What Michigan Means to the Democratic Primaries

An interesting event will take place in Michigan on January 15th. In a purely meaningless Democratic primary, Senator Clinton will be running against the formidable Mr. Uncommitted. Hillary Clinton is the only major Democratic candidate who will be on the ballot in Michigan. That is because the Senator Obama and Mr. Edwards, at the behest of the Democratic National Committee, withdrew their names from the Michigan primary. Thus, we have the prospects of Senator Clinton running unopposed in a primary that will not reward any delegates to the eventual Democratic nominee.

So why is this such an interesting primary? After all, if the Detroit Lions are playing an NFL game without a defense to oppose them, they should be able to run up the score and win by a rout. Victory should be a given, but scoring a hundred points should be guarantee. And that is the exact reason why could be such an interesting primary. Senator Clinton is playing offense without anyone playing defense in Michigan, except the venerable Mr. Uncommitted. And this is the rub; for if Mr. Uncommitted gets a significant percentage of the vote, or more embarrassingly, gets over 50% of the vote, Senator Clinton will have been humiliated in a state where she is running unopposed. How can Senator Clinton claim to be the most electable if she is not able to win a primary where she should get 100% of the vote?

Of course, the Clinton campaign knows this, which is the reason that they are kicking the campaign into overdrive—with the help of surrogates. With the help of Governor Granholm and former Governor James Blanchard, campaign operatives all over Michigan are sending out mailers, calling supporters, and going as far as holding election rallies in suburban Detroit. In effect, the Clinton campaign is running a stealth campaign to circumvent DNC rules which prohibit active campaigning in the state of Michigan by the Democratic nominees. Michigan is going to be a state-wide referendum on the viability of the Clinton campaign. If Mr. Uncommitted runs a close second, it could end up being the canary in the cage for the Hillary’s argument of electability.

A Shot for Change

Bang! A shot rang out today from every corner of Iowa. That same shot is now ricocheting around every corner of the world. This very shot has the power to erase the tarnished images that our nation has been saddled with during the eight years of a unilateralist and unbending administration. By electing a skinny man out of Chicago with a funny name, a Kenyan father, and a single mother, this very shot carries with it the possibility of erasing the historical schisms which have divided Americans for too long and prevented us from working for our common cause.

In the streets of Des Moines, the schools of Cedar Falls and the churches of Waterloo, we witnessed white and black Americans, men and women, Americans of all stripes and political beliefs come together to work for a common purpose. I could not have foreseen four years ago the audacious infection that hope can inject into a people who were left uninspired by years of political warfare. We were peddled a solution for our common misfortunes by a politics espousing a 50 + 1% solution. Instead of realizing that our neighbors fears are the same as ours, that a red state anxiety is felt by a blue state equally, we were encouraged to view our fellow citizens as an adversary. Our nation was gripped by the malady of partisanship and a boiling over with the fever of exclusion.

What we failed to realize is that a fever is at its worse before it breaks; while the elections of 2000 and 2004 alienated the majority of Americans and balkanized the rest, the men and women of Iowa voted for a man who has the ability to move us past the polarizing debates of the past. For too long, we have let anger be the fuel that drives our politics. Washington has devolved into coliseum where we elect gladiators to wield blunt weapons of partisanship and myopia to shout and yell past each other—and in the end get nothing done. This anger, an anger which I felt deeply in 2004, was not getting us anywhere. We became a nation divided to the fringes, and the majority of Americans gave up on politics. Some were offering to combat myopia with obfuscation, to flip the tables and rule with a equal ferocity from a different spectrum. However, a coin which is flawed when it lands on tails is still flawed when it lands on heads. We cannot hope to sustain our democracy by simply replacing right wing exceptionalism with left wing exceptionalism.

Yet in the darkest moments, a beacon of light often guides the disillusioned towards the shores of hope. This beacon, a speech given by a man with a funny name in 2004, lit a fire under Americans who longed to be guided by a president who leads not by fear but by hope. We were moved by a man who inspires us to reach beyond anger and seek solutions based on a unity. We cannot hope to change the state of our country by replacing one form of partisanship with another. To the contrary, our democracy is devalued when we see our opponents as adversaries. We are not a country that needs more division, we are not lacking in people that can further partition our nation. Obama, in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, beseeched us to not be an America of blue states and red states; rather, he inspired us to fully value the true meaning of the United States of America.

