The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama: on Principles & Values
Barack Obama:
“Audacity of Hope” to change politics to reflect common good
[During the early part of my US Senate race], no blinding insights emerged from months of conversation. What struck me was how much of what they believed seemed to hold constant across race, region, religion, and class. I told them that government
couldn’t solve all their problems. But with a slight change in priorities we could make sure every child had a decent shot at life and meet the challenges we faced as a nation.
This book grows directly out of those conversations on the campaign trail.
The ideals at the core of the American experience, and the values that bind us together despite our differences, remain alive in the hearts and minds of most Americans. The topic of this book is how we might begin the process of changing our politics and
our civic life. I don’t know exactly how to do it. But I offer personal reflections on those values and ideals that have led me to public life, and myown best assessment of the ways we can ground our politics in the notion of a common good.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 7-9
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Post-1960s politics more about moral attitude than issues
After the 1960s, liberalism and conservatism were defined in the popular imagination less by class than by attitude--the position you took toward the traditional culture and counterculture. What mattered was how you felt about sex, drugs, rock and roll,
the Latin Mass or the Western canon. For white ethnic voters in the North and whites in the South, this new liberalism made little sense. The violence in the streets and the excuses for such violence in intellectual circles, blacks moving next door and
white kids bused across town, the burning of flags and spitting on vets, all of it seemed to insult and diminish family, faith, flag, neighborhood, and for some at least, white privilege. And when, in the wake of assassinations and Vietnam, economic
expansion gave way to gas lines, inflation and plant closings, and the best Jimmy Carter could suggest was turning down the thermostat, the New Deal coalition began looking for another political home.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 28-29
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Americans dislike partisanship--not solution like Dems think
Increasingly, the Democratic Party feels the need to match the Republican right in stridency and hardball tactics. The accepted wisdom something like this: The Republican Party has been able to win elections not by expanding its base but by vilifying
Democrats, driving wedges into the electorate, energizing its right wing, and disciplining those who stray.I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. For it is the predictability of our current
political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face. It is what keeps us locked in “either/or” thinking: the notion that we can only have big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate
46 million uninsured or embrace “socialized medicine.”
It is such partisanship that have turned Americans off. What is needed is a broad majority who are re-engaged and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interest of others.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 39-40
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Raised secular, but with working knowledge of world religion
I was not raised in a religious household. For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness. However, in her mind, a working knowledge of the world’s great
religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to
church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist; it was a phenomenon to be treated
with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well. This spirit of hers guided me on the path I would ultimately take. It was in search of confirmation of her values that I studied political philosophy.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.202-4
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Baptized as an adult in the Trinity United Church of Christ
Faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts. The typical black sermon freely acknowledged that all Christians (including the pastors) could expect to still experience the same greed, resentment, lust, and anger that everyone else experienced. In the
black community, the lines between sinner and saved were more fluid; the sins of those who came to church were not so different from the sins of those who didn’t, and so were as likely to be talked about with humor as with condemnation. You needed to
come to church precisely because you were of this world. You needed to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away-because you needed an ally in your difficult journey. It was because of these newfound understandings-that religious
commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world-that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be ba
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.207-8
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Progressives should recognize common morality with religion
The discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religiosity has often inhibited us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms. Our fear as progressives of getting “preachy” may also lead us to discount the role that values and culture play
in addressing some of our most urgent social problems. After all, the problems of poverty and racism, the uninsured and the unemployed, are not simply technical problems. They are also rooted in societal indifference and individual callousness.
I am not suggesting that every progressive suddenly latch on to religious terminology. I am suggesting that perhaps if we progressives shed some of our own biases, we might recognize the values that both religious and secular people share when
it comes to the moral and material direction of our country. We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.214-6
Oct 1, 2006
Barack Obama:
Religious concerns ok, if translated into universal values
Progressives might recognize the values that both religious & secular people share when it comes to the moral & material direction of our country. We might recognize that the call to sacrifice on behalf of the next generation, the need to think in terms
of “thou” and not just “I”, resonates in religious congregations across the country. Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering the public square. To say that men and women should not inject their
personal morality into public policy debates is a practical absurdity; our law is by definition a codification of morality, mush of it grounded in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
What our pluralistic democracy does demand is that the religiously
motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values. Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will--they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.216-219
Oct 1, 2006
Bill Clinton:
Obama: Clinton pushed progressive despite partisan Congress
It was Bill Clinton’s singular contribution that he recognized that the categories of conservative and liberal played to Republican advantage and were inadequate to address our problems.He understood the falseness of the choices being presented to
Americans. He saw that government spending and regulation could serve as vital ingredients and not inhibitors to growth, and how markets and fiscal responsibility could help promote social justice. He recognized that societal and personal responsibility
were needed to combat poverty. Clinton’s third way went beyond splitting the difference. It tapped into the pragmatic, nonideological attitude of Americans.
By the end of his presidency, his policies enjoyed broad support. That he failed, despite a
booming economy, to translate popular policies into a governing coalition said something about the demographic difficulties Democrats were facing and the structural advantages Republicans enjoyed in the Senate.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 34-36
Oct 1, 2006
Republican Party:
Obama: GOP wins elections by vilifying Democrats
Increasingly, the Democratic Party feels the need to match the Republican right in stridency and hardball tactics. The accepted wisdom something like this: The Republican Party has been able to win elections not by expanding its base but by vilifying
Democrats, driving wedges into the electorate, energizing its right wing, and disciplining those who stray.I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. For it is the predictability of our current
political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face. It is what keeps us locked in “either/or” thinking: the notion that we can only have big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate
46 million uninsured or embrace “socialized medicine.”
It is such partisanship that have turned Americans off. What is needed is a broad majority who are re-engaged and who see their own self-interest as inextricably linked to the interest of others.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p. 39-40
Oct 1, 2006
Page last updated: Mar 08, 2013