<em>Let me expand on the idea in my previous piece, '"Long National Nightmare" is What Obama Should Be Talking About.' That's the one that began by saying of "the yearning in many Americans for a profound spiritual change from this long national Bushite nightmare":
<blockquote> It is the wave of this feeling that has wafted Obama –with his mantra of CHANGE– to the top of the political heap.</blockquote></em>
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Obama's strategy should focus should focus on putting more and more Americans in touch with a longing for real change in the spirit that has dominated American political power in recent years. He needs to help Americans become aware that such spiritual transformation represents the most what is at stake in this presidential election.
Hillary has tried to make the race about who would be the tougher, better commander-in-chief at three in the morning, and about who is the better master of the terrain of policy formulation. And who’s most battle-tested in the ugly world of American politics in this fascistic era.
All plausible arguments about what our choosing a president this year is about.
But I say with Obama, “Not this time!” This time, as Obama understands, the most important criterion is something quite different.
Obama has to reach out to more people, and do so in different ways, to make it about HIS understanding of what this election is about.
"Commander in chief" is important, but we need something more fundamental right now: we need someone to restore the spiritual core of the nation. We need someone of real integrity and moral commitment to come to power with the solemn intention to do his very best to restore integrity and moral commitment to the American body politic.
This is what Obama’s race has been about. But he's not trumpeting this core message powerfully enough to reach some of the groups of Americans whose support he needs.
To reach the second tier of people in America –the union workers in the rust belt, for example—with his message of deep change, Obama's got to come up with new ways of sparking a desire for real CHANGE the nature of the spirit that animates power in America.
In their hearts, millions of Americans implicitly know about this darkness. At some level, even if they don't want to look at it, a great many Americans sense that we have been ruled by criminals, by liars, by thugs, by moral monsters.
Different groups of Americans can be led to see different parts of this. Obama's initial message has sufficed for those, like the readers here, who were already deeply, painfully aware of this darkness. For other groups, other approaches are necessary.
Like talking about the role of the lobbyists, and the special interests, and how seriously the public good has been overpowered by insatiable greed and lust for power. Like talking about how political power has been used to create the biggest gulf between the rich and the poor in America since the Gilded Age, the age of the Robber Barons.
Like talking about the contrast between the present spirit, and the basic American values of liberty and justice for all, of the rule of law.
Obama makes gentle allusions in these directions. But with Clinton voters, he needs to blow harder on the embers of their concerns at this deeper level.
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
Andrew may have the right aspirations but isn't even close when it comes to means to ends. As no one can even agree on what 'spiritual' means, it's a non starter. Whether human nature is even 'spiritual' in any true sense, or is just a sincere if empty 'aspiration', like ending war or wanting a greener susuainable planet, humanity self evidently lacks the ethical insights and will to realize the future it dreams about but cannot secure. Spirit without an ethical conception and integrity is of no value at all. The point is best made by his article sharing space along side an advertisiement for one of the most ridiculous 'pseudo' churches of all times. If humanity was truely spiritual, there would be no need for churches at all! There would be no more war.
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R. A. Landbeck (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 18 comments)
on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 11:02:51 AM
In the piece, above, I wrote: "Obama needs to make this race one about spiritual transformation, even if he never mentions "spiritual transformation." He can instead talk about fairness and truthfulness and devotion to the greater good and justice and respect for the decent opinion of mankind and a sense of community and compassion-- all those many manifestations of goodness of spirit."
Perhaps, for the reason given in the comment above, I should have done likewise. I know what I mean, and have been writing in such terms about this Bushite darkness, for several years. But it is true, it is not a phrase understood the same by all people. Which is why I'd not suggest Obama ever speak directly in such language.
Nonetheless, perhaps also it is important for people to recognize that there is a dimension of things that helps to explain that constellation of darkness: the lying, the bullying, to making of unncessary war, the trampling on all forms of order that restrains power, the catering to the rich and mighty at the expense of the weaker and more vulnerable.
These are not separate aspects of the Bushite regime, but manifestations of a coherent force of a destructive quality that subverts wholeness of all kinds and that operates at a deep level not perceptible to us in the way that trees and specific actions are visible.
We may not all understand that important aspects of our world are governed at that level. But, I do believe, it is important that those of us who do understand this try to speak of it in some terms.
Any terms we choose will run the risk of not being well understood by those who aren't already perceiving the realities toward which those terms are pointing.
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Andrew Bard Schmookler (297 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 140 comments)
on Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 11:27:42 AM
...loud and clear, Andrew. I agree with you, but I do think that the core of Obama really resides in his restraint from "playing politics" and using his "podium" to preach to the choir about this reclamation of the spiritual center of America. His actions portray that loud and clear. Unfortunately, some people who will NEVER elect a man perceived as "African American" when he is merely American, or will NEVER vote Democrat, regardless of the "Bushite" mire we're drowning in as a result of our own actions: voting W in a second time.
I believe the spiritual center of America has been at risk of dying for many more years than W has been in charge (or Cheney). We are merely noticing it because it has hit our ego, our pocketbooks.
Namaste,
Nan
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Professor Fandel (4 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 34 comments)
on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 11:21:12 AM
I think America is doomed but I hope I am wrong. So much of what is happening parallels the fall of the Roman Empire. Rome became too greedy and overextended itself in wars of aggression and economic conquest to the detriment and eventual collapse of its domestic economy. Its elite citizens were used to a high standard of living and had no problem cruelly enslaving others to maintian their comforts. When it all came crashing down their society fell apart in the most violent and horrifying ways. Is this the future of America??
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macdon1 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 78 comments)
on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 7:28:29 PM
