James Ocean

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ObamaCan Glyn Lewis This past summer while roaming the Frankfurt international airport I picked up a copy of an international publication to see what the rest of the world was saying about Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. As I looked around the store I found the same story splashed across almost every major daily paper and publication. The print media were hyping Senator Obama's upcoming visit to the once deeply ideologically divided city of Berlin. A city which had once beaconed the great fault lines of political philosophies for the rising baby-boomer generation of the 1960's: East vs. West, Authority vs. Freedom, Collectivism vs. Individualism, and Secularism vs. Religious Faith. As the boomer generation - my parent's generation - came of age these amongst countless other ideological and cultural forces perforated a number of social institutions. The result was the ominous pitting of young people against old, fathers against daughters, students against administrators, citizens against their government, and radical protesters against those who served their country. As the dust settled on these early years it became clear that in many ways the sprouting generation of the 1960s and 70s had been deeply wounded. Nevertheless, a phalanx of skilled and impassioned survivors, from both the Left and the Right, were being quickly launched into the halls of power within the intertwined network of the political, media, advocacy, and think-tank universes. It was within these halls where many hunkered down and set up base. The unfolding "you're with us or you're against us" polarized discourse became increasingly entrenched within a matrix of vitriol, division, and distrust. The back and forth petty power struggles quickly spiralled into full fledge hyper partisan warfare stultifying our politics, and poisoning our discourse. The result has been the ominous corruption of our democratic processes. For the past forty years the socio-political discourse has painfully limped from Vietnam to Iraq, from Secularization to Abortion, from Environmentalism to Globalization, and from Same-Sex Marriage to Immigration. Along the way many new recruits have taken up arms only to be mentored and indoctrinated in a win-at-all-costs style of politics while many others - sadly and yet understandably - have simply tuned out. There are those who have been disenfranchised by politics not because of indifference but because they sense their democratic voice have been usurped by deeply imbedded special interests and lobby groups who spend millions purchasing influence. There are those who have been disillusioned by their elected representatives who seem more interested in partisan posturing than coming together to find common solutions to our common problems. Lastly, there are those who have been down right disgusted by the unprincipled political gamesmanship of fear, distortion, and division. While the aforementioned state of affairs reached new cultural lows there were rising stars who acknowledged the deep society wide yearning for a new style of leadership. Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign spoke often of reuniting the country and ending the petty differences bogging down progress. Unfortunately, this proved to be little more than a branding exercise as the Clinton 92' campaign turned around and relentlessly engaged in full contact bare knuckle battle. After being credited with the creation of the campaign war room, once in the power, it is of little surprise Al and Bill found their relationship with the soon to be Republican controlled Senate to be frustratingly hostile, to say the least. Then there was the George W. Bush campaign of 2000. After eight long years of Ken Starr, Monica, and Newt Gingridge, people wanted to keep the economic good times but with less drama, and lower taxes. At his 2000 Republican nomination speech President George Bush struck a chord with a pledge to, "Change the tone of Washington, to one of civility, and respect". In reality, instead of working to change the ways of Washington the Bush clan, under the messianic guide of Karl Rove, helped push the limits of the conventional political modus operandi to a whole new sordid frontier. Instead of unity there was Florida, instead of civility there was Swift-Boating, and instead of respect there was the Moral Majority. As a Canadian observer-activist what has interested me most about the state of Democracy in America is that while the players, issues and intensity may be different the fabric of our Canadian democratic processes are mired in all the same generational battles. Ultimately, this is the importance of Barack Obama's historic victory for the rest of us. It was an incredible affirmation of what remains possible when we the people rise up to reclaim the meaning of some of our most powerful institutions. When I first decided to head to Iowa to help with the ground game the Obama campaign was 15 points behind the Clinton establishment. The skeptics and the pundits had all but written off our chances. However, there were literally thousands of fired up volunteers from all around the country and around the world who knew this was not an ordinary election year and that this was not your conventional political campaign. To help the grass-roots campaign coalesce the Obama brain trust opted against accepting campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists or Political Action Committees and instead would rely on thousands and soon millions of small donations by the American people. People from every socio-economic background could sense power was tilting back onto their side of the decision making table. Moreover, whereas past presidential candidates had long preached respect and civility Senator Obama, by and large, made good on the promise to turn down the heat on the highly polarized discourse. The message of a progressive politics born of respect, empowerment and inclusion widened the tent and quickly garnered the campaign an incredible amount of respect. This movement was successful in rewriting the very fundamentals of that universally accessible political textbook because millions of Americans were tired of conventional divide and conquer politics and they got out there and did something about it. As momentum picked up and predominately white states began to overwhelmingly judge Obama by the content of his character rather than the colour of his skin millions of people all around the world found themselves transfixed by the possibility of a rising and inclusive generation of leadership which would work towards reclaiming instead of rejecting the meaning of social, religious, economic, and political institutions. In the end, many saw the Obama campaign as vehicle towards changing their own flawed apparatus of public service. It was therefore of no great surprise that when I walked into our campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa a month before the monumental January 3rd caucus I found to my left a wall sized map of the world. The map was littered with dots, each of which represented a young Obama supporter who had flown in to help. They came from France, South Africa, Brazil, England, New Zealand, Canada, and Holland, to name just a few. Following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville thousands of these seasoned torchbearers will all now go home to spread the message, mechanisms, and the vision of improving our systems of democratic representation. There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of others who are equally hungry and committed but were unable to physically join this catalytic campaign. As we collectively now look inwards and onwards the great question of our time may very well be: If in that historic year of 2008 the American people were able to work together, at the grass-roots, to significantly change the way politics works right up to the very highest of offices in one of the most powerful countries in the world, then why can't we? If Canada is truly hungry and is ready to get out there and demand better at every level of representation, our time will come.

