My case for Barack Obama

Rooting for Senator Obama is a leap of faith, but one that I am willing to make for the future of America
Shaunik R Panse

Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for the presidency has energised and invigorated the political conscience of this country like never before.  In a time when many Americans - indeed many around the world - are dissatisfied with the state of global progress and tired of old-fashioned political influences and constraints, Senator Obama has come to lead a movement of fresh and respectful thinking.

His message, however, rests on the basic presumption that all of this - the record voter turnout, the rock-star rallies with thousands of people, the YouTube videos, the Facebook pages, the debates, the articles - are not about Senator Obama. They are about you.

Senator Obama is merely the messenger for a burning eagerness from the old, young, white, black and brown to move this country towards goals established over 200 years ago. And for the first time, we have a politician - a product not of our parents' generation, but our own - who speaks directly to the youth, recognising our unique positions and problems.

My belief in Senator Obama's candidacy started early. Like many others, I was drawn to him after his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, MA.  I - another kid with a "funny name" - watched a self-described "skinny kid" with a "funny name" profess a new kind of politics.

Many of us, Indians-Americans and otherwise, were captivated by what he promised: A kind of politics that was not focussed on demonising the other side, a practice that had become all too common for Democrats and Republicans alike in the last few decades.

A kind of politics that did not require us all to fit into some predetermined labels - "liberal" or "conservative", "Republican" or "Democrat" - but one that embraced the notion that there were smart solutions on both sides. A kind of politics that was not necessarily focussed on winning, but was focused on moving our country - our common world - forward. 
Senator Obama's message of unity and reconciliation comes at precisely the right time, as many Americans feel that the country is on the wrong track and that the political process itself has become too stale and old-fashioned to bring about any real progress.

Two decades of attempts, from both Parties, to achieve very real goals - ending poverty, reforming our welfare system, crafting an appropriate post-Cold War role for the US, achieving universal healthcare - have come up largely empty-handed.

Today, in 2008, this country is not lacking in bold solutions - universal healthcare is not a new idea - but rather yearns for a government with political maturity. One that is not interested in its own self-preservation, in its respective Parties' success, in disproportionately satisfying the interests of lobbyists, in making the others look plain stupid, than in the health, security and progress of our country.

This task is complicated, because it requires a fundamental change in the political ethos of this country. Partisan preservation - quite common in India as well - must give way to new sources of greatness and promise. This is not a policy, this is an attitude.

His appeal, undoubted by now, crosses any of those artificial lines erected by World War II/Baby Boom/Cold War politics; so too has, and can, his capacity to pass legislation. 

Why Obama? Some of his strengths are obvious: his ability to engage a new generation of voters, his appeal in transcending our two-party system and his commitment to striving for reasonable, intelligent, and non-ideological solutions to known and unknown problems. I sincerely believe, though, that most of Senator Obama's strengths are beyond those that we traditionally look for - and find - in Presidential candidates.

His intuition, as an American who has lived abroad, allows him to understand the effect of American decisions on those around the world; his background, as a civil rights attorney and state legislator allows him to grasp issues as they affect marginalised communities.

To be sure, he is not a complete candidate; but his virtues are so beyond the ken of ordinary politicians that this country would best benefit from his leadership, with the likes of Senators Clinton, Biden and McCain in advisory positions close by. He offers the acceptance and criticism of ideas from both political parties; he offers the power to engage millions more, in determining how to respond to whatever obstacles the country, the world, face; he offers a unique model of leadership through which this country can both atone for mistakes made in the past 20 years and reaffirm its singular greatness as a land of opportunity and freedom. No other candidate offers such promise, and at this time in American and global history, it is exactly such promise that can propel us forward.

And of course, Senator Obama's appeal goes beyond his skin colour or his background.  Surely, there is novelty in electing the first African-American (or minority of any type for that matter) to the presidency.  No one can ignore that fact.  But, truth be told, there is novelty in electing the first woman to the Presidency, and there is novelty in electing a war hero - one who sacrificed years of his life to this country - to the Presidency.

Each of these three would make fine leaders.   But novelty is not enough - not enough to govern a country, fix a broken war, and restore a global economy. Senator Obama represents the possibility of achieving all those things for this country that have remained just out of our reach for far too long: universal healthcare, equal economic opportunity, a safe and secure country that lives in a common world free of terror and bloodshed. 

So, when he says "Yes, we can," many ask "Yes we can…what?" The answer is simple.  Yes, we can finally do all those things that we, from both Parties, have always said we would do, but end up not doing. The young and old alike are beginning to believe that the problems in our country cannot be solved with more "Solutions for America", but with a "Yes, we can" attitude that is more likely than ever to implement those same solutions. 

Senator Obama presents a chance, a very real opportunity, to actually accomplish our nation's lofty goals. It is a leap of faith, I admit, but one that I am willing to make, perhaps for no other reason than the small chance that just maybe we, as Americans, as global citizens, won't be talking about the exact same problems and solutions in next Presidential election in four years.

Shaunik R. Panse, 25, is a law student at the University of Virginia and a resident of New Jersey, USA