Why am I so hopeful for the future of the conservative movement in this country? It's not because Obama might not ever become our president or that if he does, he may cause the greatest crisis this country has ever faced thus vindicating the conservative movement in the minds of the great mass of undecided persons in the United States. It's rather because Obama has been the vehicle for one of the greatest changes this country has ever seen. In this campaign, both of the canidates talked with great earnestness about principles. Ideas, for once have trumped necessities in the political arena.
Of course, ideals were not the only motivating factors in this election, nor were they the only things discussed. Both McCain and Obama's acceptance speeches are full of generalized practicalities; how they intend to grapple with the failing economy or the multitude of wars that America is involved in. The general consensus seems to be that Obama won principally because the People associated the economic downturn with President Bush, a practical consideration if there ever was one.
However, everywhere I look in Obama's speeches, both the one that I witnessed personally, and others I have read, I see appeals to principles; calls to action with their roots in ideals, and their branches in trust, hoping for, rather than demanding, immediate results. Though his actions do not follow through, his words are all rooted in faith, burgeoning with principle, and therefore fixed on their objective. Taking his acceptance speech as an example we have the principles:
- That’s the promise of America — the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper ... Man is not an atomic individual, but a member of a community, and as such, has certain duties and responsibilities towards others.
- Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education ... Truth ought be passed on.
- nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent ... No one should suffer, even materially, for doing good things.
And on and on this goes, for pages and pages. And McCain does the same, in response. The only two canidates with any chance of being elected both felt that they had to address the roots of the issues as well as the practicalities. Either that, or neither had very much to say and so they retreated into the rhetoric of ideals. To be sure, it sometimes looks as if it was the latter case rather than the former, with Obama holding up the elimination of temporal suffering as a goal achievable in this life, and appointing persons who have demonstrably lacked principle in their own lives to important positions in government. Regardless of the intention behind the words -- or the clarity of the thought that animates them -- the fact remains that the speeches were given, the appeals to principles were made, and Obama was elected by the popular vote, President of the United States. Now that Jack is out of the box, he will be far harder to put back in.
More on this next time. To God be the glory.