ObamaCan Glyn Lewis

glyn lewis and don lamb for obama

This past summer while roaming the Frankfurt international airport I picked up a copy of an international publication to see what the rest of the world was saying about Barack Obama's Presidential campaign. As I looked around the store I found the same story splashed across almost every major daily paper and publication. The print media were hyping Senator Obama's upcoming visit to the once deeply ideologically divided city of Berlin. A city which had once beaconed the great fault lines of political philosophies for the rising baby-boomer generation of the 1960's: East vs. West, Authority vs. Freedom, Collectivism vs. Individualism, and Secularism vs. Religious Faith.

As the boomer generation - my parent's generation - came of age these amongst countless other ideological and cultural forces perforated a number of social institutions. The result was the ominous pitting of young people against old, fathers against daughters, students against administrators, citizens against their government, and radical protesters against those who served their country. As the dust settled on these early years it became clear that in many ways the sprouting generation of the 1960s and 70s had been deeply wounded. Nevertheless, a phalanx of skilled and impassioned survivors, from both the Left and the Right, were being quickly launched into the halls of power within the intertwined network of the political, media, advocacy, and think-tank universes. It was within these halls where many hunkered down and set up base. The unfolding "you're with us or you're against us" polarized discourse became increasingly entrenched within a matrix of vitriol, division, and distrust. The back and forth petty power struggles quickly spiralled into full fledge hyper partisan warfare stultifying our politics, and poisoning our discourse. The result has been the ominous corruption of our democratic processes.

For the past forty years the socio-political discourse has painfully limped from Vietnam to Iraq, from Secularization to Abortion, from Environmentalism to Globalization, and from Same-Sex Marriage to Immigration. Along the way many new recruits have taken up arms only to be mentored and indoctrinated in a win-at-all-costs style of politics while many others - sadly and yet understandably - have simply tuned out. There are those who have been disenfranchised by politics not because of indifference but because they sense their democratic voice have been usurped by deeply imbedded special interests and lobby groups who spend millions purchasing influence. There are those who have been disillusioned by their elected representatives who seem more interested in partisan posturing than coming together to find common solutions to our common problems. Lastly, there are those who have been down right disgusted by the unprincipled political gamesmanship of fear, distortion, and division.

