Obama, community politics and hope

OK, so I know it’s not the fashionable thing at the moment to be talking too highly of Barack Obama- I’m supposed to be criticising him in some way about his implementation of policy, or gaffes in the media, or something- but I’ve just finished reading his autobiography, Dreams from my Father, and I have to say that it’s left me feeling inspired.

What’s inspired me is not the fact that he’s the first black US president, although I did find his honest reflections on coming to terms with his identity refreshing. What I liked most is that his background is not in big, party politics, but in grassroots community activism. The prominent theme in the book for me was the importance of politics catering for the needs of real people, and the ongoing determination to maintain hope and work to make things better.

One of the problems, in my view, with making policy is that in the abstract something can seem like the right thing to do- but it’s the (really important) role of a politician to ask questions about how exactly a policy will impact on individuals and communities- a house is actually a home for a real person, a hospital is important when it’s the one you need right now, job creation is important for people struggling to pay their electricity bills. That’s not to say that politicians have an excuse to avoid difficult decisions, but they do have a very different role to civil servants in recognising the impact of policies on the people they represent.

So I am pleased that we have a US president who has experience of local, community campaigning. Someone who previously worked on small campaigns to improve specific issues important to a group of people, and who knows what it’s like to try to mobilise people around a local campaign.

Of course, having this experience does not automatically transfer into good, nation-wide policy-making, and Obama has a big challenge to instigate change. But I find it reassuring at least that he knows something about what life is like in the ‘real world’- something that has to help in making realistic policy. And that he has a mindset of hope for the future- that things can change to improve everyone’s lives.