Mr President, I am very pleased to say that you have let me down. When I started this blog, I did so out of disappointment, frustration and disgust at the standard and tone of public discourse. I did not expect to be so quickly knocked back on my heels by an impressive statement by a politician. Even though that statement, utlimately, leads one to lament the quality of political leaders we have here in our country.
If you haven’t read it yet, Barack Obama’s victory speech makes some very interesting reading, especially to an Australian audience. While Obama spoke in English, the language is foreign to us. Foreign because we here in the wide-brown land have become accustomed to a negative and pernicious style of politicking. Of course, an American presidential campaign is about as vicious a political dog-fight as can be imagined. But, on Tuesday night, I heard Obama do something that I cannot recall an Australian politician doing ... ever. He appealed directly and meaningfully to the angels of our better nature.
“We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America open to the dreams of an immigrant’s daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag...,” he said. The contrast with the tone of commentary from some of the political leadership in Australia around issues like gay marriage and asylum seekers is stark and saddening. It is at the point now in this country that it is actually disconcerting to hear a political leader speak of generosity, compassion and hope. Such language would provoke a cynical response in us. We have been trained to forego humanism in favour of selfishness. Australian audiences do not ask: what kind of country do I want to live in? They ask: what’s the impact on my wallet? This is our measure of leadership. Politics has become a contest of who can keep us most comfortable by turning back the boats of change and challenge. May the best man win.
Compare for a moment the depth and positivity of Obama’s message with a recent speech by Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu to his party’s State Conference:
We came to government facing enormous challenges. I think everybody in this room understands that. First of all, the economic challenges we’ve seen from the international scene in Europe and America, almost economic earthquakes in their own right. Secondly, the continuing economic and political uncertainty that’s unravelling from Canberra and continues to, and that’s about leadership; it’s about taxes, whether it’s the mining tax, the carbon tax or withholding taxes; whether it’s about policy, uncertainty about occupational health and safety, education, healthcare, the NDIS; whether it’s about the Federal Budget deficit or mounting federal debt; whether it’s about relationships with the states, unfair and uncertain GST and national partnership arrangements; and whether it’s about dud deals that the Commonwealth’s done, including the Rudd health reforms. There has been abiding uncertainty.
Perhaps explaining his reputation as a “do nothing” leader, we see that in Baillieu’s world view fear, uncertainty and doubt reign supreme. The speech goes on (and on and on) to discuss the woes of construction costs, the status of specific government projects, intra-government relations and, of course, the failings of the Opposition. The language is bureaucratic. The vision does not extend beyond disconnected projects and promises. The values are economic, rather than human. But this is not just Baillieu’s narrative, it is the prevailing political narrative in this country.
The brave genius in Obama’s speech lays not in his appeal to our “warm and fuzzy” sides, but in his invocation of mutual obligation. That long forgotten notion (in Australia at least) that everyone must give something back for something they get. In Australia, we have been told that we are “battlers” or “working families” and, therefore, entitled to our middle-class welfare. Obama, however, reminds Americans: “The role of citizens in our democracy does not end with your vote ... This country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations, so that the freedom which so many Americans have fought and died for comes with responsibilities as well as rights...”
A society based on compassion and tolerance, where citizens embrace their responsibilities to each other and the greater good. While, as an outsider, we may cynically conclude that America is about a million miles from Obama’s vision, inspiration lays in the fact that there is a political leader who holds such a vision and is not afraid to articulate it. Let’s hope this bravery is contagious ... [fades to static]
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