The Obamas Still Believe in Hope

Words of uplift and promise for the future on a sunny day in Chicago

Once again, they had something to say to America. Barack and Michelle arrive for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images)

These days, amid the daily onslaught of outrages, we don’t have enough chances to relish well-spoken words of uplift. But on Thursday, at the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama offered quite a few reminders of the value of democracy and the foundational values that can sustain us as a society.

These were not just bromides meant to console us, but hard-earned insights derived from decades of dedicated work and a sober recognition of what happens when our country is led by careless people who abandon democracy and decency.

Allow me to share a handful of excerpts from an inspiring gathering that included four living presidents, four First Ladies and both Obama daughters. (Yes, that fifth president and his spouse were not invited to a day focused on democracy, optimism and uplift.)

Michelle Obama spoke after her husband, but I want to share a few of her words first. It’s increasingly clear that, as talented an orator as Barack is, he often plays second fiddle when it comes to engaging an audience.

Michelle took time to describe the diversity of people who they’ve embraced since Barack’s first years in office. She talked about how she hopes the new center “can capture the beauty of who we all are, no matter what we look like, or where we come from, or how much money we earn, or how we pray, or vote, or speak, or love.” And she described the danger of losing sight of this:

To refuse to respect the contributions and experiences of people who aren’t exactly like us, y’all, it puts us all at risk. Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope.

And once that slide starts, there’s no telling where it stops, a dangerous precedent that flies in the very face of our faith and of the founding promise of this democracy that all of us, all of us are created equal, that each of us is a child of God with an errant value. And no one, and I mean no one, has the right to sit in judgment of who’s American enough.

And then Michelle underscored how this insight makes clear our duty as Americans, a duty rooted in hope and a refusal to lose faith:

We simply don’t have the luxury or time to be cynical or complacent, to wring our hands in despair, to wait for someone else to fix the problem. Y’all, hope is all we have, because hope is the essential spark that lights the fire of change, but hope is a choice. Whether or not we use our voices to speak up is a choice. Voting is a choice. Being a decent human being is a choice. Believing that we still hold the power to build a country that reflects us all is a choice.

This same theme of hope could be heard in Barack’s message, even though he insisted that he hadn’t been allowed to read Michelle’s speech before she delivered it. “It’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying,” he said, then explained the risk of such thinking:

We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old-fashioned and boring and naive, that the very idea of working on behalf of the common good is a sucker’s bet, and that in order for us to win, somebody else has got to lose.

I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt, but I do know this: When we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters, and we give away our power to decide our own futures, we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups and some people as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies and keep those who are different in their place.

He reminded the audience that he’s been out of office nearly a decade. (It can be hard to remember those days when the White House was inhabited by good and decent, smart and loving people.) And yet, with all the misfortune that has beset our land since then, “I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end,” he said. To give in “to cynicism and division would be a betrayal of our founding ideals, a betrayal of our faith.”

His faith is not grounded in empty platitudes. He understands that the task of self-governance is a tall order. “Everybody’s got an opinion, and that means getting stuff done involves reconciling the demands of a couple of hundred million people,” he said. “Democracy can be frustrating. It can be slow. It can be inefficient.”

But then he cast “our shared responsibilities as citizens” in a set of shared values and beliefs “that make democracy possible.” These include a belief in:

• the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection.

• checks and balances in our government and an accountability that comes with an independent judiciary and a robust, free press.

• military and law enforcement [that] owe allegiance not to any president or political party but to the people and our Constitution.

• the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large, complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way 100% of the time.

• qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.

Amid our current predicament—with a dangerously demented White House occupant and a lawless, sycophantic regime that despises and seeks to destroy these essential beliefs—it’s reasonable to doubt the survival of these values and traditions.

But I agree with the Obamas that it’s critical to assert them—to remind each other not just what we are in danger of losing, but what we should collectively recognize are worth fighting to keep. That means working to ensure the better angels of our nature triumph.

“It is our greatest inheritance, the story of America at its best, because it reflects a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together,” America’s 44th president said on that bright, sunny day in Chicago.

He recalled his arrival in the city of broad shoulders to work as a community organizer, not knowing a soul, but inspired by the Civil Rights movement and the desire to make a difference.

And although I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to do that, I was possessed with this abiding faith that if we could give people more of a say in the forces that govern their lives, if we could bridge some of the differences that drove us apart, then we could build an America where everyone counts, and everyone has a fair shot, and everyone belongs, even a mixed race kid with a weird back story and a name nobody could pronounce.

Let’s not give up on this hopeful vision. The November midterms are in 134 days.

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