January 18, 2007--Looking For Love

Did I wake up this morning in a version of media-induced trance after all the excited talk about Senator Barack Obama forming a “presidential exploratory committee”? In a form of such deep celebrity-infatuation that I found myself on automatic pilot logging onto his Website and, like an addict, zapping him a $200 contribution?

Maybe yes. Maybe no.

So I downed a double espresso and after the caffeine took effect had a little talk with myself. Here I am, day-after-day, writing stuff about how we place ourselves in peril when we distract ourselves from harsh realities through various kinds of fanaticisms--be they elevating and then tearing down sport and entertainment and political celebrities; seeking to lose ourselves in various indulgences and belief systems, eager to overload our senses and thereby ironically numb ourselves into insensitivity; or plunging into cults of many kinds that bring us comfort and security by telling us what to believe and how to act.

Is Barack Obama just another fantasy? Another intoxicant?

Maybe yes. Maybe no. But my $200 is a bet on “no”—that he may, just may turn out to be the real-deal . . . and electable.

More than that, if he does turn out to fulfill his promise, he may be just what the U.S. and world so desperately right now need.

I know that his every utterance and every vote will be scrutinized, as they should be, and the pundits in the media and blogisphere will parse and analyze his every action to see if he is drifting left to appeal to the Democrat base who vote disproportionately in the primaries or is embracing the middle in the knowledge that to be elected he must appeal to the vast majority of voters who are more moderate. We will be speculating about what he thinks about not funding the troop escalation in Iraq and where he stands on immigration and abortion and gays and . . . you know the list. (See linked NY Times article for glance at how he is being received.)

And while I care about all of these issues and many more (education, health care, agricultural policy, trade, outsourcing . . . you know the list), right now I care about other, very different kinds of things. First among them, our position in the world—how we are perceived by our former allies and those who wish us harm. It seems essential to figure out how to again connect ourselves to those with whom we share obvious common interests and how to talk to and, yes, make deals with others who are currently viewed to be our adversaries.

Who better to send out into the world on that latter mission of healing and reconciliation than someone like Barack Obama? And here I emphasize the someone-like part. He appears to be a living, breathing example of what America is supposed to be about, and when we calm down enough to stop beating on each other over all sorts of cultural wedge-issues, what we are really about: diverse, polyglot, tolerant, smart, ambitious, practical, self-made, brash, not fully-formed, generous, and above all hopeful.

He is the literal face of the America of this still-young century, and by the time he is 60 will even more so represent what we will inevitably become.
Of course these characteristics are also his political weakness—for those who fear the "other" or need to place blame on those who are different to explain and deny their own failures and frustrations, for them he too is the perfect face.

But of course the big question is who he really is. Is he as authentic as he appears? Or is he just another hollow political self-creation? Does he have the stamina, courage, and vision to be a fine, maybe even a great leader?

It’s good to have him in the race so early so he can be tested and we will have the time to find out. Infatuations sometimes turn to love. Other times they come crashing down and we turn on those who lured us.

My $200 is looking for love.