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Reich for Obama

By js

I have been an admirer of Robert Reich since seeing his speech at UC Berkeley, and a big fan after reading Supercapitalism earlier this year. He is as clear-eyed an observer of American politics and policy as I've found. On his blog today, he writes what amounts to an endorsement of Obama, but a characteristically measured one. He concludes:

It is easy for cynics to write off Obamania as a passing fad, as lofty rhetoric that can't and won't hold up on close inspection -- another bout of the kind of naive and romantic enthrallment that occasionally claims American voters until common sense sets in. This is surely what Hillary Clinton and my friend from forty years ago are counting on. But if the Clintons stop to think back to what they felt and understood in those years leading up to 1968, they may come to a different conclusion, as have I.

Neither John F. Kennedy nor his brother Robert were idealists. They were realists who understood the importance of idealism in the service of realism. They grasped the central political fact that little can be achieved in Washington unless or until the public is energized and mobilized to push for it; the status quo is simply too powerful. The ideals they enunciated helped mobilized the nation politically. That mobilization contributed to the subsequent passage of civil rights and voting rights laws, Medicare, and environmental protection. For purposes of practical electoral strategy as well as high-minded moral aspiration, they never tired of reminding the nation of its founding principles -- most fundamentally, that all men are created equal.

Idealism in the service of realism. That phrase perfectly captures Obama's political philosophy. Supporters of Obama, and the campaign, should take it up.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on February 23, 2008 (boomark / email).