The election of Barack Obama was ear marked as a cornerstone in American politics and in the American nation as a whole. The campaign’s foundations were a simple one-word promise: Change.
There are two sides to Obama’s speech, as there are to most things. The first feeling invoked by reading the speech is a powerful force of the people’s voice calling for the reform of their country, but with that sweet sentiment comes the sour. Towards the end of the speech he speaks about reclaiming the American Dream and for something to be reclaimed it must be lost or hijacked, and it has been both. So at the centre of this hope swelling speech comes the ugly truth that even now America has failed to realise one of the foundations on which the nation was founded.
Touching on politics is unavoidable as comes with the territory. In his second verse Obama hammers home how important the inclusiveness of America is to it’s progression, but since the country was formed inclusivity has been a back burner priority in every generation. Whether it is the besmirched Hester in The Scarlet Letter or the country’s treatment of it’s own citizens. Whether it is because of their sexual orientation or the colour of their skin (as seen in various slave narratives), it appears that the promises made in the Declaration of Independence were in themselves an American dream as opposed to an American possibility.
This is our time - to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: yes, we can.
- Barack Obama, Presidential Acceptance Speech, final paragraph.
During his closing words Obama generalised the American people by saying that their accumulated attitude could be summed up as ‘Yes we can.’ The irony here is that over several years, the American people and those who they have previously elected have been concerned predominately with saying no and usually to things that would be considered unconstitutional by their own founding declaration. It begs the question, where exactly did the American Dream and the freedom for all roots crash and burn?
It is difficult to sum up where exactly it all went apathetic and self centred for the American people in regards to their treatment of minorities (or to put it bluntly their fellow Americans). One of the apparent errors from the starting line with America was the country’s overdependence on spirituality or rather a single religion: Christianity. Somewhere along the line it would seem that the ideals of the American Dream and the ideals of freedom were quickly replaced by The Bible, thus one set of beliefs was traded in for another and the American Dream from then on became an afterthought and was to reduced to being a simple political buzzword.
The sad truth about America’s history is that the freedoms promised and supposedly cherished rarely extended beyond the freedoms a man requires for his own lifetime. The population of the majority that would help a minority achieve their rights by politically advocating for their cause is slim and actually a minority in itself, it should be considered a dark age when the welfare of fellow Americans is not considered a priority. The sadder truth is that America has been in this dark for over two hundred years and counting, should Obama use the phrasing that the American people’s spirit is summed up as ‘Yes, we can’, then why has it taken two centuries for the people’s spirit to act on it?
Obama appears to have overreached on his analysis of the American people. While it is irrefutable that people with the ‘Yes, we can’ attitude do exist and they do march and shout in the name of freedoms promised but not delivered but that they actually a minority. American philosopher Cornel West says “Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself”[1] and while it is another overreach to call the American people evil, should you use it as a metaphor it does speak loudly for the problem situated in the centre of America’s civilisation and social structures. This view seems almost widely agreed upon by people from various times, cultures and occupations.
This is America. There is no reason to lie, cheat or steal. Unless you want to be awesome. But don't f*** people over to get to the middle. You betray everything America is about. We didn't throw Britain's tea into the ocean because we wanted to be a mediocre country. We didn't let those f***ers line up in a line and then shoot them in the back, because we didn't want to be one of the best countries in the world. And we're not giving China an IOU because we plan on actually paying it back. This is America, the land of opportunity to f*** people over. To take what isn't yours, but only if you plan on getting to the top of the mountain and waving what you have and they don't in their faces. That's America.
- Phillip DeFranco (American Video Blogger & Motivational Speaker, 2010)
Phillip DeFranco is an example of a modern human rights activist, he is the link in the chain that suggests America’s deep rooted problems concerning their moral obligations and their approaches to conflict are not only hypocritical to the declaration of independence as already stated but also that unlike Obama, there is a simplified way to say America like it’s people, puts itself first, above the needs and requirements of others even if they too are Americans.
To call Martin Luther King a link in a chain would be a disservice, it is much more fitting to call King the man who connected the links into a chain to begin with.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King, I Have A Dream
The feeling of America’s hypocrisy stretches generations is widespread. So once again it appears odd that Obama would push this false image upon the globe in his acceptance speech, it could be said maybe he is being an idealist and imagining the end result of his term and change that may have rooted in the people by then, but that is short sighted. It could also be argued that there doesn’t need to be a great deal of truth in the speech, as long as there is some. It appears to be the nature of politics to stretch a small truth into a large one.
The contents of the Declaration of Independence is in theory is one of the most powerful, endearing and hopeful pieces of legislation to ever be put into a constitution of any country. It’s acceptance and values of public freedoms and civil liberties is a sign of true desire to change and make a better tomorrow, and from this inspiration piece of legislation came the American Dream. A concept limitless and powerful to inspire every man but America has failed to implement it during the country’s two hundred and thirty five years of existing. Obama may be the turning the point in the storm but as it stands, it is doubtful and what seems mostly likely, even though gravely disheartening is that the American Dream is in fact just another American Fiction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I Have A Dream, Martin Luther King
August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Lincoln Memorial
This Is America, Phillip DeFranco
December 29, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh_FRIBHu7c
Big Think Ideas Interviews Cornell West, Cornell West
November 9, 2009, http://bigthink.com/ideas/17233
Presidential Acceptance Speech, Barack Obama
November 5, 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7710038.stm
[1] Big Think Ideas Interviews Cornell West - http://bigthink.com/ideas/17233
This essay was written for my university course and is protected by copyright, do not copy or replicate any part of this text without my express permission unless you mean to copy one of the works i cited, then by all means knock yourself out.
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