It has been a long road, but my faith in our democracy has been restored and rekindled. Iowans tonight rejected a politics of division and instead coalesced around a politics of inclusion. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all voted not only for one man, but for the hope and change that his campaign represents. This moment, while history is being written with the indelible ink of inspiration, presents us with a new path in our civic discourse. No longer will we only have a choice between enmity and disillusion; Iowa, with their spirit and unity, paved a new path of solidarity. With a ballot, not a bullet, Iowans took a shot at the status quo and delivered a might blow for change—a shot that is being heard around the world today.

Voting for change

The human spirit is at its best when we dare to scale the walls of uncertainty and overcomes the obstacles of incertitude. When a cacophony of naysayers seeks to distinguish the kindled spirit of hope that strives mankind forward, those who interminably overcome do so by disregarding the malfeasance of the skeptics and the self-defeating clutches of doubt . After all, what feats could David have accomplished had he listened to his detractors and decided that Goliath was unconquerable? What destiny would have awaited Christopher Columbus had he listened to the conventional wisdom of the day? Who would know the name Martin Luther King Jr. had he succumb to the idea of blacks waiting for another day to have better opportunity?

We thus are faced with one of the seminal moments where history could be decided by our action or left unwritten by the lack thereof. We have a unique opportunity to elect Barack Obama president of the United States. Yet, there are voices out there beseeching us that he is too inexperienced, that he is too young, that he should wait for another day to have a better opportunity. Our conviction could overcome these voices of diversion, or our determination can ebb and be rendered breathless by our incapacity to conquer the gravity of the status quo. We have gotten used to the idea of politics as a civic war, pitting Democrats versus Republicans—leaving us incapable of discussing politics with anyone we are not certain shares our viewpoints. Democracy is an open transaction of ideas, not a myopic reiteration of doctrine.

Democracy is remarkable because it enables people of various backgrounds, views, and ideals to debate, in a public square, our collective direction while preserving our individual views. While our views are our identities, our democracy is served best when we are circumspect with our views--when our views can be influenced and are not held in absolutes. However, Democracy is diminished when we dwell in quarters that excludes differing views and bemoans alternate ideas. When our politics becomes blunt tools to bludgeon Democrats or Republicans, when we live in blue states and red states, we thus render moot the very definition of the United States of America.

We have a choice, a choice that aims to replace “us versus them” to “us and them”. Increasingly, the spirit of the United States is crumbling under the weight of a balkanized states of America; we have been pitted, one against the other, by some invisible animosity and intangible anger. We are encouraged to view the issues that confront our lives from a limited partisan prism. During the past couple of administrations, politics has incrementally devolved into a blood sport; where “fans” cheer for their “team” and equal voracity demean their opponents. In this atmosphere, discussion is devalued, understanding is discounted, and intellectual curiosity is discarded.

While there are some offering immeasurable experience in this art of scorched earth combat, Barack Obama offers a chance to break free from the experience of discontent and replace it with the novelty of hope. We are a nation of many, united by a common yearning of opportunity and equality. We need a president that inspires us to find the problems that plague our society on the basis of these common hopes instead of one that seeks to exploit on the exclusionary dogma of fear or friction. I believe that Mr. Obama has the rare combination of substance and style to deliver a message of hope and fairness to those that have the misfortune to live in inequity without alienating those blessed to dwell in the prosperity.

For too long, we have sat on the sidelines decrying the state of our country. We are told continuously that the world is what it is, and that we are hopeless to change the winds of fate. Though our efforts sometimes go unrewarded, and our hopes sometimes dashed by the unexpected, the audacity to attempt new feats--to dare climb that insurmountable step--at times deliver us to accomplishments never dreamed of by our forefathers and often doubted by our contemporaries. While we might not be able to slay a giant, discover uncharted continents, or deliver a people out of bondage, our belief and our collective action can transform our politics that is rooted in the antipathy of fear to one that speaks to the resiliency of hope.

A Shot for Change