and calculates what's best for our future. Obama obviously believes deeply in the power of this rational oratory, and with the help of his extraordinary chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, has turned precision and clarity into an art form.
From his Kennedy eulogy:
We cannot know for certain how long we have here. We cannot foresee the trials or misfortunes that will test us along the way. We cannot know God's plan for us. What we can do is to live out our lives as best we can with purpose, and love, and joy. We can use each day to show those who are closest to us how much we care about them, and treat others with the kindness and respect that we wish for ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes and grow from our failures. And we can strive at all costs to make a better world, so that someday, if we are blessed with the chance to look back on our time here, we can know that we spent it well; that we made a difference; that our fleeting presence had a lasting impact on the lives of other human beings.
Also:
While he was seen by his fiercest critics as a partisan lightning rod, that is not the prism through which Ted Kennedy saw the world, nor was it the prism through which his colleagues saw him. He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect -- a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots.
Clearly Obama wants to recapture this spirit, and drag our nation back to a renewed Era of Civility and Reason.
Unfortunately, what he's discovered this summer is that Civility and Reason are quite easy to short-circuit. Some of Obama's win-at-all-cost opponents seem to have perfected their technique: convince people that their nation is in mortal danger, that our free society is being undermined by a racist, socialist, usurper. Once you've activated the fear module of the brain (the amygdala), there's little room left for logic, reason, rationality.
(Before the anti-Obamites jump all over this, allow me to make the case that one does not have to agree with Obama's specific political goals to be worried about the birthers and the town-hall intimidators. Rationality is something we should all desperately desire, and is dear to all well-meaning conservatives that I know.)
Obama's task now is to figure out how to short-circuit the short-circuiters. If he can't, health care reform won't be the only casualty. We'll lose a real opportunity to elevate our politics and our culture.
Can he and Favreau pull this off? Or do we need another roaring lion to stand-up to these people?
David Shenk
To borrow from the elegant eulogy the late Edward M. Kennedy gave for his brother, we should not elevate President Obama in life beyond what he has achieved. The "famously cool cat" President is nowhere near earning a credible comparison to political giants like the Kennedys.
The likely reason why irrational, unreasonable behavior from the right plagues the Obama presidency is because we all reap what we sow. Barack Obama took clear advantage of a mainstream media steeped in irrationality and sorely lacking reason to win the Democratic nomination.
Hillary Clinton spoke with prophetic accuracy when she questioned whether Barack Obama was prepared to lead this country. Her theme of "ready to lead from day one" continues to echo truth. Whether it be Afghanistan, Iraq, healthcare for uninsured Americans or help for the disaffected, poor and unemployed...our nation is reeling from a vacuum of leadership, made worse by the loss of Senator Kennedy who displayed extraordinary courage as he stood up to the powerful on behalf of the ordinary Americans every single day of his 47 years of public service.
President Obama shies away from confrontations, political risk or public backlash. My question is this...what is he saving it (political capital) for? The Obama campaign skillfully cast him as the savior of ordinary Americans who listens, who gets it and who will bring change to Washington DC. Yet President Obama's tin ear to the needs of ordinary Americans, unemployed, losing homes and falling between the cracks of our society remains an alarming reality. President Obama's pledges and promises to end needless military deployments and wars of choice are wilting under the harsh light of truth. Don't ask don't tell and the rights of vulnerable Americans trying to emerge from a decade of discrimination and double standards continue to be infringed upon with little to no direct White House action.
A child prodigy of privilege and political science and academic prominence writing "cool" speeches for President Obama to deliver is an offensive backhanded slap in the faces of ordinary Americans facing real problems. To quote Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), we need more than "hope" in America, millions of Americans searching for credible leadership from the White House need help.
There is no liberal lion, roaring in spite of political risk to help those who need it most. And that's not cool.
Donald Edmond, Esq.
Washington D.C.
http://twitter.com/edmondesq
"Senator Kennedy who displayed extraordinary courage as he stood up to the powerful on behalf of the ordinary Americans every single day of his 47 years of public service."
Kennedy left an "ordinary American" to die an agonizing, slow death from suffocation before finally calling the authorities the next day. If there is any justice in the afterlife, he is burning in hell now.
I take your response to mean you believe in God. If this is true, read the Bible and keep an eye on what it says about forgiveness. "Judge not lest ye be judged" are words to live by. Where are you in your mind and soul to condemn or judge? Only one human being lived this life without error or fault. You aren't that person.
"Where are you in your mind and soul to condemn or judge?"
I am where all ethical, law-abiding people who don't inflict agonizing and terrifying deaths on innocent people are. It's quite easy for us to see that allowing a woman to slowly suffocate to death is evil and wrong, and it's easy for us to condemn it. Where are you in your "mind and soul" that you can't condemn it too?
President Obama has been at least an equal partner in stoking fears on health care. He claims his as-yet-vaguely-defined plan will provide greater security, greater choice, lower costs, and fewer insurance companies denying care to earn a buck for rich investors. The people who disagree with the president, he and his friends say, are ignorant (he makes fun of the elderly person or persons who didn't think Medicare was a government program) or racist or paid off by insurance companies. Even Mr. Shenk calls them "Obama's win-at-all-cost opponents." The rational reaction to the health care problem is David Goldhill's article in the current issue of the Atlantic. The president should stop coolly peddling fear and calmly lashing out at those who disagree with him. His patina of civility does not hide his contempt for those who would try another way.
