Dr. King's Memory

This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I wonder what advice Dr. King would have for President Obama right now.  Obama's speech two years ago on MLK Day was one of the main reasons I became a volunteer for him.  The parallels are obvious, but looking back on that 2008 speech in Atlanta, I am reminded again of this passage:

The Scripture tells us that we are judged not just by word, but by deed. And if we are to truly bring about the unity that is so crucial in this time, we must find it within ourselves to act on what we know; to understand that living up to this country's ideals and its possibilities will require great effort and resources; sacrifice and stamina.

And that is what is at stake in the great political debate we are having today. The changes that are needed are not just a matter of tinkering at the edges, and they will not come if politicians simply tell us what we want to hear. All of us will be called upon to make some sacrifice. None of us will be exempt from responsibility. We will have to fight to fix our schools, but we will also have to challenge ourselves to be better parents. We will have to confront the biases in our criminal justice system, but we will also have to acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities and marshal the will to break its grip.

That is how we will bring about the change we seek. That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words - words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white; not just the Christian but the Jew; not just the Southerner but also the Northerner.

He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap; that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination.

A year into Obama's presidency, and there are those of us have already given up on Obama.  They say "Mr. President, your deeds have yet to match your words.  You still tinker around those edges and refuse to make the sweeping changes that the times demand.  You're functionally no different than the last man to hold the office."

(More after the jump...)




And I laugh.  Really.  Because I know in the African-American community, we knew Obama wasn't going to solve the country's problems in one year, in four, or even eight.  We're just happy to finally have a shot at making a sizable dent in them.  We understand that the struggle just to get to this point where an African-American is president took the entire history of the United States Of America to accomplish.  When a woman is elected President of this country eventually, the same will apply.  It's the long haul, not the short-term.

Change does not happen overnight.  It only happens when you demand it and move change forward.  We all agree that change is needed, but if you give up on it, it will never happen.  In a world of instant gratification, there are still many who understand the real struggle is simply moving the ball forward, morning after morning, week after week.

We would do well to remember that.  All of us.  Move it forward, one day at a time. Only then does the overwhelming momentum that does lead to sweeping change form.

Sacrifice and stamina.

[UPDATE 8:46 AM]  On the other hand, E.J. Dionne has a decent counter-argument for those disillusioned with the President.

But the success of the conservative narrative ought to trouble liberals and the Obama administration. The president has had to "own" the economic catastrophe much earlier than he should have. Most Americans understand that the mess we are in started before Obama got to the White House. Yet many, especially political independents, are upset that the government has had to spend so much and that things have not turned around as fast as they had hoped.

It's also striking that most conservatives, through a method that might be called the audacity of audacity, have acted as if absolutely nothing went wrong with their economic theories. They speak and act as if they had nothing to do with the large deficits they now bemoan and say we will all be saved if only we return to the very policies that should already be discredited.

The Obama administration and Democrats in Congress have made the argument why Republican conservatism is wrong (that's why they won in 2008) but they have not made the point clear as to why Democratic liberalism is better.  This is why they are hurting in 2010.  I understand that it's moving the ball forward.  Not everybody does.

The GOP has seized the argument and offered the solution that more competent, more strict conservatism is the solution.  Democrats are not countering this well so far.