Obama's Big Speech on Race Tomorrow - Democratic Underground

NickMorgan

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Mon Mar-17-08 05:30 PM
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Obama's Big Speech on Race Tomorrow

Loyalty is a virtue and a vice. I can't tell you how dearly it cost me, in grade school, to stick with the New Kids on the Block well past their prime. Now I know better.

Right now everyone is listening. After Ferraro's PR fart and Wright's brimstone bit, and given the big possibility of a woman or a black man in the White House, everyone is keenly tuned in to the social justice issues at the very heart of the progressive mission, and not everyone is handling it well. Just have a look at the comments threads to Fox News stories about Wright and you'll get a glimpse of some of the hysterical fear and judgment people are feeling. This is a huge chance for the Democratic Party to step up and lead the nation forward, and not into spiraling contention, against the most deeply divisive forces in society.

I know there are Obama supporters and Clinton supporters in this community that are for or against Barack Obama so intensely that they already know how they will react to the speech Obama says he will give tomorrow in Philadelphia, in which he will address race and prejudice. They have already decided they don't believe anything Obama says, or they have already decided that everything Obama says is gold.

But I also know that many of my fellow Democrats, and many Independents and Republicans, no matter how passionately they support their candidate, realize now that we are facing something bigger than this nomination and bigger even than this presidential election. They realize that the call for peace and equality among all people in this nation is just as righteous now as it was when Lincoln freed the slaves, when women won the right to vote, and when Dr. King inspired the march for social justice.

We cannot wait for the Democratic Convention before uniting on matters so dear to the progressive vision. We cannot wait for super-delegates to tell us who will face McCain. We cannot afford to be fractured on civil rights when so much anger and confusion is boiling up, right now, and threatens to further divide the country on racial lines.

If Obama speaks well tomorrow -- if he faithfully captures and extends the core progressive message on social equality -- we absolutely must unite in supporting that message and the principles it stands on, even if we do not support the messenger. This is neither a time for enshrining Obama and launching vicious attacks at his detractors, nor a time for character attacks and cynicism. Both Obama and Clinton, and the great progressive leaders before them, are unconditionally committed to the principles of social equality. We should speak with one voice in commending any person -- Democrat, Republican, or otherwise -- who serves these principles, even if we don't want that person to be President.

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