The other day I was thinking about how Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. The first thing that came to mind was his iconic poster with his image and the word “HOPE.” That is what differentiated Obama from his Democratic party competitors, including the presumed 2008 nominee, Hillary Clinton, and a host of others, including Joe Biden. Obama may have scared the daylights out of some voters, but to the rest of us, he stood for the idea that America’s best days were ahead and that if we worked together, we could get there. “Yes, we can,” Obama told us. (Ironically, Bill Clinton’s campaign also featured “A Town Called Hope”…..)
Today we can argue about Obama’s record as president, but not about whether the theme of his campaign—hope—is different from anything today’s candidates* are running on. That is sad. and some people attribute the generally negative themes being offered by candidates of both parties, and of anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to the fact that today’s world is a troubled place these days.
Many of today’s candidates play the blame game. Trump and his ilk have developed an extensive list of people and things to blame for ruining America. They want to “take America back,” a phrase that I hear as “take America back from the Blacks, Gays, Democratic Socialists, Liberals, Undocumented Immigrants, Jews, and the rich, especially villains like George Soros. They claim their opponents’ actions as the reason for America’s decline. They offer nothing in the way of solutions other than fighting their opponents. Why has Donald Trump endorsed Jim Jordan (R-OH) for Speaker of the House of Representatives? “He’s a fighter.” I would have rather heard “problem solver” or “unifier.”
Some Democrats also play the blame game. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), for example, frequently vilifies corporations (sometimes with justification) for harming consumers.
The challenges facing America today are huge. At the top of the list—and something of paramount importance to those of us living on the Eastern Shore—is solving climate change. I want a candidate who, when asked if we can address climate change and reduce the existential risk that climate change represents answers “Yes, we can.”
Also of concern to America today are two wars that, a growing list of Republicans would like to just disappear. Those wars, of course, are Ukraine and Israel. The solution for most candidates is to sit the wars out. Let the chips fall where they may. Use the money to seal the southern border. Such an approach does not reflect hope, but hopelessness. Imagine if the U.S. had not aided Britain when Germany attacked it in World War II. Today, you might be reading this piece in German.
But the issue of U.S. engagement in Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and other places is not what our economic self-interest “requires,” but about keeping the candle of hope alive in the world. Putin and Hamas are engaging in war crimes and atrocities. They need to be stopped if freedom and democracy are going to have a chance. Can Putin be defeated in Ukraine? Yes, he can, but only if the U.S. has the vision to help.
The other day I made the mistake of talking politics with a Trump supporter. I wisely did more listening than talking. Knowing that I was going to write this column about hope, I wondered what the Trumper would tell me. Among other things, here is what I heard:
Shooting shoplifters is the only way to end the current epidemic that is forcing stores like Target to close stores.
The drug epidemic is the direct result of southern border immigrants smuggling in drugs. Like shoplifters, they need to be shot.
We need to “put gays back in their box,” which I understood to mean deny them basic civil rights.
Black people want to take over everything. That is why you cannot watch a TV commercial without seeing at least one Black person. Even worse, commercials are starting to include same-sex couples.
Public schools need to be closed to “stop the brainwashing.”
The FBI and Antifa planned and conducted the January 6 insurrection.
Socialists are pulling out all stops to “stop Trump” by prosecuting him.
Trump did nothing wrong and the four indictments, 91 felony charges, adverse judgment in the E. Jean Carroll case (which included the judge commenting that Trump raped Ms. Carroll in the 1970’s), and a determination that The Trump Organization engaged in rampant and brazen fraud are all lies.
He did nothing wrong and, incidentally, if Trump did anything wrong, his status as an ex-president or current presidential candidate gives him immunity from prosecution.
In listening to the Trumper’s Apostles Creed of hate, blame and despair, I noted that I did not hear a single word of hope. The Trumpers’ idea of hope is to eliminate Trump’s perceived enemies. Unfortunately, that includes about half the country.
I remain hopeful that hope is not dead. Can the American people give up the current orgy of hate and blame and start working for a brighter future? Yes, we can.
*President Biden offers an optimistic tone about the future by telling us that “We’re the United States of America, we can do anything.” I like his optimism, but it isn’t, at least to me, a campaign theme similar to that of Presidents Obama or Clinton.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and other subjects.
Cameron Mactavish says
Right on!
John Dean says
Thank you. I’m glad you agree. Thank you for reading the piece.
Richard Allison says
Well thought and presented. There is a lack of hope, but even more so a lack of confidence and responsibility stated by the curent campaigns. The Trumpers take no responsibility or imply any responsibility for the current challenges facing the country and/or the litanty of the “Trump Creed” as you so well state. On the other side of our way too rigid two party system, the confidence and responsibility is not articulated for solutions or the future. The Biden administration is doing good things and provides a road map for the challenges we face, but doesnot attribute and own our responsibility for the challenges, nor rpovide a “Can Do” confidence for solutions.
