I’m not going to lie—I was feeling very blah and culturally peckish for weeks, and then this speech sucked me back into everything. Watching the last five minutes of it, I felt like my veins had been electrified. This is a good development for our country and my party within it—idealists used to run America, you know? We were built on big thoughts and bigger ambitions, myths and heroes (and ok, also money, and hubris, and inequality, etc..). We’ve been a hyperbolic and pie in the sky nation from the beginning. But these days, wild idealism seems rare and fragile, and I’m so glad that it’s come back into fashion and discourse with this candidate. If we are capable of picking a dreamer over an icy moderate for the nomination, we might yet be capable of a great many things I had put past us. Obama is not the perfect candidate, but he represents everything that this country doesn’t project right now—innovation, eloquence, bravery, patience, compassion. He is the right man for the job. Not that I need to be out here stumping, but I really believe that to be true, and it’s given me this whole new jolt of energy.
I know this is a bit mawkish and honeycombed on the issue-but I am excited to be out of the funk I was in for a month. And last night was a long time coming.
