So I was in Springfield today for the Obama announcement. Very exciting, very cold, and a very, very early departure from Evanston (5am!).
A lot of commentators have remarked on Obama’s many uses of the phrase “Let us be the generation…”
What’s he talking about? Surely the man’s far too savvy to think he can win a Presidential race without reaching out to voters older than himself.
My reading of the word “generation” is a different, looser one; it doesn’t refer to chronological age. The last 10 years have seen an incredible awakening among progressives, the beginnings of a real movement. From the 1998 impeachment circus (which gave rise to Moveon.org) to the 2000 recount fiasco, to the Iraq war and the Dean and Clark campaigns and the birth of the progressive blogosphere, to the urgency so many of us felt when working to get John Kerry elected, the past decade has been chock-full of wake-up calls.
And we’re waking up. A movement is coalescing.
Maybe I’m just hearing what I want to hear, but when Obama talks about our generation, I hear him calling this new movement to action. I hear him predicting that after the anger of 2000 and 2002, the heartbreak of 2004, and the tentative elation of 2006, our movement is ready to elect its first President.
That’s why this passage feels like the critical part of the speech to me:
That is why this campaign can’t only be about me. It must be about us – it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice – to push us forward when we’re doing right, and to let us know when we’re not. This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
This generation stuff isn’t some crass suggestion that we should vote for him over Hillary because he’s younger. It’s about his campaign representing a new kind of politics, a participatory, inclusive, and democratic politics. On the Evanston bus, I sat with a bunch of really active Northwestern University Democrats, as well as with a good friend of mine who’s 57 years old and got her start in politics with the Draft Clark movement. It sure felt like we were all part of the same generation.
ArchPundit
I too may be hearing what I want to hear but I agree with your interpretation of Obama’s language. The whole event yesterday looked to be inspirational (and it wasn’t very cold in my living room!).
If you are right about this and he’s calling out to activists, don’t forget about the activists in the boomer generation who were involved in the civil rights movement. Obama’s election as President would be a tremendously symbolic conclusion to some activists’ journey–one that began 40 years ago.
Don’t underestimate his appeal to this group.
It may be a bit of a dog-whistle to progressives, as you theorize.
It’s loaded language though — could turn off folks who are older who hear “generation” and think ‘younger’ instead of ‘movement’. But it’s a good call to action nonetheless — a ‘We can be the change we seek’ call to action.
Folks in my relatively conservative community were buzzing (positively) about his speech Saturday afternoon.
Like you I was there. I left Rockford at 6. It was so cold. But, so worth it. I got a glimpse of Obama at the end.
I agree with your assessment of the speech. He is calling his supporters to take back the politics and turn it back to Their control and away from the corporations.
he wants us to be active and involved. That the only way to change it is for us to reclaim our government.
Its amazing how so many so called pundit writers do not understand this man. Take Salon and the hit peice they have just put out. It is so belittling. The title had the word Upppity in it and then they changed it to snobbish.
BTW I think it is a plant story by a rival campaign.
It was meant to smear and be nasty as much as it could.
This is the kind of things Obama wants us to take back and get rid of. The smear style politics. He wants us to know we have the power to stop this kind of politics and get the kind of leadership that is good.
I was struck again by how much I felt he needed to be our president.