Unity diaries. Everywhere you look, someone's exhorting us to put this whole ugly episode behind us and get to work electing our party's nominee. They have a point. There's no use holding on to anger against Clinton or Obama supporters for things their comrades said in the heat of battle. "Put it all down," as the Buddhists say, or, in Christian terms, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."
But "Let's put this behind us," too easily morphs into "Let's pretend this ever happened," and in our eagerness to forgive small offenses, we risk glossing over serious ethical failures. That may bring us something vaguely resembling unity, but not to the kind of unity we need, not the kind of unity Obama has been talking about.
That kind of unity doesn't come from closing our eyes to our differences, but from facing them honestly. It comes not by pretending we're not still hurt and angry about thoughtless words and unwarrented attacks, but by using those lingering memories as reminder to avoid doing the same to others. We won't achieve unity by ignoring the fact that just days ago we were supporting different candidates, but by employing the unique strengths our different experiences have given us for the good of us all.
Veteran Obama supporters know a lot about our candidate and why he'll make a great president, and can share that accumulated knowledge with the newcomers, and help them to become better informed and more enthusiastic advocates. Veteran Clinton supporters know what our candidate and campaign looks like from the outside and why even people of good will might not vote for him. If they can trust us to exercise some discretion about who we label "concern trolls", they can provide some important insight into what it will take to win over undecideds in the fall.
That's a lot harder than just putting on blinders and singing 'Kumbaya'. If we're going profit from our differences, we'll need to talk about them without shouting about them, and that's not easy in the blogosphere.
During his MLK Weekend speech at Ebenezer, Obama talked about unity and what it takes to achieve it:
The changes that are needed are not just a matter of tinkering at the edges, and they will not come if politicians simply tell us what we want to hear. All of us will be called upon to make some sacrifice. None of us will be exempt from responsibility. We will have to fight to fix our schools, but we will also have to challenge ourselves to be better parents. We will have to confront the biases in our criminal justice system, but we will also have to acknowledge the deep-seated violence that still resides in our own communities and marshal the will to break its grip.
That is how we will bring about the change we seek. That is how Dr. King led this country through the wilderness. He did it with words - words that he spoke not just to the children of slaves, but the children of slave owners. Words that inspired not just black but also white; not just the Christian but the Jew; not just the Southerner but also the Northerner.
He led with words, but he also led with deeds. He also led by example. He led by marching and going to jail and suffering threats and being away from his family. He led by taking a stand against a war, knowing full well that it would diminish his popularity. He led by challenging our economic structures, understanding that it would cause discomfort. Dr. King understood that unity cannot be won on the cheap; that we would have to earn it through great effort and determination.
That is the unity - the hard-earned unity - that we need right now. It is that effort, and that determination, that can transform blind optimism into hope - the hope to imagine, and work for, and fight for what seemed impossible before.
What do you say folks? Obama is committed to achieving hard-earned unity for the nation. The least we can do is put in the extra work we'll need to bring it to dKos.