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• Saturday, February 23, 2008 05:06 AM

  Such cynics!

  I don't believe Obama is the Second Coming (or the First Coming, for my Jewish friends out there), but his methods are certainly different than what we have seen in a while.

  Reagan utilized a somewhat similar message, but even before he became President, it was clear that his style of governance was very different than what Obama has done at the local and federal levels. Obama is a different creature than anything we've seen, a Meyers-Briggs Idealist with powerful leadership abilities and a male leader who embraces the feminine characteristics of unity, open-mindedness, and compromise. As Ellen Goodman hinted at in the Boston Globe this week, Obama may be our first female president, more so than Hillary.

  I suspect that Obama, upon taking office, will encounter as much, if not more resistance from the entrenched left as the right, as each side subscribes to their own form of rabid fundamentalism (queue Ralph Nader in the wings!). I cannot imagine he will make major inroads with many of these people in Congress, as they depend on their hardened and inflexible ideologies to keep donor dollars coming in from an activist base.

  But what is truly astounding are the throngs in the middle - slightly to the left, and slightly to the right - who have felt empowered to act, and register, and vote this year. I have seen so many people who were formerly disconnected showing up at caucuses and participating that it has all but literally blown my mind.

  We see vast throngs of those who gave up on politics giving them a second chance and participating in our great democracy again. Even more incredible is the level of interest from the Millennials, a giant of a demographic only just now able to participate in the process.

  I am empowered this year, and am agitating for change in my community and my church following the realization that I MATTER. And it's having an effect. Others, too long cowed by activists, are doing the same.

  My point? I suspect that many local contests in the next several years will have similar overtones to the national race. This year, no matter who wins the Presidency, is a harbinger of things to come. The old-school radicals will be a hard army to defeat, but a vast activated middle, united by renewed energy and disgust, can eventually defeat them. All we have to do is organize and vote. It's not really that hard.

  —Jay Bee Read Jay Bee's other letters
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