I disagree. President Obama's inability or refusal to take the reins on healthcare reform reflect his fear of risking substantial political support and popularity in the polls. Because no clear A-Z plan is being presented by President Obama, there are protests and disruptions in town hall meetings that are stoked and steeped in ignorance.
The rhetoric of "socialism" and government deprivations of rights to bear arms, free speech etc., being shouted by "opponents" of healthcare reform in town hall meetings across America are driven by ignorance, whether intentional or otherwise.
If I come to your town to discuss placing a traffic light at a dangerous intersection, how much sense would it make for someone from PETA to disrupt that meeting to protest on behalf of animal rights? Worse still, how much sense would it make for the PETA protester to run to the nearest news reporter shrieking that I oppose free speech or hate America because I refused to allow a PETA protest to disrupt a town hall meeting about whether a traffic light should be placed at a dangerous intersection for public safety reasons?
That is the gist of the town hall disruptions that are taking place across America. These protests aren't informed, credible disagreements with reforming healthcare...surely no good and decent American would oppose helping people who cannot afford healthcare? The national debate on healthcare has shifted to its core...politics. I do not blame the far right entirely for this because President Obama's plan to reform healthcare has always been more about political accomplishment and legacy building for himself than for ordinary Americans.
President Obama has it wrong because reforming healthcare by attempting to fashion some sort of government-run insurance company presents access to healthcare as an option, not a right.
Had Ted Kennedy or Hillary Clinton taken the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States, we would have universal, single payer healthcare, not as a second or third option, but as the first option.
The organized chaos disrupting town hall meetings across the country interfere with the process of educating the American people about the urgency need for healthcare reform and how we should move forward. That willful irritation of ordinary discourse deserves to be criticized.
You've jumped the rails in the argument. It wasn't about the town halls. It was about stoking fears. Your comments about the traffic signal are a reflection of the fear-mongering by supporters of monopsonistic and monopolistic government health insurance. Let's talk facts, not fears. And stop saying people are ignorant just because they disagree with your premises.
I respect your opinion, but respectfully disagree. The white noise undermining a legitimate public discussion about healthcare in America far more often than not has nothing to do with healthcare reform. My comparative example of a town hall meeting about a traffic light at a dangerous intersection being disrupted by a PETA protester waving signs and yelling about animal rights is spot-on. There are people intentionally disrupting town hall meetings on healthcare to chant, wave signs and shout about gun rights, abortion rights, immigration and the like.
These things have little if nothing to do with the issue at hand. I do not know what else to conclude about a person who targets a healthcare reform town hall meeting as a place to yell, scream and create a ruckus over gun rights or to lob allegations about President Obama's birth records. I hear it on CSPAN the mornings I tune in while getting ready for work. Callers get on the air and spew nonsense completely unrelated to the topic of the discussion. It happens all the time, and its ignorant.
This isn't about a healthcare monopoly, though I never see the vitriol and anger about monopolies directed at retail giants like WalMart or at giants like Microsoft who are often suspected of abusing monopoly to gain control over competitors. We are talking about helping the less fortunate who are just as American and deserving of dignity and respect as we are.
Stoking fear of some imagined government boogeyman just gives off an odor of radical libertarian, far right conservative-think that is for lack of a better word, scary. President Obama's inability to lead allowed the media to muddy the debate and drive too many people in this country into confusion. Confusion and ignorance are often found in the same bed.
Horace (Replying to: DCLawyer08) September 1, 2009 11:00 AM
"Where are you in your mind and soul to condemn or judge?"
I am where all ethical, law-abiding people who don't inflict agonizing and terrifying deaths on innocent people are. It's quite easy for us to see that allowing a woman to slowly suffocate to death is evil and wrong, and it's easy for us to condemn it. Where are you in your "mind and soul" that you can't condemn it too?
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You are in a very narrow, sad and ignorant minority. As a lawyer, I found your words incredibly disturbing and consistent with 19th century lynch mob paranoia. If it is "quite easy" to claim that what is known as a matter of public record as an accident for you to unilaterally claim that an "agonizing and terrifying death" occurred and was in fact inflicted...why was this never pursued by the authorities? You're slandering a great man who helped save and improve millions of lives by fabricating a claim against him. That is disgraceful.
You appear to be holding yourself out as the sole judge of mankind, morality and ethics. That's disturbing. You are not perfect, blameless or all knowing. The sooner you accept that the better.
Whether or not driving into the drink was an accident, Kennedy waited until the next morning to report it, ensuring that no attempt would be made to rescue his companion, who slowly suffocated to death while he relaxed in his hotel room. That was evil. Surely the law degree you are so proud of doesn't prevent you from recognizing evil when you see it, does it?
Of course I am proud to be a lawyer...why wouldn't I be? Imagination rarely produces fact and biased conjecture even less so. Instead of fabricating and slandering this man in death (where do you get your facts, namely "relaxing" in a hotel room..."no" attempt to rescue), just take a deep breath and find a way to get over your extremely biased, personal resentment of the late Senator.
I cringe when someone attempts to use the word "evil" because 8 years of Bush/Cheney "evildoer" speak renders that word useless on so many levels. There is absolutely no credible evidence to support ANY other conclusion other than the tragic event (you cannot seem to let go of) was an accident. Wild conspiracy theories and biased rantings rightly discounted.
This article is about healthcare for Americans who cannot afford it, not a chance for you to proudly display the axe you openly grind against the late Edward M. Kennedy, a man who by all accounts devoted 47 years of his adult life to relentlessly fighting for those who were most vulnerable.