During the Democratic National Convention, an eloquent statesman from Illinois spoke. He was a cerebral man of great moral strength, a visionary liberal whose capacity to infuse optimism into a movement that had been plagued with the cynicism of repeated defeats sparked the fire of inspiration in the souls both of the young and the old.
"This is not the time for superficial solutions and endless elocution, for frantic boast and foolish word. For words are not deeds and there are no cheap and painless solutions to war, hunger, ignorance, fear. . Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one. . Where we have erred, let there be no denial; where we have wronged the public trust, let there be no excuses. Self-criticism is the secret weapon of democracy, and candor and confession are good for the political soul. But we will never appease. . A man doesn't save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can."
The man referred to above is not, as many Americans today might think, Senator Barack Obama. Rather I speak of Adlai Stevenson, a statesman from the 1950s and 1960s whose insight and courage helped the ideological foundations set by Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression and Second World War make a healthy transition into our modern era. It is a tragic fact that this founding father of liberalism has had his name shuffled off into obscurity.
Yet while he was alive, there were few men who had the capacity to capture the minds and hearts of Americans quite like Stevenson. A whole generation of liberals had their spirits stirred by his rhetoric. A surprising majority of the progressive reforms from the 1960s and 1970s can be traced back to ideas he advocated during his two presidential campaigns in 1952 and 1956. Even his fiercest political opponents generally admitted possessing a grudging respect for the man. It is safe to assume that had he not had the bad luck of opposing a war hero for the presidency, the high esteem within which he was generally held would have made his election far more likely. Indeed, those Democrats who would capture the presidency over the next generation would do so by following Stevenson's lead, sometimes to such a degree that he would have been justified in accusing them of plagiarism.
The Stevensonian heritage, however, has been largely abandoned. Ever since the rightward shift of America's political paradigm in the 1970s and 1980s, Democrats have tended to respond by either attempting to out-Republican the Republicans or by going on the shrill defensive for their liberalism. Not surprisingly, this has made electoral victories rather difficult to come by. The subsequent disillusionment breeds cynicism, which (as is the nature of cynicism) saps away those creative energies that fuel successful political campaigns. More losses are thereby accrued, hardening existing cynicism and creating a cycle of defeat.
Yet behind every cynic there resides a despairing optimist, and the challenge of any great leader whose movement is composed of cynics is to remove the despair from the optimist. This requires a special type of intellectual and moral muscle as well as a character that can wear rather than bear the weight of leadership. But does such a candidate exist today?
I believe that he does exist - Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. A tell-tale sign of this is the fact that Stevenson's words could be so easily mistaken for his own.
"No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice."
Obama has many other qualities that would make him a superb presidential candidate in 2008. His is a young, fresh face that can be easily associated with that most important of abstract concepts: "the future." Also superficially, his African-American heritage will play to the best instincts of those Americans who want to break down one of the most visible signs of our nation's racist past.
Obama's views on domestic, social and economic issues (immigration, energy production, education, the environment) represent the cutting edge of what contemporary pro-active liberals espouse while avoiding that whiff of radicalism which turns up the noses of so many moderate Americans.
As is so important in today's interconnected world, he has toured the world, including Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and in doing so provided himself with an invaluable education on foreign policy.
Finally, he possesses that intangible quality which cannot be described but only identified - gravitas.
Given recent defeats, the apathy of many liberals seems like the logical aftermath of initial cynicism. Yet apathy is the sleep of the political mind, and those who sleep too much generally do so because they find staying awake to be too painful. That is why we need a Barack Obama to tell the world that slumber can only produce dreams, while activity alone has the power to transform them into reality.
Matt Rozsa is a graduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences. He writes a column of historical vignettes for The Eagle.
