Hope

I'm a pragmatist at heart. I'm skeptical of movements, "revolutions," and any attempts at "change" that are grounded outside of the political process. I am not saying they don't exist. Martin Luther King Jr. changed America with protestors, speeches, and no political office. Almost no leaders in modern America have the talents that King had. Even if they do, the odds are more likely they fail than that they achieve. I can point at a lot more LBJ's and Teddy Roosevelts than MLK's. Most change comes from within the process, and that requires sometimes painful compromise. That's not easy. It's not always nice. It's almost never popular. It does make peoples' lives better.

In 2008, I was not a support of President Obama's until he was the nominee. He wasn't in my top three choices in the Democratic Primary, in fact (for the record, my order of preference in the beginning of 2008 was Dodd, Biden, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, Richardson). I found his "hope and change" message to be pie-in-the-sky, something I thought had no grounding in reality. He not only won me over in that election, he eventually has become someone I admire now and think has done an excellent job. President Obama has shown that he can both inspire and get in the trenches to get things done. At the time though, I definitely preferred Hillary Clinton's "LBJ" to President Obama's "JFK."

Fast forward eight years, to a new election. Bernie Sanders is now the candidate of the activist left. He's attracting huge crowds, even bigger than President Obama's 2008 crowds at this point. He's inspiring youth to want to vote for him. He's speaking what many progressives feel is truth to power. He's also calling for a "political revolution" in this country, one that takes on the entrenched power interests in this country. He's got stars like the Red Hot Chili Peppers endorsing him and throwing concerts to raise money for him. Bernie is the "change" candidate now. He is the "hope."

We're having this same fight again- Hillary's uninspiring realism vs. Bernie's version of the Obama "hope and change" tour. Bernie's offering you ice cream for breakfast, versus Hillary's "eat your peas and carrots." The truth is, there is no passion and energy for realism, for working within the system, for working to make incremental change, and Bernie seems to know that. There is also a very strong track record of realism being what gets the job done.

Unlike eight years ago, I'm a little older now, and a lot less emotionally invested into this race. The truth is, voting for realism is always smart- you know what you're getting, and you can honestly hold the candidate accountable to do it. Hillary Clinton should be expected to make the deals to get some of her priorities done. The other side of that coin is that people need hope. People need to feel something will change. They have to feel that their lives are going to be better. If they don't, what's the point? If Hillary could ever explain how her pragmatic view of the world will deliver that, she would have won the runaway nomination that we all thought she would. That's tough though. People don't want to eat their vegetables, they want their cake. If Hillary, or really anyone else for that matter, were capable of selling pragmatism as great change, they would have done it by now. Since they can't, you're left with a battle between cold realism and dreams and hopes.

My guess is that Hillary will eventually win the Democratic nomination for President. Pragmatism actually usually wins. President Obama is one of the few times where the inspirational, transformational candidate beat the realist. There are a lot more Howard Deans, Bill Bradleys, and Eugene McCarthys in our history than Barack Obamas. President Obama even acknowledges now that he did not change American politics. To be totally fair to him, he made incredible change that helps peoples lives. He changed our health care system, our banking system, our energy system, our foreign policy, and many other areas of our lives. He did that though through pragmatism and inside ball. Yes, he kept Organizing for Action open, and his volunteer army played a huge part. That still doesn't explain how he passed his Stimulus bill.

Hope is critical. Inspiration is key. To the extent that Hillary Clinton eventually figures that out, it will determine if she can win the Presidency. Her ability to rise above the clouds and give people a reason to be excited will be what ultimately makes her the winner, or not. In the end though, I return to my 2008 self and say it again- hope doesn't make change by itself.