Hope Doesn’t Pay?
This is, of course, the message of the Clinton campaign. Hope doesn’t pay for $3/gallon gas, hope doesn’t pay for medical bills, hope doesn’t pay overdue mortgages, hope doesn’t fill the prescriptions at the drug store, hope doesn’t pay. Bill Clinton restated this again at a campaign stop where he appealed to supporters for — you guessed it — hope.
Hope that supporters would vote and attend the caucus Tuesday night, hope that Hillary could hold onto her candidacy via the Alamo, hope that her message would resonate with voters.
This, from the man who came from the “town called Hope”. How sad that ambition springs so eternal that the Clinton campaign would be nothing more than a massive effort to tell voters in this nation that the status quo is all that matters, hope is dead, and screw all the people sacrificing time, effort, money and talent to get that hope message heard, because what really matters is ‘experience’.
Another irony coming out of the Clinton campaign: 16 years ago, a little-known governor from Hope, AK was challenging another Democratic party stalwart for the nomination, and ultimately framed his entire candidacy and election around…hope.
At the turn of this century, those hopes had been dashed by the Whitewater investigation, the constant rumors and leaks about womanizing and the final blow of seeing my hopes impeached on the floor of the House of Representatives. The real hope-killer was Bill Clinton, who forgot he had enemies waiting for DNA on a blue dress.
But then, there’s the work of his foundation, the good work. And inside of that work is hope. It gives hope, endeavors to improve lives. Out of that hope, Bill Clinton’s reputation began to be rehabilitated (at least, with me), until this campaign, when once again, the selfish strategy is to dash the hopes of millions to give his wife the opportunity to restore the Clinton name to the White House. This too, is a hope. A hope predicated on the destruction of others’ hope, born out of arrogance.
Having Hillary Clinton appear on Saturday Night Live and reverse-whine about press bias, hearing her scold me for daring to hope, watching her try to hijack the “grass-roots movement” which can only be attributed to the hard work of others, is certainly enough to confound hope. It’s a dissonance, a minor chord in a major opus. There is the sense of unreality, as though the true goal is to force voters to make a commitment to hope or despair. Which of us wants despair?
The video I posted earlier really is the answer to the Clinton mantra of hopelessness. The Obama campaign is not about what HE can do alone, but about what WE can do together. Consider this: Over 1 million donors in 2008. Over 1 million phone calls made to Ohio and Texas by volunteers, before the big phone party that just began a few minutes ago. A goal of 1 million doors canvassed by March 4th. Do you suppose those 1 million donors, callers, canvassers are hopeless? Do you suppose that when they hang up the phone, make their donation, walk another block their ownership ends?
Of course not. Because for us (yes, I am one of them), the hope isn’t that Barack Obama will fix everything. That’s Hillary’s message. No, the hope is that WE will be what WE hope for. That WE will be heard. That WE will be permitted to take action, to mobilize, to create the change we all hope for. That my veteran son without a home of his own will have a future where he can hope, where there is opportunity, where he isn’t wondering where his next dollar will come from, where the only opportunity is a minimum-wage job at Blockbuster. He doesn’t want a hope-killer, he wants a hopemongerer. He’s looking for opportunity, and maybe a little bit of recognition for his military job well-done.
Hillary Clinton’s message is a hypocritical one, because she doesn’t really want to kill hope. She just wants it to be hope in her, placed in a cynical, selfish way. The kind of hope where we hope Republicans don’t shred what’s left of her character in an effort to block her election. The kind of hope where she triangulates in order to move the bar milli-inches forward. The kind of hope where white is black, up is down, down is up, and everything spins differently depending on the press cycle. That kind.
If today measured tomorrow, there would be no reason to hope. If yesterday measured tomorrow, there would be no reason to hope. What the Clintons don’t understand is that there is no anointing here. There are no entitlements, not even to nominations. They can’t kill hope and expect to raise hopes. They can’t ‘get real’ and ask us to imagine — hope for — a time where healthcare will be available to everyone, where education is reformed, where THEY do it all for US.
What they miss is this: We really ARE what we hope for. Not THEM. Not HIM. US. That New American Majority who clearly understands what sacrifice means, because we are already sacrificing our time, resources and energy toward an investment in our ability to reframe the future in a brighter, better way. If we’re making this sacrifice now, we’re willing to do it later, long after President Obama takes office, it’s because we understand that hope isn’t just emotion and pretty thoughts. Hope energizes, spurs action, mobilizes and inspires individuals to understand what it means to participate — indeed, to OWN — instead of standing idly by.
That’s bigger than the Clinton ‘hope is dead’ message or the McCain ‘be afraid’ message. It’s the same resolve that put men on the moon. It’s the same resolve that brings a candidate to the fore who is the unlikeliest candidate in the history of this nation and it’s the same resolve that will put him in the White House along with a mandate for that change we all hope for. The manifestation of hope is action — positive action which proves hope DOES pay.
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