The triumph of idealism

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a Hollywood classic from 1939 about Jefferson Smith, an idealistic (though naïve) Washington outsider who becomes senator through a series of improbable events. Smith is excited by the idea of marching into Washington with nothing more than a goofy message of change. Instead, he is disgusted by its deep-rooted corruption. After “the establishment” tries to dismiss the young senator, he delivers an impassioned appeal against corruption — and eventually defeats the dirty politicians against all odds. Hollywood loved the story because it was so unlikely, so detached from reality.

Can you guess where this is heading?

His name is Barack Hussein Obama. Born the son of a Muslim from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, with no political connections, a middle-class background and a funny name, he is the world’s US president for at least the next four years. Never in anyone’s wildest dreams did they expect this to happen. Not in 1939 when moviegoers were captivated by the movie because it represented a distant ideal. Not even four years ago, when apathy and hopelessness led George Bush to be elected.

Barack Obama loved talking about “the cynics” throughout his campaign. But the truth was that we were all cynics at some point, inching towards believing as Obama won state after state in the primaries against Hillary Clinton. And then on November 4, 2008, the last cynics caved in. We could no longer rationalize his likely defeat with a belief that racist America would reveal itself at the elections. President Obama proved us wrong with nothing more than a couple silly speeches about hope.

The English language doesn’t have a word to describe what happens when idealism turns into reality (at least not one that I can think of). It never needed one: never before in history has something so unprecedented, so surreal happened to warrant such a word until now.

The cynics — or the public, for that matter — had every reason to believe what they did. American politics has always been an exclusive club with the most rigid membership requirements in the world. Washington was an impregnable fortress full of white men. But 2008 offered America a slight opening, a crack on the White House edifice that gave the most unlikely, idealistic candidate a remote chance at winning.

And so he did.

This year was a perfect storm for the Republicans: banks were collapsing in the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression coupled with arguably the worst president in US history. Worst of all, they chose Sarah Palin. Barack Obama wouldn’t have won the elections if its events were any less depressing. There’s no doubt that choosing Obama was a gamble, and that Hillary Clinton would have been a much safer candidate. But Obama is a lucky man. He’s lived an enchanted life more implausible than Mr. Smith’s.

He first got noticed with his memoir, Dreams From My Father, in 1995. He was writing as the son of a white woman and a black man (not a future presidential candidate). It was before he entered politics.

When he did two years later, he first became a state legislator, a foot soldier in American politics. He served in the Illinois state senate until some genius thought about having this kid do the keynote address in the Democratic National Convention of 2004. His passionate speech became the highlight of a campaign for a boring white guy (John Kerry, who proceeded to lose the elections). Through his speech (available on YouTube), Barack Obama became a national celebrity overnight. Though it would have been a stretch to imagine him as president four years later.

From there, this once-obscure politician became the Democratic Senator from Illinois. Then, after 143 days in office, he thought it would be a good idea to run for President of the United States.

You couldn’t be blamed for being cynical. How could a young, black kid with a funny name, no experience and no political connections suddenly decide to run for president and expect to win? He seemed delusional, thinking that big speeches and a sincere if naïve message of change could defeat something called “the establishment.”

Politics is full of Don Quixotes, though: noble people who lay down their professional careers to enter public service with the wind against their sails and armed only with good intentions of making the world a better place. Except that Obama was different. Unlike them, he somehow succeeded.

Over the next two years, he defeated the two greatest forces in American politics. First it was the Clintons, state by state. And then the man, who was once an underdog, became the Democrat’s presidential nominee. To close the deal, he crushed the Republicans — along with hundreds of years of racial prejudice, the conservative right and well-entrenched white men once collectively referred to by hopeless activists (like Obama once was) as “the establishment.” He has now become that “establishment.” Nothing in the history books can explain how Barack Obama did it.

So I guess he beat history, too.

And it gets more and more impressive. Only confirming his fans’ belief in his principles and integrity, Barack Obama stuck to his guns all throughout this negative campaign. He never abandoned that idealism that made him a different kind of politician.

When the Republicans went from calling Obama a “celebrity” to a “terrorist,” from “anti-American” to “communist,” Barack Obama remained unflinchingly idealistic. He never called John McCain a 72-year-old fart. Nor did he call Sarah Palin stupid. Maybe the public did; but not Obama! He believed in the values of good, clean campaigning and keeping the focus on the actual issues, refusing to make this a “big campaign about small things.”

Rhetoric aside, Obama’s policies are equally idealistic.

He stresses the need for international cooperation, instead of throwing the UN aside like the Bush administration. Differing from Clinton and McCain, Obama believes in the use of “soft power” and diplomacy instead of military force by stating that he would be willing to talk to hostile states such as Iran, Syria and North Korea. He opposed the Iraq War from the beginning. And of course, he promised to stop all American torture and close down Bush’s illegal prison in Guantanamo Bay.

All of these policies amount to a friendlier, less-domineering America that trusts the international community. This suits Obama, who already is America’s most beloved president abroad. His domestic policies are equally romantic: fighting the “haves,” empowering the “have-nots,” and building wind energy farms along the way.

It’s amazing that this man — a Harvard intellectual — was somehow elected to become America’s president. To the many who’ve been skeptical about democracy, believing that it would only produce corrupt, incompetent leaders: here is your evidence to the contrary.

In an alternatereality (the more likely one), Barack Obama would be one of those third party, Don Quixote candidates who never stood a chance. He would still be the same mixed-racial man with a silly message of hope and a Harvard degree. As an idealistic intellectual, he’d be lost in all this sea of politicking. He would have watched from the sidelines while the same old politicians, John McCain and Hillary Clinton fought for the presidency — neither of them as qualified as Barack Obama, but more likely candidates anyway.

So you’ve got to applaud America. As a result of a series of improbable, the unlikeliest (but also the best) has become the US president who we will spend the next few years with.

President Barack Hussein Obama. This is the man who will go down in history as the idealist who succeeded. Barack Obama is a man who not only decided one day to pack his bags and move to Washington to save his country (at least in the romanticized version of his life); not only ran on some of the most ambitious — even radical — policies in US presidential history; not only remained chivalrous in the darkest hours of this negative campaign — but also succeeded by doing so.

Obama’s presidential victory has become idealism’s greatest triumph in history not because it was exceptional or a fluke. To the contrary, Obama’s shocking victory has shown the world that idealism can succeed. To the cynics, now is the time to change.

We may not have the word to describe the act of idealism transforming into reality, but maybe Barack Obama will inspire Merriam-Webster to add one this year. He has given the world a real underdog story on an epic scale. Obama recounts in his autobiography that 15 years ago, he was broke and for a time had to sleep on the streets. Eight years ago, he wasn’t even allowed entry into the Democratic National Convention. Look how far he’s come.

Barack Obama has set the bar for the seemingly hopeless but principled idealists in subsequent generations. Perhaps this idealist’s greatest legacy is the hope that we can have more like him.

But maybe I’m just an impressionable kid. I probably am, and contrary to my romanticized view of Barack Obama, he probably isn’t that great. Maybe, as you read this, he’s off consulting lobbyists and selling his soul to big corporations. Or maybe his once incorruptible spirit will soon be corrupted.

But what’s the use of being a cynic? Whether Barack Obama is a myth or not, a little idealism never hurt anyone (except maybe John McCain).