Readers of the Republican and conservative persuasion, please don’t bother reading this post. I mean, sure, you’re obviously welcome to read whatever you want, and react however you wish, to whatever I write here. As a blogger, I like to think about a wide range of topics (isn’t that what a liberal-arts education is for?). This time, however, I’m directly addressing other unabashed liberals like me—talking about my reaction to Obama’s latest speech, delivered earlier today at a high school in Osawatomie, Kansas.
Reading the text of President Obama’s speech, I immediately thought, “He’s back!” I’m confident I’m not the only liberal who had this reaction. (Some are saying Elizabeth Warren’s aggressively progressive senatorial campaign prodded Obama to give this speech, which seems entirely plausible.)
This Obama speech delves into the problem of economic inequality in America. It also lays out the heart of the difference in political philosophy that separates liberals from conservatives. To liberals, the kind of economic inequality we’re experiencing in America today comes perilously close to threatening the health and future of the whole society. To conservatives, economic equality isn’t really the problem. For them, the problem is to protect the “free market” so that it can be permitted to function without cumbersome government regulations and the burden of heavy taxes. To conservatives, if it takes radical economic inequality to protect the freedom of those who make a lot of money (and thereby supposedly create wealth), so be it. Obama, in laying out why he opposes that conservative philosophy, gave us the rallying cry we’ve been waiting for.
Although Obama has always been adept at delivering inspiring, populist speeches, he’s not been very good at following through with anything more than compromised actions. The gap between his words and actions has left many of his original supporters disillusioned with his presidency. Me, I see politics strictly in terms of the art of the possible. Right now, Americans are divided into groups with such severely clashing values (remind me again what it is exactly that unites Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich with me and my liberal family?) that it’s easy to forget that we are all bound together as Americans.
Obama’s speech is merely a speech; but as with all speech, it carries the potential to ignite action. This speech reminds us liberals of what’s at stake in the upcoming presidential election. It recalls the Obama we voted for in the first place, and the Obama whose campaign many of us will volunteer for yet again, come summer.
Many of Obama’s severest critics have been lefties who accuse him of being MIA. With this speech, he’s back.
