Presenting Ordinary Americans

Originally published in The Forum, April 2008. This piece responds to “Can’t find candidate’s ‘ordinary people,’” a column by Editorial Page Editor Jack Zaleski in The Forum, Fargo, N.D. on April 6, 2008.

Introductions are obviously in order. Mr. Zaleski, allow me to present to you
several million ordinary Americans.

I mean “ordinary,” in the broad sense that Sen. Barack Obama is using the word. It encompasses many characteristics, does not require all of them to be present in every person, and defies narrow definition. It certainly does not, as you suggest, exclude the well educated, professionals or even those who make a lot of money.

I surmise that, for your April 6, column (Can’t find candidate’s ‘ordinary people’), you either could not resist the clever angle or found it difficult to build a substantive criticism of Obama’s positions. Either way, in this ordinary American’s view, your commentary was not constructive, instructive or otherwise useful.

For anyone who has paid attention to Obama over the past year, several things
are clear about his use of “ordinary.” Perhaps some contrast will help.

We ordinary Americans are not the privileged few who inherited millions from our elders and have never put in a hard day’s work. We are not executives with seven-figure salaries and extravagant perks. We are not part of oil companies that enjoy windfall profits while getting tax breaks. We do not lead businesses that get sweetheart contracts from the Administration through secretive, noncompetitive processes.

We are not lying CEOs who bilk people out of jobs and retirements, get a slap on the wrist and walk away with our ill-gotten riches intact. We are not elected officials who behave as if we are above the law. We certainly are not like the former New York governor; besides being unable to afford the $80,000, we wouldn’t go to a prostitute in the first place.

Now, some of what we ordinary Americans are.

We are hard-working couples who pay our taxes and are falling behind every day this Administration’s policies remain in effect. We are mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters have been sent off to a war initiated under false pretenses.

We are individuals working two and three jobs to pay the rent, who drive old cars and go without health insurance. We are elderly folks on fixed incomes who must choose between turning up the heat and buying bread. We are middle-income families who look down the road at escalating costs and wonder how we’ll send our children to college.

Many of us care about people first, regardless of cost. We worry about environmental degradation and the kind of world our kids will inherit. Some of us are Democrats, some Republicans, some Independents and some, unfortunately, do not pay attention to the political process.

We ordinary Americans are tired of commentary that detracts from our nation’s challenges and possible solutions. We could do without purposely divisive words that do nothing to elevate the level of discussion. We want the discussion to happen and to involve level-headed people who have the courage to put themselves and their ideas on the line.

There’s much more to us, of course, but you get the idea. Our ordinariness is, as you noted, complex, but Obama’s use of the term allows for – even encourages – the complexity.

One more thing. Most of us would not pull one word from the context of an entire campaign, hyper-focus on it and twist it to backhandedly criticize a candidate and undermine his proposals. No, that would be dishonest, misleading…downright low.

So, here we are, Jack, millions of ordinary Americans. Too bad we couldn’t meet under more ordinary circumstances.