Why I Support Barack Obama for President I

Like anyone else I suppose, my support for Barack stems from my own political beliefs. Although I have a passion for politics and policy, particularly insofar as they relate to social justice, I have spent relatively little energy engaging in electoral politics for one simple reason: from everything I can tell, money rules politics in America.

Almost everyone I've ever talked to, whatever their political philosophy, believes the same thing. At all levels of government and in all parts of the country, those who are able to back candidates with significant amounts of money get to decide who those candidates will be and which ones will win. That being the case, those who are not able to "ante up" do not have a voice, and the objective merit of any particular course of action counts far less than the pure self-interests of those who have ante'd up. In my opinion then, the most fundamental project for any progressive movement, the thing on which all other progressive possibilities are contingent, is political reform.

With that reality and goal in mind, I and most of my friends/allies have "retreated" in a sense to grassroots, community-based politics outside of the electoral system where we use community organizing, independent policy advocacy and legal intervention in order to bring the "people's" voice into the decision-making process. At the local level, at least, it is possible to make elected officials accountable to the people, if only because we can physically get in the way of stuff and bring uncomfortable truths to the public light. But the limits of our myopic focus on local, grassroots political activities has been amply demonstrated by the extreme havoc that the current administration has wreaked on the world. Therefore, even before Barack Obama's campaign, I, for one, was "fired up and ready to go" behind any Democrat who could at least put at stop to the "bleeding", so to speak.

My most significant previous foray into electoral politics was at the local level as well -- Jerry Brown's campaign for Oakland Mayor in 1998. In that campaign, Jerry refused any contribution over $100, made promises to nobody, but listened to everybody, and avoided a run-off by winning each and every precinct (save the home precinct of the runner-up) in the most racially diverse city in America against seven other candidates. One can argue one way or the other about Jerry's program once in office, but he served two terms, changed the face of what had been a down-at-the-heels town and was able to use his record there as a springboard for a successful run for California Attorney General.

But the most important lesson I took away from that experience is that it takes a special kind of candidate to actually pull off an insurgent, anti-big money, for-the-people campaign. There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of attempts across the country over the years, most of which failed. What is that special something? It's charisma.

Charisma: A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.
- American Heritage Dictionary

Without charisma, the politician needs money to succeed. They can be independently wealthy or they can find the backing of people with money, but in either case, their ability to really confront the status quo has already been greatly compromised long before they get into office. It's an unfortunate reality of the times in which we live that something as ephemeral and superficial as charisma is a prerequisite for something as serious and substantial as political leadership, but I believe it to be true nonetheless.

And this is where we come to Barack Obama. Who can doubt his charisma? Tens of thousands flock to his speeches in all corners of the country. Hundreds of thousands donate to and volunteer for his campaign. Millions respond viscerally and immediately to his appeal. In my mind there are just a few political figures in modern American history that had a comparable appeal: John F. and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. That's it. No one else.

But more importantly, this kind of charisma is pointless from my perspective without a program of real change behind it. Reagan and Clinton wasted theirs by and large on misguided reactionary conservatism or triangulation and personal pecadillos, respectively. But if Obama's career has been about anything, it's been about real, substantive political reform. After cutting his teeth as a community organizer working to involve disenfranchised people in the decision-making process in Chicago, he passed landmark ethics and lobbying bills in the Illinois State Legislature and in the United States Senate. The recent string of high-profile Republican retirements such as Trent Lott is due in no small part to the fact that after Jan. 1 of this year, they will no longer be able to lobby their old colleagues immediately after retirement because of legislation spearheaded by Obama.

As a Presidential candidate, he has refused to take money from PAC's and federal lobbyists, instead raising tens of millions through small donations and low-dollar fundraisers. His campaign strategy prioritizes grassroots organizing. His platform includes support for new initiatives on lobbying reform, transparency, honesty and accountability. Finally, buried in his brilliant speech at Google, is to my mind maybe the most important idea Barack has put forward yet.

Technology-enabled citizen participation . . . can help connect government to its citizens and engage citizens in a democracy. Barack Obama will use the most current technological tools available to make government less beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists and promote citizen participation in government decision-making. Obama will integrate citizens into the actual business of government by:

—Establishing pilot programs to open up government decision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of the American citizenry to help government make more informed decisions.
—Lifting the veil from secret deals in Washington with a web site, a search engine, and other web tools that enable citizens easily to track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials.
—Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.
-- http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/14/barack-obamas-google-friendly-technology-platform/

This would be a subtle, yet profound revolution in the way governmental decisions are made in America. Barack is the person who can make that happen.