It is clear that where the American challenges derive from is the citizens own lack of foresight, complacency and hostorical perspective. When the American public accepted that the federal government copuld fix all the ills through social programs without regard to individual responsibility is when the constituents began to elect those that kept the social welfare paramount and continuing, the lack of personal responsibility became the norm. When the American public accepted the media as the arbitrator of mass opinion and truth rather than voicing their own opinion and seeking their own truth through civil discourse the “doomsayer and fake news” took hold. When immigration and higher census counts of people of color became greater than the caucasian status-quo, the “fear of the other” took root.
We as a society face challenges both real and existential. They can all be solved, but will require work, hope, perseverance and responsibility. The challenge of war is not an us vs. them or even a they vs. the others. It is about the rights we proclaim in our constitution and the despots, dictators, theocrats and oligarchs. We are the bastion of these rights and it is our national duty to see these are promulgated and protected within the bounds of each nations dignity and course. Climate change is not an enemy to be defeated, it is a condition with which we must co-exist and elvolve to survive through technology, lifestyle and economic changes. Immigration is not an enemy it is the life blood of our nation, without the immigrant there would be no United States. This country has weathered large scale (percentage by popultaion in different historical periods) immigration before, northerne european (18th century, Scots, Irish, English, Welsh, German etc…), Irish (19th Century) Italian and eastern european (late 19th and early 20th centtury), Asian (mid 20th century), middle eastern (late 20th century early 21st) Immigration is to be welcome, managed with a path to citizenship and accepted.
Thank-you again for such a well thought and written piece.
DonLd Singleton says
Too bad that Mr. Dean could not write his piece on hope without the dig at Senator Elizabeth Warren. In case he hasn’t noticed Many American corporations are out of control. Kudos to Senator Warren and her creation, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a bureau the Republicans who are not just squishy on white collar crime but are too often the benefactors, would love to eliminate. The CFPB has recovered millions of dollars for consumers. Full disclosure, I recently benefited from the CFPB which saw that a mega corporation, a bank, refunded monies that were owed me. We need more protection against corporate price gouging, deceit and other forms of perfidy, not less. Left up to the Republicans who think a criminal in the White House gave them license to steal one finds hope only in regulations well enforced.
John Dean says
Thank you for your comment. When I decided to mention Senator Warren, I knew I’d have someone angry with me.
I agree with you on the CFPB, but I don’t like Warren’s demeanor at Congressional hearings, where she is regularly over the line at vilifying banks. I’m all for better policing banks to protect consumers, but I do not believe corporate executives should be called criminals or that Senators should demand the resignation of CEOs.
I suspect you disagree with me and I’m okay with that. I understand the anger many people have with banks.
Wilson Dean says
Excellent article. We need more politicians who are willing to spell out a substantive set of policies that advance a positive agenda for this country. The country is exhibiting fatigue from the Trump/DeSantis/Jim Jordan crowd who scream at the top of their lungs against everything (and everyone) they hate but have no solid proposals to move this country forward.
I do not agree with all of the Biden Administration programs, but I heartily endorse their agenda as reflected in the Infrastructure law and related legislation that put people to work furthering such worthwhile efforts as internet for rural counties and combatting climate change destruction. We need more of this from our leaders at the federal, state, and local level.
John Dean says
Thank you for the comment. I enthusiastically support the Biden agenda on climate change. As always, thank you for reading the piece.
Paul Rybon says
Mr Dean should be made aware that he was not speaking with a true Trump supporter. Nor a MAGA supporter either. A true supporter would have brought up the gradual erosion of civil rights, as enumerated in the Constitutional Bill of Rights, as part of the conversation.
Suspension of civil rights is a tool of tyranny, most recently used against Hunter Biden as well as with Donald Trump and countless numbers of ordinary people ss well. I would submit that loss of basic freedoms tends to erode citizen confidence in their government even more than the bonehead economic or political decisions that it is often responsible for. Mr Dean needs to know that, next time he thinks he is talking to a Trump or Maga supporter.
John Dean says
Thanks for reading the piece. I’m not sure there is an “official” definition of either a MAGA or Trump supporter. The fellow I spoke with was definitely a Trump supporter (maybe a misguided one using your definition).
Also, I’m not sure Trump has been the victim of the suspension of his civil rights. I do know that he is facing 4 indictments involving 91 felony counts. Americans do not have a civil right against prosecution for crimes, State or federal.
I’m sure you do not agree with me, but thank you anyway for commenting.
Paul Rybon says
Thanks for your reply, Mr. Dean. The specific Bill of Rights suspensions for Biden that I was referring to was his 2nd on an unproven drug charge and the 4th, I think, for government perusal of his laptop as pretext for more investigations. Among the several instances of violations to Trump is the 1st for trying to shut him up. The fisa court proceedings that allows the government secret surveillance tech and increasing instances of IRS and bank surveillance that sometimes find their way into the news cycles are what I refer to.
With respect to the subject of your piece I would submit that a leading cause of despair among most Americans in today’s World is not the lack of messages of hope from our politicians but a fear of a surveillance state.