Barack Obama and the New American Liberalism

The art of political speechwriting has seemed dead for so long that it is our automatic instinct to be skeptical when it seems to have arisen from its crypt. So it is especially welcome to see that Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois who went to Washington to such great acclaim, may have revived it. On June 4, at Knox College’s graduation in Obama’s home state, he gave a wonderful address that managed somehow to evoke three of the finest political speakers in the last twenty years: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Mario Cuomo. This is the sort of writing and speaking and thinking that might just be able to wake liberalism from is somnolence. (For the take of former Clinton speechwriter David Kusnet in The New Republic, see here.)

Obama explored themes that should be part of a new liberal century: A belief in America’s inherent greatness coupled with an awareness of our shortcomings; a belief that people and government can work together to improve all of our lives; a sense of shared burdens, rights, and responsibilities; a sense of the past linked with the present. But it was also a speech characterized by: a lack of vitriol and recrimination; an overarching sense of hope; an inspiration driven by a shared sense of what we are as Americans; humility, humor, and self-deprecation. It is far too early to label this young man with greatness; too many prematurely anointed such people have disappointed us profoundly. Nonetheless, if Barack Obama represents the future of liberalism, we will be in good hands.