Conservatives quite reasonably feel some antipathy toward Barack Obama, but his convention speech Wednesday night contained elements conservatives should applaud and from which modern “progressives” should learn.
Obama made his remarks before a mural of the U.S. Constitution, rooted his remarks in that Constitution, and emphasized that change should and could occur within this excellent system and with reverence for “this country that we love.” This stands in stark contrast to the tenor of today’s race-baiters and rioters, and their elected Democratic enablers, whose message is that America is almost irredeemably racist, with the whole system so corrupt that it must be bypassed, including, perhaps, with violence.
The modern Left’s message is radical and revolutionary, whereas Obama’s words, while quite liberal, remain evolutionary. Although conservatives profoundly disagree with Obama about the nature of desired changes, we should be grateful that, at least by the standards of today’s progressives, the former president is stylistically and tactically a somewhat moderating influence.
Obama introduced his remarks with a paean of sorts to the Constitution.
“Embedded in this document,” he said, “was a North Star that would guide future generations; a system of representative government, a democracy, through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who’d once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal, and more free.”
The U.S. president, he said, should be “the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for.”
Obama said democracy “requires an active and informed citizenry. So I am also asking you to believe in your own ability, to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.”
After Obama unleashed a litany of how the system had not worked perfectly, he still lauded those who “joined together and said somehow, someway, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life … [Because,] for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.”
The message: The constitutional system ultimately works, and its processes must be embraced as the legitimate way to enable change.
In contrast, the leftist vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris used her speech to laud progressives for “taking to the streets” — even after 11 weeks of riots and violence. Radicals such as Harris can’t accept that the point has been made and that the time is now to leave the streets in peace and work within the constitutional system. Without any sense of responsibility to urge that protests remain both lawful and peaceful, Harris has said “Everyone: Beware” because the protests “are not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they are not going to stop after … They are not going to let up, and they should not.”
Beware, indeed. This inability to calibrate a situation, this insistence that justice requires an extralegal and ongoing “counterforce” (her word) outside the constitutional system, should be anathema to people concerned with the safety of our neighborhoods. It is dangerous.
For all his leftist policies, Obama at least says the system itself is admirable, worthy of fealty. Change should come via ballots, not through the actions of a mob. Politicians who encourage mobs should be nowhere near the White House.
