Obamamania

I seem to have seen Barack Obama everywhere lately. NY Times, on the cover of various magazines, on "Meet the Press" this morning. Caught up in the swirl of life, Iraq looming somewhere remotely in my consciousness, vaguely aware of the possible changing of power in Congress coming up (like, who cares?), I'm somewhat distantly cognizant of politics and our civic discourse lately. No matter where I turn, it all seems the same. I read the paper daily... I skip it a couple of days, I come back to it in a week or so. It's all the same. Scandal there, something pornographic in either pop culture or our politicians daily. A murder somewhere, a school shooting. Deaths in Iraq. Nuclear weapons. I swear. It's like Groundhog Day, every day, all year. Politicians seem to babble about the same thing. Abortion. Minimum wage. Terror. Medicare. Welfare. Immigration. The same stuff that was being debated in my college dorms ten years ago.

So, there was something kind of refreshing in listening to Mr. Obama on TV these last couple days or reading a bit about him in the papers or leafing through his new book, "The Audacity of Hope" in the book store. Dunno quite what it is. It's not because I believe in the same stuff he does. Actually, I'm not really sure what this two-year senator from Illinois even believes in. It's not that he's multiracial or younger or from Harvard. It's not even that he's articulate.

I think what struck me most was an observation that he relayed first in the pages of his book and more recently illuminated in interviews on TV. Namely, and I paraphrase, that so many of our current debates... the debates between the Clintons and the Bushes, the liberals and conservatives, the right-to-lifers and pro-choicers... so many of these debates seem like replays of the 60s. So many of the theoretical constructs seem mired in the well-trodden logic of four decades ago. Very little of that logic resonates with my generation, "Generation X". So much of it centers around the "Baby Boomers". Like much of everything that goes on in this country, be it Social Security or the war, at the heart of the demographic appeal is the Baby Boomer generation.

Yet, I believe that so many in the country, young and old alike, seek something past the ideology of prior years. So many of us I think are "post-ideological". Globalization, trade, outsourcing, China, terror, global warming... these issues seem outside of the tired and worn-out roles of Democratic, Republican and Green Party hacks. Obama stated that he felt people nowadays were not just searching for the "center", but in reality, were searching for "pragmatism". Whether it's the market economy or government regulation, entrepreneurs or social workers solving problems or whatever, what we need in this century is a more practical, problem-oriented approach to the huge issues of the world. Climate Change, Terror, the Role of Big Government, Trade, Religious Fervor, Population Growth, Health Care... and on and on. There are so many big problems facing this country and the world. With the growth and dissemination of knowledge and power on the Internet and globally, it just isn't up for a chosen few individuals or nations to solve the problems of our day.

I don't know if Barack Obama would make a good leader. I hope so. His rhetoric is pretty good so far. But, we've been down these paths before. Rather, I think what appeals to me is the sense I get from listening to him that maybe, just maybe, a new generation is on the cusp of taking power. A generation that is focused more on finding real solutions to problems, across ideology. A generation that grew up in the shadow of our somewhat self-indulgent Baby Boomer parents and our selfless "Greatest Generation" grandparents. A generation that is maybe a little less ideological. That is respectful of marriage as well as homosexuality and "alternative lifestyles", that is religious, but also tolerant. That is socially conscious, but entrepreneurial and trusting of capitalism to a certain extent. A generation that is willing to consider all possible solutions to all imaginable problems.

Maybe that's just the dreaming Progressive in me.