Obama: The Hope, the Dream, the Democracy of Merit

“They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams. That’s what drew our forebears here. It’s how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America’s largest automaker, how the son of a barkeep is speaker of the House, how the son of a single mom can be president of the greatest nation on Earth.”

There are many passages in Barack Obama’s State of the Union address that would be read with the exact attention that a vision merits, put forth to overcome the gap created by years of unregulated capitalism, which is risking bringing to its knees the true strength of this country that the media ranks represent as hard-working, patient, strong and unshakeable in its faith in the American dream.

There are many passages — like that on the shame that women’s low salaries as compared to men’s represent or on the necessity to resolve the situation between Israel and the “free Palestinian state,” on the urgency of passing an important immigration law in a country where immigrants are what makes it unique and definitely richer, not just economically — that remind us of the difference between a leader who has put politics, as the country’s well-being, at the top of his ethical and political duties and those who use their profession to acquire personal powers and privileges.

However, that passage, the one with which I open this post, is that of the hope and essence on which the grandeur of this country is based and the certainty that will never crumble. A country whose president asks it to respect and make more space for dreams — not those that we dream with lost or distracted eyes, but those that we build through work and determination: “Nothing [in life] that’s worth anything is easy.” That passage is the only thing Italy is missing in order to straighten out its core. The hope, the dream, a democracy based on merit. “Not a life based on an accident of birth.”

Obama closed his speech by saying, “Believe it.” There is not a stronger word that the leader of a great power could use without running the risk of sounding ridiculous. Obama got a standing ovation because America knows and it can believe.