Today, we mark an incredible moment in the history of the world. I suppose one could see in this comment the hubris against which I have railed in prior postings, so let me explain. Despite our many shortcomings – and they are indeed many – I firmly believe that the United States of America is a critical experiment for humanity. Here we have endeavored very deliberately to walk a path toward a new vision of democratic government and a novel form of society.
In its pure form, this experiment embraces the Enlightenment (and Biblical) concept of radical egalitarianism – “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The words of the Declaration of Independence embrace a philosophy of government that is the perfect form to which we aspire, a form that we have seldom, if ever, attained in practice.
Among our most egregious and offensive shortcomings is racial inequality. It has always been difficult for me to fathom how those who wrote and affirmed the words of the Declaration had so little trouble accepting and participating in slavery. It has been equally difficult to grasp how an entire nation could take so many years to undo this terrible evil and wipe its stain from the fabric of our guilty nation.
To be sure, the election of Barack Obama and his swearing in today as the 44th President of the United States does not, in itself, wash us clean. It does, nonetheless, restore a great measure of hope for our nation. In many ways, we hope to recommit ourselves to a government aspiring to the equality of all, the very aspiration that has eluded us for so long. But as President Obama has famously said, “In the unlikely story that is America , there has never been anything false about hope.”
Returning to my initial assertion regarding the magnitude of this day, it is rooted in this hope and in my belief that if we cannot succeed in this multi-century venture to achieve a truly just form of government, then no one can. I don’t believe this to be true because we are a “chosen” people or nation. Nor do I believe that we are in most ways special or exceptional on this earth.
We are, however, different in a couple of important respects. First, Americans are self-selected. We owe our nationality, at least in a foundational sense, not to ethnicity, birth, religious affiliation, race, class or any of the other commonalities that form the basis of membership in most other nations. Second, we self-select on the basis of a commitment to the founding principles of government that I cited from the Declaration of Independence. We are united not by blood or land or treasure, but by a common faith, not in God per se, but in freedom, justice and equality.
Again, I do not here intend to reflect the reality of experience in our country today or at any other time in our history. I am not starry-eyed about our political or economic systems as they have existed for nearly 233 years. I write instead today about the mythic forms that constitute our deepest vision of ourselves, forms that I believe we have the possibility of being born again through the presidency of Barack Obama. If we succeed in making those forms more real, then today will indeed represent an important day in the history of the world, not just our nation.
We have little time to celebrate, however, as the reality of experience of America in the world today requires aggressive action to address the many crises we face. Among the challenges President Obama must take on immediately is the remaking of U.S. foreign policy. I will look at how we can begin to repair the damage done by successive regimes in additional postings this month. While our power is undoubtedly diminished, I believe we can recover our position of leadership in the world and help bring about a new era of U.S. preeminence, if not dominance, in the global political system.
In its pure form, this experiment embraces the Enlightenment (and Biblical) concept of radical egalitarianism – “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The words of the Declaration of Independence embrace a philosophy of government that is the perfect form to which we aspire, a form that we have seldom, if ever, attained in practice.
Among our most egregious and offensive shortcomings is racial inequality. It has always been difficult for me to fathom how those who wrote and affirmed the words of the Declaration had so little trouble accepting and participating in slavery. It has been equally difficult to grasp how an entire nation could take so many years to undo this terrible evil and wipe its stain from the fabric of our guilty nation.
To be sure, the election of Barack Obama and his swearing in today as the 44th President of the United States does not, in itself, wash us clean. It does, nonetheless, restore a great measure of hope for our nation. In many ways, we hope to recommit ourselves to a government aspiring to the equality of all, the very aspiration that has eluded us for so long. But as President Obama has famously said, “In the unlikely story that is America , there has never been anything false about hope.”
Returning to my initial assertion regarding the magnitude of this day, it is rooted in this hope and in my belief that if we cannot succeed in this multi-century venture to achieve a truly just form of government, then no one can. I don’t believe this to be true because we are a “chosen” people or nation. Nor do I believe that we are in most ways special or exceptional on this earth.
We are, however, different in a couple of important respects. First, Americans are self-selected. We owe our nationality, at least in a foundational sense, not to ethnicity, birth, religious affiliation, race, class or any of the other commonalities that form the basis of membership in most other nations. Second, we self-select on the basis of a commitment to the founding principles of government that I cited from the Declaration of Independence. We are united not by blood or land or treasure, but by a common faith, not in God per se, but in freedom, justice and equality.
Again, I do not here intend to reflect the reality of experience in our country today or at any other time in our history. I am not starry-eyed about our political or economic systems as they have existed for nearly 233 years. I write instead today about the mythic forms that constitute our deepest vision of ourselves, forms that I believe we have the possibility of being born again through the presidency of Barack Obama. If we succeed in making those forms more real, then today will indeed represent an important day in the history of the world, not just our nation.
We have little time to celebrate, however, as the reality of experience of America in the world today requires aggressive action to address the many crises we face. Among the challenges President Obama must take on immediately is the remaking of U.S. foreign policy. I will look at how we can begin to repair the damage done by successive regimes in additional postings this month. While our power is undoubtedly diminished, I believe we can recover our position of leadership in the world and help bring about a new era of U.S. preeminence, if not dominance, in the global political system.
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