The audacity of hope

OK, I am a liberal—more pink than red if you want to know the truth. It is important for you to know this because it colours how I see the world and why I feel the way I do about the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States.

I will be watching the inauguration today and I will no doubt cry as I did the night Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech in Battery Park. I cried, not because he is the first black man to become president, although that is important, but because of what his inauguration stands for: Hope.

You see I’d almost given up on the country whose ideals I cherish so much. I am not an American, if that is what you are thinking. I am a Canadian, and a very proud one at that. But I have been fascinated by the United States ever since I was a child.  Initially I was captivated by its power, then its purported values—democracy, truth, and freedom, to name only a few.  Later, as I grew older, I learned about the Vietnam War, Watergate and the death squads in Latin America. Despite these atrocities, however, I still held out hope that the country that had intrigued me so much would find its way back to the mythic values its founders held so dear. My persistence seemed to be validated by the election of Bill Clinton in 1990. No doubt you have an idea where I am going with this. One word: Monica! Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Both him and me, in case you are wondering.

Needless to say, my ideas about the United States changed and I became a skeptic. I understood why George Bush was elected in 2000 and again in 2004. I did not like it but I understood it. Then came the Iraq War, the “Patriot Act,” Abu Ghraib and a host of other domestic and international civil rights violations that we are only beginning to grasp. And with each new revelation my skepticism turned to revulsion.

Initially, I watched the 2008 campaign from a distance. Yes, I had an obligation to my students to understand it, to teach it, but my gaze was coloured by disdain, suspicion, and indifference. Sure it would mean something if Hilary Clinton became the first woman president. But would anything really change? I doubted it.

As the campaign wore on and Barak Obama began to challenge Clinton I began to take notice first of the man and then his spirit and determination. Again and again he talked of “hope.” He challenged the American people to believe again. And over the course of two years they did. And I have to confess, so did I. I was scared, sure. I did not and do not, want to be disappointed again. I mean can anyone really live up to the expectations that have been set for the new president? Apparently thousands of people think so.

Recently The New York Times ran a story in which its editors asked 200 Americans to detail their expectations for his administration. The answers ran the gamut from fixing the economy and the environment. Securing universal health care. Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Closing Guantanamo. Finding a way to secure peace between the Arabs and Israelis and in doing so re-establish America’s international reputation. 

Domestically he is being asked to restore civil liberties, cut military spending, increase grants to the scientific community, while at the same time ending its politicization. He is also expected to raise student bursaries, fix the transportation system, increase both border security and immigration, support choice and end pay inequality. And if this was not he enough he has been asked to accomplish this by governing with integrity and upholding the ideals of the constitution, which apparently includes bi-partisanship. No wonder he titled his 2006 memoir The Audacity of Hope.

Nevertheless, despite the insanity of it all, I will watch the new president not with skepticism but with hope. I only ask, as did one woman who took part in the Times survey, please don’t let us down… Please…. But when you do, and there is no doubt you will, let us have the strength to give you a second chance.

Sarah-Jane Corke is an assistant professor with the Department of History. Her research interests include 20th century American history, U.S. foreign relations, intelligence history and 20th century American intellectual and cultural history.