Barack Obama Is the Last American Transcendentalist

Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, and with all due respect to my colleague Jeet Heer, Barack Obama is not the greatest living speaker in American politics, not even in the city of Chicago. As long as he lives, that title will belong to Jesse Jackson. For those of us lucky enough to be I got to see him in his prime I can attest that the pastor’s voice may have weakened with age and illness. Country At a memorial service held on Sunday night, the day before the tournament, his spirit was as bright as ever.

Obama may not have been the best speaker on the stage Tuesday night; that honor goes to his wife, Michelle Obama. Her mere presence in the spotlight sent the 22,000-strong crowd into a frenzy, and her poise and political savvy left some of us scratching our heads and asking, “Is this the woman we should hate in politics?” Michelle has famously endured eight years of public criticism, with scrutiny of everything from her body to her fashion choices, but she was also the subject of Donald Trump’s “I’m not a politician” and “I’m not a politician.”Ugly, misogynistic, racist lies.” Her attack on her husband and family stung. She also delivered the best line of the night: “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘black jobs’?”

But Obama delivered a passionate and scornful diatribe against Trump. 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner After reportedly infuriating a bankrupt casino operator and a mid-sized Manhattan real estate developer, he decided to run for president himself, but he’s not coming to Chicago seeking revenge. A little fun With a suggestive hand gesture, Obama highlighted Trump’s now-viral comment about his “bizarre obsession with crowd size.”But Obama did what he’s done so many times as president and surpassed it.

I once wrote in another country that “all successful politicians have a superpower,” and in Obama’s case it was “intelligence and the ability to make people forget their race,” while in Trump’s case it was “being constantly underestimated.”

That may have been true then. But now I would like to correct both opinions. There may still be a few liberal commentators stupid enough to believe that Donald Trump is stupid, his finances are unstable, and his campaign is a failure. The only reasonable counterargument to that is: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich? Or president?” Underestimating Trump has proven to be such a dangerous exercise that few even try it anymore.J.D. Pritzker Still, having survived two impeachments, too many indictments to list here, 34 felony convictions, a terrible vice presidential pick, and an assassination attempt, it’s clear that Trump’s real superpowers are preternatural luck and the power to cloud people’s minds. shadowTrump is using that power for evil purposes.

Barack Obama is still the smartest man in the world, but his real superpower has little to do with intellect, race or even politics. Abraham Lincoln Has there ever been a US president with such power to summon “the better angels of our nature”?

When he ended his first inaugural address, delivered two and a half months after South Carolina had seceded, with the words, “We are friends, not enemies; we ought not to be enemies,” Lincoln drew on his versatility. But he also made it clear that American Transcendentalism, rooted in the rocky soil of New England but spreading across the country, was the product of an era that asserted the innate goodness of human beings and the ultimate perfectibility of human nature.

Some observers have criticized Obama’s convention remarks as a chilling blow after his wife’s impassioned speech. My guess is that this was intentional. They are both clear, enthusiastic supporters of Kamala Harris, and deeply committed to defeating Donald Trump. But as has been the case often during his presidency, Barack Obama has his eye on a prize that goes beyond just politics.

Henry David Thoreau Admonition “Give me the truth, give me the truth, give me the truth, give me the truth, give me the truth,” which, at least to Tuesday night’s audience, seemed less like an aside and more like the heart of what Obama wanted to tell us.

“We live in a time of chaos and hatred, with a culture that values ​​things that don’t last: money, fame, status, likes. We chase validation from strangers on our phones. We build all kinds of walls and fences around ourselves, and then we wonder why we feel so alone. We trust each other less because we don’t take the time to get to know each other. And in that space between us, politicians and algorithms caricature each other, troll each other, teach us to fear each other.”

What does this have to do with electoral politics? Probably nothing.

But Obama’s appeal as a politician was never determined by his support for any particular policy or program, which is why his presidency was such a disappointment to many progressives who were convinced that this colorful community activist from Chicago was one of us.

He was, and remains, a transformative figure in American society. It’s not so much what he accomplished as president, but what he inspired and continues to evoke in us. Coalition politics, as the Democratic Party has practiced it from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson to Joe Biden, relies on simple addition. And when the numbers add up, it can be a powerful mechanism for demanding and creating change.

But as we saw in the months before when Biden withdrew from the campaign, the money was not in our favor this time around. The Biden campaign was heading for a defeat that, given the opposition, would have been a devastating one for the country.

In his speech last night, President Obama struck a new chord beyond the vulgar “what have you done for me lately” demands of traditional politics, and although much older and perhaps a little wiser than he was in 2008, I found the speech thrilling.

Are we still hearing about the good nature of man? We shall see.