Barack Obama's message is one of change. Part of that vision of change is in the way we look at each other politically. Now, I'm a died in the wool Democrat, but I come from a family of Republicans. I pastor a church that is composed of Democrats yes, but also Republicans. Although the parties often have different visions of the common good, ultimately it is the common good that should have our attention.
Barack Obama's message of reconciliation -- one that like any campaign can get of track at times -- has touched a lot of people, in both parties and among Independents as well. Some call him naive, others even un-American, but historian Joseph Ellis says that Obama has caught the spirit of the Founders. Partisanship was contrary to the vision of the Founders -- even when like Jefferson they were founding parties. Parties might have some necessity, but they were less than the ideal.
The watchword for all the founders was not "the people" but "the public," which they understood to mean the collective interest of the citizenry, more enduring than the popular opinion of fleeting majorities. The great evil, they all agreed, was "faction," which meant narrow-minded interest groups that abandoned the public in favor of their own sectarian agendas, or played demagogue politics with issues in order to confuse the electorate.
Take, for example, two of the classic texts of the founding era. Here is how Madison begins Federalist No. 10: "Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control faction," which he goes on to describe as "this dangerous vice."
Consider that Obama is being raked over the coals for his statements about Reagan, but his favorite person to quote is the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln also, looking to the Founders but the "Public" and the Common Good above party.
Whether Obama perfectly embodies the ideal is beside the point. What is most important is to understand that he has put the ideal back in front of us. I am a man of the party, but like Obama I believe that the common good of the public must be our prime concern. And ultimately it is a public that includes not just America, but the globe!
Hear then one final appeal from historian Joseph Ellis:
Let the argument about the viability and practicality of Obama's major message go forward. But as it does, even his critics need to acknowledge that he is not a weird historical aberration. His message has roots in our deepest political traditions. Indeed, it is in accord with the most heartfelt and cherished version of our original intentions as a people and a nation.
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