Why I’m Supporting Barack Obama (Redux)
(This is an update to the original post to reflect the general election rather than the primaries)
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In 1962, President John F. Kennedy said in his famous moon speech “We choose to go to the moon. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.“
As a kid fascinated by the space program (I had a picture of the Shuttle launching on my wall), those words stuck with me throughout the years. From an early age, I can remember understanding that the good things in life don’t come easy. Through my Time-Life “Space” book, my rocket scientist Uncle’s stories, and later the fantastic HBO Series “From the Earth to the Moon“, I came to learn the history of what happens when inspired people are set forth on a common direction.
When JFK gave this famous speech, NASA had barely put a man into space. The idea of launching a crew, landing them on the moon, then returning them safely seemed insane. And yet an entire country rallied, inspired by a vision to make it happen. A radically short seven years later, Neil Armstrong was announcing “The Eagle has landed.“
Flash forward to 2005.
Like so many others around the world, I watched in absolute shame as my fellow Americans were largely left to rot in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. Blame the locals, blame the state, blame the Army Corps of Engineers (they all certainly deserve it). But at the end of the day, American citizens were dying and the Federal government was negligently slow to respond.
During the post- D-Day French push against the Germans, General George Patton’s vehicle drives up on a massive traffic jam at two major crossroads. Before anyone even realizes a three star general has just arrived, Patton is already running up and down the line of trucks demanding that the drivers pull it together and make it work. He jumps up on a jeep and start personally directing traffic. Was this his job? Not at all, there should have been an MP corporal in place already. The fact is, the MP hadn’t shown up yet. The reasons why didn’t matter, Patton was enough of a leader to recognize that the system had broken down.
And during Katrina, where was the President? Was he (metaphorically) up on the jeep restoring order? Nope, he was on vacation, before he peered out a window of Air Force One. Where was the Republican party, the leadership party at the time? The same Congress that could and did activate the wheels of Congress to “save” Terry Schiavo, but couldn’t be bothered to protect large numbers of citizens, or to demand action from the White House. But hey, Bush and McCain were able to find time to exchange birthday cake on a tarmac. An entire system of leadership failed dramatically. Then the party who doesn’t believe in welfare and hand outs could only offer up a massive, unbudgeted handout as a solution.
When my European friends asked me how the richest country in the history of the world could have let so much misery take place, I had no answer other than embarrassment. I was certain I couldn’t feel more shame for our country… until the details of Guantanamo Bay came out. And now it seems like every day yet another embarrassing, shameful failure of the government lead by Republicans for years is revealed.
As someone who believes in the (old school) Republican platform more closely than the Democratic platform, the party as it stands simply allows me nothing to support. The agenda of privatizing government wholesale, the ridiculous wedge issues of intelligent design, the corporate welfare, the willful ignorance of global warming, the lack of desire for the honest pursuit of alternative energy sources, the consolidation of executive power to the detriment of civil liberties, and the torture of detainees are simply something I’m not able to support. The Republican party that exists has been lead and directed by the hardliners of the party who have gotten wrong absolutely everything they’ve touched, from Iran to North Korea to Iraq to tax cuts and the economy to alternative energy and a mess of others. Another Republican in the White House inherently brings these hardliners back, in some capacity. That is a the ultimate no-go in my book.
Fortunately, we’ve been introduced to an incredibly inspiring candidate: Barack Obama. I’ve been fascinated by his campaign, inspired by his words, and electrified by his spirit. He’s done the impossible for me: made me believe that I can, in fact, change the world.
I believe changing the world isn’t not only possible, it’s the only moral choice a citizen can make. I make a living off of empowering the individual, bringing the voice of the little guy to a position of power, changing the way the world interacts with each other. Like Obama says:
One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a senate, and if it can change a senate, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world.
I’m tired of the Republican party and its candidate for President trying to convince me this is a foolish, naive, childish belief.
I support Barack Obama because he’s the only candidate in my lifetime who I feel truly, honestly believes that my voice is powerful. He’s the only one who seems to understand that protecting “our way of life” isn’t simply killing “terrorists”, but preserving our moral standing. He’s the only candidate that isn’t so disconnected from the rest of us that he understands that we’re tired of good cop/bad cop politics of Bill and Hillary, of George and Dick.
Some people call him a “celebrity”, unworthy of leading because of his desire for his own self-promotion. They said the same about JFK and even FDR.
Others complain about his “lack of experience”, but he’s someone who’s been doing amazing work organizing communities and leading his local, state, and now federal governments. And after seeing the abmismal` failure delivered by the “experienced” Bush administration over the last 8 years, I’m not sure that’s a very good argument.
Experience without context is a dangerous selection criteria. When I started at LEGO in 2000, the company was just about to take a financial nose dive. The COO was basically running the company. This guy absolutely ran the company into the ground, losing $213 million dollars in the last year he was there. He was a disaster. He also had a resume of impressive positions as long as my arm.
The choice of the new CEO caused quite a stir in the both the company and in the media. Jørgen Vig Knudstrop was 35 years old and had only been at LEGO for 5 years. I’m not sure that he’d ever been a CEO before. People went nuts saying that there was no way he could manage a billion dollar company. At the time, I said the same thing I’m saying about Obama: Bullshit.
Turns out, Jørgen Vig has turned out to be an amazing leader who has turned the company around financially as well as spiritually. Getting LEGO back on track wasn’t just about cutting costs or reducing staff. It was about inspiring the employees to remember why they loved their jobs and the company and the product when they first joined. It was about doing away with sacred cows that had been embedded in the old guard. It was about getting both himself and his employees excited about a higher calling that was long forgotten by the “safe” candidates for CEO.
Obama makes me believe. He restores my faith in the vision that is this country. He helps remind me that even in times of war, setting aside your morals is unacceptable. He makes me want to find a better way to live my life. He makes me ask myself hard questions like what I’d personally be willing to do to eliminate foreign oil. He makes me not only understand that there’s usually more to a story than a 30 second soundbite allows, and more importantly he makes me want to find out what it is. He makes me want to participate.
Inspiration is the single most important quality of a leader. You can hire accountants, you can hire researchers, you can hire managers. The one thing you can’t outsource is a leader’s ability to inspire those around them to believe that they can make truly amazing things happen, and to organize raw energy into a specific course of action.
I’m ready for a leader to inspire us to face and eliminate our racial issues. I’m ready for a candidate who will inspire us with honest discussion and debate, not scare us into alignment. I’m ready not just for change, but inspired change. I’m ready to start building the story I’ll tell my (future) adult daughter about how my generation, like her grandparent’s generation, helped make her world a better place.
I support Barack Obama because he is the only candidate who’s not tripping over themselves to tell me why I’m a naive fool for believing this might actually be possible.
