Why I Support Barack Obama

Back in December, at a Chanukah party, I was explaining to a friend's parent that I would be spending the first week of the new year (including my birthday) in New Hampshire, canvassing for Barack Obama ahead of the January 8th primary. My parents--who, for better or for worse, normally will fund whatever I want to do--told me I'd have to pay my way to get there. So up to NH I went with 50 New Yorkers, in vans of ten people each, headed toward a Red Roof Inn to share a room with three strangers. At the time, I didn't really know the specific reason why I was going, but I knew that I needed to go; I couldn't exactly formulate my reasons to this friend's dad, and I clearly couldn't convince my mom, who told me to find my own $250 to canvass for Obama in two feet snow during my vacation.

But, by the time our van dropped us off at 34th street and 8th avenue, one day after Barack's primary loss and a day after entering my third decade, I realized I knew why I went, but, until now, I never put my thought process into words:

We are at a critical juncture at a critical time. Any election is important, but the winner of the 2008 election will have a unique opportunity to either continue the policies of the current administration--which have failed us and the world--or to reshape and reform the United States' role in the world for the better. We have a chance to begin to make amends for the past eight years and to begin to move the country forward in a more positive direction.

The direction in which the Democrats want to take the country is quite clear. From Iraq to healthcare to climate change, the Democrats vying for the '08 nomination have long agreed about what we must do in 2009. But this time, it's not just about the issues. If it were, then we could well be getting ready to see who Joe Biden or Bill Richardson will pick as their vice presidential candidate.

This year, it's about the issues plus some. And that "some" is what is critically important. That "some" is what makes Barack Obama different. He has the ability to mobilize young Americans who've never cared about politics before, to make people proud of what their country stands for, to bring together Americans who thought they shared little in common other than a flag, and to show the world that, when we speak of progress, we actually mean it.

Sometimes it's easy to forget the democratic ideals that define America. To honor those ideals, we must include those people young and old; black, white, Asian, and Latino; rich and poor; Christian, Muslim and, Jewish; and, of course, Republican and Democrat. In a splintering country stumbling to lead a splintering world, now is the time for unification, and Barack Obama is the only man (or woman) who can truly unite us all.

More than 4,000 American families' final sights of their children were in caskets coming off a plane from Baghdad. Nearly 100,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. 47 million Americans' don't have health insurance. Our economy is in shambles. Politicians have cited these numbers repeatedly, but how many of them can actually mobilize our society to care to do something about them and maybe, just maybe, get something done without leaving out or ignoring large parts of the population?

Barack's message of hope has been bashed by the left and right as idealistic, empty rhetoric. But without hope, without the ability to envision a better country and a better world, we can never expect to improve; we'd simply be running in place, accomplishing very little and digging ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole without a bottom in sight. With such hope and with such dreams, we have a unique opportunity to escape that hole; if we fail to act now, who knows what may happen in the next eight years. But with a man of integrity and good judgment, honesty and intelligence like Barack Obama running for president, I feel a lot safer putting my trust in Barack Obama.

It's 3 AM and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing.

I know who I want answering that call.