Speeches don’t solve our problems, but if we can’t inspire people to believe again it doesn’t matter how many policies we have.
~~ Barack Obama ~~
The above quote was Barack Obama’s response to Hillary Clinton’s criticism that speeches don’t solve problems, and it certainly is true. A true and successful leader needs to have both - the ability to inspire people and the fortitude to devise and follow policies for the common good.
You may be able to fool the people for a while with good speeches but if you don’t deliver results, the same people will turn against you, and rightly so. And if you have good policies but you can’t convince people and get them inspired and involved, it’ll become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to successfully implement those policies.
A leader possessing such qualities is hard to come by. Everybody makes grand speeches but very few deliver results. That’s why only a few leaders become popular and are remembered a long time after they are gone while most others are forgotten as soon as they exit the scene.
This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. This is the new American majority.
~~ Barack Obama ~~
Barack Obama is certainly making the change happen from bottom up in America. Starting as the underdog, lately he has won many decisive electoral victories and is now ahead of Hillary Clinton, in committed delegate count, in Democratic party’s nomination process for the president. Even though he has a long way to go before actually getting nominated, he is an excellent example of what one can accomplish by dreaming big and working towards your dream. I don’t think many people took him seriously when he entered the race for the president. After all, he didn’t have much experience in Washington.
Now the possibility exists that Barack Obama, a black man, may actually become the president of USA. It also shows that average American voter (at least those belonging to the Democratic party) is not concerned about the color of a presidential candidate but rather they care about as to what a candidate has to offer and how he or she is going to solve the problems facing the nation. That is exactly the way it should be.
In any case, the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has become very interesting, with no clear winner. Time will tell if Barack Obama can keep his ‘from the bottom up’ change happening. I think that either one of them will make a great president. It may be in their interest that whoever wins the nomination for the president chooses the other as the running mate for vice-president.
We should be more modest in our belief that we can impose democracy on a country through military force. In the past, it has been movements for freedom from within tyrannical regimes that have led to flourishing democracies; movements that continue today. This doesn’t mean abandoning our values and ideals; wherever we can, it’s in our interest to help foster democracy through the diplomatic and economic resources at our disposal. But even as we provide such help, we should be clear that the institutions of democracy – free markets, a free press, a strong civil society – cannot be built overnight, and they cannot be built at the end of a barrel of a gun.
~~ Barack Obama ~~
This is a very true and factual quote. Democracy is not something you can build overnight. While sometimes it may be possible to impose democracy on a country through military force, such an imposed democracy is unlikely to be successful unless a vast majority of the people of that country are convinced that the democratic form of government is in their best interests. In a true democracy, the willing participation of the people and their firm belief in the institutions of democracy is essential. And that can not be achieved through the barrel of a gun.
The best way to propagate democracy in any country is to educate and convince the people of that country the benefits of democracy; a task easier said than done. Probably a bit faster and more productive way to promote democracy may be to apply gentle political and economic pressure to convince the rulers of the autocratic countries to move towards democracy. Again, very slow and not an easy process but certainly much less expensive and less disruptive than flexing military muscle.
