Authentic Discontent
January 22, 2008
The Democratic debate held on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would probably have made Dr. King cringe a bit. Of course he would be very happy to see that the country has progressed to the point of having both a woman and a black man on the platform. This is major growth from the days of all candidates looking (and frequently sounding) alike. This is what Dr. King pushed for and as a country, we seem to be ready for both the woman and the black candidate.
But what we must move beyond is the constant bickering and mud slinging that goes on between candidates. Evidently, the tension between the woman (Hillary Clinton) and the black man (Barack Obama) is quite thick.
Both candidates offer us change. One offers change from the usual white male contender to a white woman contender. The other offers change from an established way of doing things to a methodology that offers to engage the people at the grass roots level in a more meaningful way. They both showed their authenticity during the debate. What came across most clearly is the authentic discontent they have with each other. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in South Carolina.
The more they bickered, the more John Edwards saw an opportunity to advance his position. And out of the three, Edwards was the authentic voice of reason. He brought the debate back to the questions of how to meet the objectives of health care, economic improvement and the many other issues that face our nation.
So while we have come a long way in our acceptance of candidates that look and speak differently than those who have gone before them, we still haven’t risen above the process that fosters discontent and brings out the worst in the contenders. If we continue to stress the importance of authenticity in this race, it is critical that the candidates maintain their effort to reveal their authentic selves.
Or perhaps they just did.
