A Moment in History

I have absolutely nothing to add to this. Enjoy this moment in political history.

In 1960, no one knew that Jack Kennedy would someday be seen as John F. Kennedy. They knew he was charismatic and capable as a politician, but that’s all they knew. They, who were there at the time, now know better who that tall skinny Senator was in those early days of the decade of our nation’s greatest changes. It took the loss of that leader for the realization of who and what he was to be finally revealed for all time. As they say, you never know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone.

This man, Barack Obama, is clearly a generational gift to our nation, and there may not come another like him. At this moment, he is exactly what we need. The unique challenges we face have an extremely conplex suite of causes, and require an entirely new manner of approach to their resolution. The standard political approach will not work this time around. The standard issue politician will not be enough this time around. This is a new and much more malignant moment that we face as these challenges threaten to bring us all down together.

When this nation has been severely challenged, we’ve always been fortunate to have a president that was equal to the crisis. In the 1860s, we were served by Abraham Lincoln, who lied and swindled his way to keeping us as one nation, against our own will as a shattered society. In the 1930s and 40s, FDR did what he had to do to keep us looking for ways to prevent our nation from being sucked into the global vortex that consumed Germany, Italy, China, and continued to devour Russia. It involved controversial measures, but obviously, they were the difference between our nation collapsing into anarchy, becoming a Fascist regime, or following much of the world into the black hole of a faux-Socialistic totalitarianism. When the USSR challenged our resolve, in the fall of 1962, if it had been Richard Nixon in that war room, I think we all have to wonder if he would have had the cool, clear presence of mind – as well as the political courage – to refuse to pull a John Wayne maneuver and set off a full scale nuclear exchange, in direct opposition to every single advisor and military expert on his staff.

Once again, we’re at one of those crisis moments, and we’re being offered a man with a very different approach to how we address our issues as a nation. Just as Lincoln, FDR, and Kennedy before him, Barack Obama makes the establishment extremely nervous. Just as those previous presidents, Obama will likely upset that establishment even further with the choices he’d make as president. but, very likely, just as Lincoln, FDR, and Kennedy, Barack Obama may just possibly be the one man we need for the very specific job that needs to be done to pull us out of this crisis. Maybe by teaching us how to pull together – finally – as a nation, instead of as warring coalitions of special interests. This time, what may be needed is for us to learn how to actually be one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The alternative may be a complete fracture of our entire society as each group blames the other for what is clearly going to be a rough ride in the years to come. It doesn’t take a prophet to see how those fractures will develop, and how they will affect our ability to carry on as people stuck on the same rock together.

Our only hope is to turn away from the policies and politics of the last several decades. As a first step, we need to find the courage to turn away from the people who have inspired the destructive views and ideologies that have brought these dangerous policies and politics to the level of national discourse. If not, then we’ll have that same realization of who Barack Obama was and what he brought to the table that our parents and grandparents had when John Kennedy was taken from them, leaving them to the confusions and turmoil of the 60’s.

This time, however, it won’t be merely about the length of hair, the color of clothes, the music or even the social unrest brought by college students and civil rights activists. This time, it will be the collapse of our entire society, and the emergence of whatever it is that will replace it.

We need to get deadly serious here. No more games. No more cheap politics. This is survival at its most basic level, and we need a very new way of reacting to each other if we are to achieve this survival. The time has run out on us, and this is our last chance to focus on what is required for us to come out of this spiral.

If we actually love our children, and their children, we have no other choice but to reject the foolishness of divisive politics. This is our very last chance.