The Two Stories of America on Display in This Election

The Two Stories of America on Display in This Election Mar 14, 2016 17:57:39 GMT -6

Post by sheshe on Mar 14, 2016 17:57:39 GMT -6

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As President Obama said, to retreat into tribalism at this moment is dangerous. While the forces of a changing America and increasing globalization are unsettling and challenging, it is a recipe for disaster to simply identify with those who think/look like ourselves and draw battle lines with those who don't. The goal is not to assume we can all agree with each other on everything - but to be able to see and value the humanity of those with whom we don't.

As Jon Favreau wrote recently: "Every election is a competition between two stories about America." Right now, one of those stories is about tribalism - the need to "take our country back" to a mythological day when a lot of white people assume that things were better. That story rests on demonizing, expelling and/or punishing those who are blamed for the changes that we don't like.

The other story is the one President Obama is talking about...the potential we have to expand our moral imagination. That is not some ideal that humans are incapable of reaching. We see people do it every day. And it is old enough to be embedded in every major religion as something resembling the Golden Rule: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Here is how Barack Obama spelled it out in his speech back in 2004 that brought him into the national spotlight.

A belief that we are connected as one people. If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandmother. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It's that fundamental belief - I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper - that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family. "E pluribus unum." Out of many, one

The story of this election isn't so much about the fact that people are angry - it is what we chose to do with that anger. Do we retreat into tribalism in the face of these challenges or do we work to expand our moral imagination?