Commentary: The Age of Anxiety and Rebirth of Wonder

August 20th, 2008 Tony Robinson Posted in Barack Obama, Commentary |

We are living in low and cynical days. Polls show that 70% of Americans feel the country is on the wrong track, only 1/3 believe their children will have a better quality of life than they do, the majority of people say that government doesn’t care about them. In the midst of these dark and cynical days, Denver kicks off its festivals of Democracy in less than a week.

It’s not really about Obama. “People don’t come to Obama for what he’s done,” says Bruce Reed, president of the Democratic Leadership Council. “They come because of what they hope he could be.”

What they hope he can be is a deeply longed for break from the tyranny of the past. So many pasts to break from –the past where neither a woman nor a man of color could ever dream of becoming president. The past where young people and their ideals lay dormant, ignored, ineffective. The eternal past of American cowboy diplomacy and arrogant empire. The devastating past of 2004.

Yes, 2004. For much of the left, some of the darkest storm clouds do not date to 2000, when Bush was elected in a fluke and when (after all) Gore had actually beaten Bush by over a 1 million votes—but to 2004, when voters knew who George W. Bush truly was—and still re-elected him.

I can recall shocked and depressed days after the 2004 election, when I wandered as a ghost in my own country—stunned by en electorate that cited anxiety over family values and gay marriage among their top reasons for voting for Bush. Who were these voters so filled with cultural anxiety? I know that I felt lonely among them, a bit like a foreigner in a nation of strangers.

But in less than a week, something audacious will unfold in Denver, as the left of all stripes gathers to say goodbye to all that. In very real ways, the Denver convention will represent a rebirth of hope, a celebration of possibilities, both in the street and in the convention. Street-demonstrations like the Festival of Democracy and its public art and giant puppets will mix with an immigrant rights march and an anti-war march—and all will propose a transformational new politics while repudiating the dark days of the last eight years. Green demonstrations, anti-war demonstrations, feminist forums and a march of the Hillary Clinton delegates—all will thrive only if there is a spirit of possibility and hope that tomorrow’s American can look fundamentally different than yesterday’s.

It just that spirit of possibility and transformation that is reflected in a slate of Democratic delegates that will be the youngest in history (16% under 29) the most diverse in history (with a rapidly growing Latino population), and have the most openly gay members. It is that spirit of possibility that will shake the community of Denver as the left of all stripes take to the streets in hope and demand for fundamental change. As these voters turn out in Denver and turn American politics upside down, we should all take a deep breath with poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and wonder if the election this year will somehow be an answer to his perpetual wait. “I am waiting for the age of anxiety to drop dead”, Ferlinghetti said, “and I am perpetually awaiting a rebirth of wonder…”

On August 25, 2008, we all take a great inhale and wait with Ferlinghetti. On November 4, 2008, we learn if our national exhale is a deeply longed for break from the tyranny of the past or yet another comfortable, and all-too familiar, cynical whimper.

KGNU’s national politics analyst, Tony Robinson, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Denver. You can find more at http://mypoliticscampaignblog.wordpress.com/