While the aforementioned state of affairs reached new cultural lows there were rising stars who acknowledged the deep society wide yearning for a new style of leadership. Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign spoke often of reuniting the country and ending the petty differences bogging down progress. Unfortunately, this proved to be little more than a branding exercise as the Clinton 92' campaign turned around and relentlessly engaged in full contact bare knuckle battle. After being credited with the creation of the campaign war room, once in the power, it is of little surprise Al and Bill found their relationship with the soon to be Republican controlled Senate to be frustratingly hostile, to say the least. Then there was the George W. Bush campaign of 2000. After eight long years of Ken Starr, Monica, and Newt Gingridge, people wanted to keep the economic good times but with less drama, and lower taxes. At his 2000 Republican nomination speech President George Bush struck a chord with a pledge to, "Change the tone of Washington, to one of civility, and respect". In reality, instead of working to change the ways of Washington the Bush clan, under the messianic guide of Karl Rove, helped push the limits of the conventional political modus operandi to a whole new sordid frontier. Instead of unity there was Florida, instead of civility there was Swift-Boating, and instead of respect there was the Moral Majority.

As a Canadian observer-activist what has interested me most about the state of Democracy in America is that while the players, issues and intensity may be different the fabric of our Canadian democratic processes are mired in all the same generational battles. Ultimately, this is the importance of Barack Obama's historic victory for the rest of us. It was an incredible affirmation of what remains possible when we the people rise up to reclaim the meaning of some of our most powerful institutions.

When I first decided to head to Iowa to help with the ground game the Obama campaign was 15 points behind the Clinton establishment. The skeptics and the pundits had all but written off our chances. However, there were literally thousands of fired up volunteers from all around the country and around the world who knew this was not an ordinary election year and that this was not your conventional political campaign. To help the grass-roots campaign coalesce the Obama brain trust opted against accepting campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists or Political Action Committees and instead would rely on thousands and soon millions of small donations by the American people. People from every socio-economic background could sense power was tilting back onto their side of the decision making table. Moreover, whereas past presidential candidates had long preached respect and civility Senator Obama, by and large, made good on the promise to turn down the heat on the highly polarized discourse. The message of a progressive politics born of respect, empowerment and inclusion widened the tent and quickly garnered the campaign an incredible amount of respect. This movement was successful in rewriting the very fundamentals of that universally accessible political textbook because millions of Americans were tired of conventional divide and conquer politics and they got out there and did something about it.

As momentum picked up and predominately white states began to overwhelmingly judge Obama by the content of his character rather than the colour of his skin millions of people all around the world found themselves transfixed by the possibility of a rising and inclusive generation of leadership which would work towards reclaiming instead of rejecting the meaning of social, religious, economic, and political institutions.

In the end, many saw the Obama campaign as vehicle towards changing their own flawed apparatus of public service. It was therefore of no great surprise that when I walked into our campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa a month before the monumental January 3rd caucus I found to my left a wall sized map of the world. The map was littered with dots, each of which represented a young Obama supporter who had flown in to help. They came from France, South Africa, Brazil, England, New Zealand, Canada, and Holland, to name just a few. Following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville thousands of these seasoned torchbearers will all now go home to spread the message, mechanisms, and the vision of improving our systems of democratic representation. There are tens if not hundreds of thousands of others who are equally hungry and committed but were unable to physically join this catalytic campaign. As we collectively now look inwards and onwards the great question of our time may very well be: If in that historic year of 2008 the American people were able to work together, at the grass-roots, to significantly change the way politics works right up to the very highest of offices in one of the most powerful countries in the world, then why can't we?

If Canada is truly hungry and is ready to get out there and demand better at every level of representation, our time will come.