Realistically, it’s not at all fair to keep expecting Barack Obama to deliver stirring, powerful addresses. And yet, he keeps managing to exceed expectations.
It’s striking that there’s a universality to Obama’s message. He sees a nation at a crossroads here at home, but Obama also sees a world facing a turning point. When he says, “This is our time,” it works equally well in Boston as it does in Berlin. When he says, as he did today, “People of the world – look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one,” he’s talking to everyone.
Watching today, seeing Germans waving American flags and chanting, “Yes we can,” I thought about something Ezra Klein wrote in January: “Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.”
I had a similar reaction today.
“[T]he greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
“The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”
There were elements of the two famous U.S. speeches in Berlin — JFK’s and Reagan’s. Reagan talked about tearing down walls, and Obama identified new and old walls that “cannot stand.” Kennedy told people of the world, “Let them come to Berlin,” and Obama urged, “People of the world, look at Berlin.”
He spoke as an American who seemed anxious to have our nation rejoin the larger international community.
Obama didn’t apologize for America, but he did explain his vision of what makes America great, in case our friends abroad had forgotten.
“I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
“But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares. What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.
“Those are the aspirations that joined the fates of all nations in this city. Those aspirations are bigger than anything that drives us apart. It is because of those aspirations that the airlift began. It is because of those aspirations that all free people – everywhere – became citizens of Berlin. It is in pursuit of those aspirations that a new generation – our generation – must make our mark on history.
“People of Berlin – and people of the world – the scale of our challenge is great. The road ahead will be long. But I come before you to say that we are heirs to a struggle for freedom. We are a people of improbable hope. Let us build on our common history, and seize our common destiny, and once again engage in that noble struggle to bring justice and peace to our world.”
I was also struck by just how much ground Obama covered. Climate change, loose nukes, counter-terrorism, AIDS, poverty, free speech, religious liberty, Darfur, drug trafficking, rule of law — it was all in there.
I never know how people are going to react to speeches, but Obama’s speech struck me as a home run.
The whole speech is online, if you wanted to read it, but to fully appreciate it, try and find the video.
