Rejoining

I had written something lengthy, but it didn’t feel right. It dwelt too much on expressing anger and frustration on the effect Clinton’s negativity has had on the storyline and, indeed, polls over the last two months.

But it strayed from my real intention:

I simply, and shortly, want to say that my support for Obama’s campaign remains stronger than ever. Through all the smears and daggers, he has shown himself to be a person of integrity, level-headedness, open-mindedness, and carefully reasoned intellect. Even through his self inflicted gaffe, he embraced the notion of being human and having faults. The fault was never an underlying elitism, as anyone who perceives human beings for what they are can attest to. The fault was a mish-mashed phrase erroneously tooled to one audience that brutally shielded good intentions. So this, combined with an all-out Clinton/McCain assault, brought to an end the messiah-era that really needed to go. No human should be glorified in superhuman terms as Obama was briefly during February. This eventually does harm to everyone involved because it’s unsustainable.

What has only crystallized my support is how he handled the injection of racism, elitism, classism, patriotism and any other division-sowing ‘ism’ imaginable. In each circumstance, he as lain down the foundation for long-term healing. He has addressed nuance, complication, and humanity. It has cost him short-term in polling, but the long-term wins will be enormous.

Obama isn’t a messiah, but he is a real person with uncanny capabilities and passion for progress. I’m not interested in the former, but I want the latter worse than anything.

The movement that I wholeheartedly support was always driven by individuals at the grassroots. In the intervening months, I think many of us have remained too passive about our support and we need to rejoin the fray. In whatever way you deem fit, I encourage you to actively get involved in this campaign again. I also encourage you to focus less on exchanging punches and more on promoting the optimism that will actually accomplish policy shifts and cultural shifts that will propel us forward.