Voting Is Society's Most Important Civil Ritual

By Charles W. Sydnor Jr.

I voted early Nov. 4 in Saltville, Va. Going in, I noticed an elderly gentleman, shabbily dressed, feeble and barely able to walk, assisted into the polls by family members. The image was a reminder that, on this day, the will and weight of the poorest and weakest among us carries the force and power of equality that, in a simple act, neutralizes in perfect balance the influence and advantage of the richest and most privileged in our midst.

Voting is the most important ritual in the civic liturgy of the Republic, our great secular political order that itself is part of the larger, older miracle of free government, freely chosen by a free people. Sometimes, but not always, the ritual keeps faith with the miracle. On those occasions when people vote after arming themselves with the power of knowledge, that power, according to James Madison, alone guarantees liberty and forever will govern ignorance. 

In past elections, ignorance,

half-truths, rank fabrications and chicaneries foisted by the politically unscrupulous have propelled into high office men of dubious character and fitness. 

That was not the case in the last election. In fact, I believe Barack Obama is a leader in whom the portents of greatness reside – a public figure whose life is a self-conscious response to the beckoning of destiny, a man who may redeem the Republic from the depths of our malaise as Lincoln and FDR did in the two previous comparable catharses. 

Obama, as Gen. Colin Powell noted, is a transformational figure in American history. Here’s why.

First, Obama has thought deeply about the most serious problems facing the country. With the assistance of wise and good men and women of differing political persuasions, he has developed thoughtful and sensible proposals with which to try to solve these problems: the war in Iraq; the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan; the dilemmas of al-Qaeda, Iran and North Korea; our relations with our old, traditional allies, and with the newly emergent states of Eastern Europe; the current financial crisis; the national mess in health care; America’s energy and environmental issues; and the crumbling national infrastructure that threatens literally to collapse beneath our systems of transportation, communications and sanitation.

Second, he speaks with a natural eloquence that inspires and energizes those of open mind who listen. The syntax, cadences, orotund phrases in his mastery of the language, and the pitch and tones of his soaring deliveries are not only reminiscent of John F. Kennedy, but also recall the eloquence of the two greatest leaders of the last century – Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

In the bilious twaddle spewed by the McCain campaign, Obama was actually demonized, denigrated and mocked for his eloquence, as if it were a liability, a disability or a personal character flaw. This was the worst of the calumnies spread by Republican smear and fear advocates. Natural eloquence is the outward and visible sign of inner and superior thinking – of powerful reasoning transformed into coherent, moving verbiage, of character and conviction translated into elevated, discursive prose, investing lofty ideas with the luster they deserve. 

Is it any accident that our worst presidents have been our most muddled, inarticulate, and even incoherent speakers? Has anyone ever read an inspiring volume filled with the great speeches of Warren G. Harding? Calvin Coolidge? Herbert Hoover? Richard Nixon? Or the second George Bush?  If so, please guide me to the citations so I can begin reading! 

Is it any accident that the greatest leaders in the Western democracies almost invariably have been great orators?

The malevolent and low-minded fear and detest eloquence because it is the sure sign of the warm-hearted and high-minded, and because the figure who is eloquent invariably has something to say.

Third, Obama took seriously the responsibility of judging on merit and ability the most important qualities in a running mate. Whether you like Joe Biden or despise him, his knowledge of international affairs and the politics of the differing regions of the world is unsurpassed in the American political arena. How could any group except cynical hypocrites champion McCain’s running mate, Gov. Youbetcha, as qualified by experience and intellect to step in and become president? Inarticulate, unlearned, unable to name a single newspaper she reads, unfamiliar with any world beyond moose killing and snowmobiling, and repeatedly unable to describe or define the job to which she wanted us to elect her, our best hope is now realized since she’s gone back to Alaska to bully librarians, intimidate teachers and ruin the public service careers of Alaskans who incur her ire. This is where she already has unquestioned experience.

Finally, I voted for Obama precisely because the McCain campaign was filled with smears that were the sheerest humbug and rankest tommyrot. There never was a “Straightalk Express,” only a “Huffing, Puffing No Mes-sage Local” that struggled out of the station jammed with a Washington gaggle of corrupt politicians (former Sen. Phil Gramm), charlatans (Karl Rove’s goons from Bush’s previous campaigns), tainted lobbyists and assorted Republican hucksters and hangers-on, crowding every available space like refugee trains filmed in old newsreels. These were people who would do and say anything to win an election, people from the last eight years who cynically ripped up the Constitution and shredded the Bill of Rights, and who then wanted the public to believe that things would be different under the “Maverick” John McCain!

This effrontery, in the most inelegant metaphor of the campaign, is truly the lipstick on the pig. To such a nadir has come the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, with the ranks of its Old Guard riddled with corruption and sexual scandal, and only the vacuous Gov. Youbetcha to offer us for the future after spending 14 years wrecking our economy and nearly ruining our stature and standing in the world.

If I live long enough, I hope one day to tell my grandson that I recognized the emergence of redemptive greatness in an American leader. That I responded to his message, armed myself with a knowledge of the issues, and did what I knew to be more deeply right than anything I could recall in my adult life: that I voted for Barack Obama, and that in so doing, I kept faith with the miracle.

Charles W. Sydnor Jr. lives in Saltville, Va., and is the retired president of Emory & Henry College and the former chief executive officer of Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corp. in Richmond.