Thoughts on South Carolina, Anger and Partisanship
Posted by Shadi Hamid
Wow, I can't remember the last time I saw something like that. Obama's victory speech was pitch-perfect, hitting all the right notes. It was inspiring, commanding, and gracious. A friend just emailed me. She normally doesn't get too excited about Democrats (or Republicans), but I was hearing something different from her, talking about Obama's win:
[We] were nearly in tears from laughing with joy, jumping up and down, and doing little dances about it.
And why not? Is there a precedent for this? I don't understand how there's a debate about whether Clinton or Obama is more electable. I realize that the polls don't give a clear advantage to one candidate or the other in a matchup against McCain. But let's look at the anecdotal evidence. Even Republicans (who write for the National Review no less) are gushing about Obama, particularly in light of his South Carolina speech on Saturday night. As much as they disagree with him on specific policies, they respect and admire the man. And that admiration will inevitably lead some conservatives to vote for Obama, and will bring new people into the process who have never cared about politics before, as it already has. Andrew Sullivan has already gone through the examples, but they're quite telling.
Let me say a word about partisanship. One of the knocks against Obama on the Left has been his purported willingness to concede points to Republicans. To an extent, I sympathize with this criticism, and I agree that it would be nice if Obama would show some more "fight" on key issues. (This is why I think Edwards has been a very impressive and effective candidate who, unfortunately, has been ignored by the media since Iowa). In any case, it's obvious - Obama doesn't seem to have much interest in waging partisan-ideological battles. There was a time when I might have thought this a weakness, particularly when it came time to face strong, ruthless opponents. Now I'm not so sure.
There was a time when I would feel an indescribable degree of anger toward Republicans. Anger over the destructive policies of the last 7 years is certainly justified, but anger should not be the driving force of politics. But I didn't think there was another way. We would have to fight fire with fire. We would have to match the Republicans and learn to play "dirty" if we wanted to win. No one wanted trench-warfare-politics, but was there a choice? In the past couple months, listening to Obama, that anger has begun to dissipate. There can be another way. When I read the Corner, I often feel like I'm paying a visit to an imaginary universe where there is no such thing as empirically-based truths. I don't get it. But the prospect of agreeing with Cornerites, especially Kathryn Jean Lopez, on something - even if it's just a speech - makes me feel good about the future of our country.
It's a tempting story to believe in, but I don't want our system to be healed, I want good ideas implemented. I know what the other side will do to stop that from happening and I don't trust that Obama has enough fight in him to stop them. Beyond that, I don't believe that partisanship is really such a huge problem. I just don't. The system isn't broken and we're