Senator Kennedy's legacy should remind activists about reality.

Thursday, 08. 27. 2009  –  by Janice

Champion of moral courage: Ted Kennedy

The death of Senator Ted Kennedy and the touching memorials I have seen on television remind me of the moral courage that America has seen from of the Kennedy family. Following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Sen. Kennedy was always willing to express unique and unpopular opinions, including healthcare reform. In the past 24 hours we have been reminded over and over that healthcare reform was something that Sen. Kennedy believed in and promoted for a large portion of his career yet did not live to see realized.

Sen. Kennedy fought tirelessly for decades to reform healthcare and refused to give up his vision. However, Obama is a mere month and a half into campaigning for his healthcare plan, and many progressives have pre-maturely thrown their hands in the air and stopped supporting him.

On Monday, British journalist Michael Tomasky published a poignant article titled “Change is tough. So liberals can’t just leave it to Obama.” Tomasky, seemingly exasperated by the disillusionment of so-called American liberals, reminds those who supported Obama’s election that it is far too early to be throwing in the towel on someone who has been in office only a few months.

Although I am sure many people subconsciously realize it, Tomasky points out that, assuming Obama spends eight years in office (and I assume he will), we are only eight percent into his tenure.

Tomasky reminds young American liberals about the reality of the social movements that we love to idealize. The Civil Rights Movement did not begin with Rosa Parks and end with the first civil rights bill. In fact it was a struggle that took over a decade and began long before Rosa Parks and lasted long after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

I shudder to think what would have happened if civil rights activists had had the same level of endurance I am seeing out of young American liberals today.

I think that Obama’s election should have instilled in this generation greater self-confidence. If we can get this unconventional candidate elected, why can’t we do many other things, including reform healthcare, end the war, bring about drug reform, and many others?

After all, those of us who campaigned for him shouted the phrase “yes We can!” not, “yes HE can.”

Moral Courage Project defines moral courage as the ability to speak truth to power, especially to your own community and always for the sake of a greater good. Senator Kennedy fought for the greater good, so did his brothers. Sen. Kennedy envisioned an America without a working poor. He saw an America where healthcare is seen as a right. Obama shares many of the same goals, with civil liberties as his guiding principal.

I think our President is on to something, even an entire eight months after the Inauguration. I think it is a vision worth signing on to for the long fun.

Many of Obama’s supporters are so young that they don’t really understand the political process. I hope that instead of giving up and being indifferent for the next seven and a half years that young people will get involved, for it is an exciting, but highly participatory process.

Tomasky's final message to American progressives: “This is what movements do – they do the hard, slow work of winning political battles and changing public opinion over time. It isn't fun. It isn't something Will.i.am is going to make a clever and moving video about, and it offers precious few moments for YouTube. It takes years, which is a bummer, in a political culture that measures success and failure by the hour. The end of euphoria should lead not to disillusionment, but to seriousness of purpose.”

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