Progressive Ponderings: Will We Lead Obama?

by Joe Mayer

"And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you. But what together we can do for the freedom of man." – Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy, Jan 20, 1961. What exciting times those were! A young idealist had been chosen leader of the "free world." He was asking us to join him in freeing humankind, to reach beyond borders, to share our goals of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Government might lead but it needed "all of us" to advance "all of us." "Government of the people" needed us to participate, to be partners, to ensure "government for the people."

Twenty years later a very different Inaugural Address was given on Jan. 20, 1981, "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to the problem, government IS the problem." – Ronald Reagan. "Government of the people" became the problem! This is a very strange inversion of what our forefathers had in mind, inferring that "government by the people" is not to be trusted. Secrecy forced "the people" to the sidelines. Firing the air traffic controllers was symbolic of firing "the people" from governing. In the absence of "the people" an empire was created.

Another 20 years later, 9/11/01 occurred. The presidential response was, "go shopping." "The people" were to be manipulated. Our imperial government could never reflect, never admit that the people of the world didn't want to be occupied. So our government became ever more clandestine. The "people's" House and the "people's" Senate were deemed irrelevant. War became the prerogative of the President only, and our primary response to world problems. Commander-in-Chief of the military became Commander-in-Chief of everybody. Ambitious "world domination," a hidden cause of 9/11, was to be solved by more "world domination." Protest, advocated and honored by our forefathers, was labeled unpatriotic. "Freedom of the press" was changed to an "embedded" press with information provided by the government. Reagan's "government is the problem" proved to be true under the Bush Administration.

Eight years later, 1/20/2009, another younger man will swear to "uphold the Constitution" of the people. The millions of "people" campaigning for him and his reaching out to "the people" through his transition team offer the "Audacity to Hope."

Van Jones, another young African American man, in a recent New Yorker story stated "Not only is Barack Obama not going to be able to save you – you are going to have to save Barack Obama." The sharks of greed, dominance, imperialism and state violence are circling. Only "the people" can make it possible for Obama to lead "the people."

Forty plus years ago, as I was beginning my political activism, I read a book by Virgil Blum, a Marquette University professor. His message still resonates. Paraphrasing him, he states, "If you are going to demand something from politicians (your government) you've got to lay the groundwork to make it possible for him or her to fulfill your demands." "We the people" have been invited back into the "government of the people." Can we carry out the responsibility this time?