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By the time President Barak Obama was inaugurated on January 20th 2009, there was one iconic image of him that had made him one of the most instantly recognised faces on the planet – as well as becoming the most powerful man on the planet. It was created by the street artist Shepherd Fairey; a simple portrait of Obama looking into the distant with the word ‘HOPE’ emblazoned in block caps. Other version had the words ‘CHANGE’ and ‘PROGRESS’ on them. The prints were not commissioned by the Obama election campaign but they might as well have been and in the process, have already become a classic in the art world.
When Moses inaugurated Aaron and his sons into the priesthood - the first of their kind to be so consecrated – there must have been a sense of anticipation amongst the Israelites. The priests would remain in the Tabernacle for seven days. Would they reappear? Would they be unharmed? Did God really elect them to share the burden with Moses? Can we wait that long before building another Golden Calf? The inauguration of Aaron and his sons ushered in a new era of reassurance that it would not only be a single man who would prosper in the refugee’s new reality but a whole people symbolised by the devolution of power from one to the many, even if they were from the same family. More leaders, more human contact with the Divine, Source of Survival, must certainly have been the ultimate insurance policy.
So with President Barack Obama: would the incredible symbolism of the first black American President lead to an overbearing burden of expectation, of desperate need, not for the essence of basic human survival as it was for our ancient ancestors, of food, water and shelter - but of hope of progression, of change? There were early glimmers of hope in the approach to Cuba and yet setbacks, surely, in another surge in Afghanistan: please note that these were all foreign policy decisions. Yet Obama was also busy on the domestic front. At the pinnacle of the whirlwind of progressive legislation was the stimulus package for the economy but less heralded was the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which extended health coverage to millions of children.
Children were just about palatable to the conservative, right opposition. Healthcare for all adults and the symbolism of major expenditure has the reactionaries from the conservative right up in arms: The Tea Party Movement, Club for Growth, the anti-tax Washington-based group and those nice folk of the National Rifle Association, all joined arms to protest at the shift in balance away from the conservative values that had dominated policy for decades. For me, last week saw a stand-out achievement worthy of the Shepherd Fairey’s statements: Hope, Change and Progress.
For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago.
David Leonhardt in the New York Times wrote: Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax rates have fallen more than rates for the middle class and poor.
Nearly every major aspect of the health bill pushes in the other direction. This fact helps explain why Mr. Obama was willing to spend so much political capital on the issue, even though it did not appear to be his top priority as a presidential candidate. Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan.
Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would “mark a new season in America.” He added, “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.”
“The project of the next president,” he said in an interview during the campaign, “is figuring out how you create bottom-up economic growth, as opposed to the trickle-down economic growth.” The central question that both the Reagan and Obama administrations have tried to answer — what is the proper balance between the market and the government? — remains unresolved. But the bill signed on Tuesday certainly shifts the pendulum on that spectrum. This is the first piece of legislation for 30 years that will go down in the annuls of social history in America.
Shabbat Ha’Gadol, literally the Great Shabbat that ushers in Pesach, season of our liberation should be a time for thinking big. With an election around the corner, there is plenty to discuss at our seder tables. Our vote is a big decision and demands big thinking from us. Prior to that, we can also make a difference. In the new world of big consultation, there are ample ways to feed into the thinking of all the political parties.
And at a micro-level, in our own homes, there are ways that we can make a big difference. This Pesach we consecrate our new haggadah that further enshrines into our liturgy the thinking of Liberal Jewish thought, the dynamic, cutting-edge of modern Judaism: revering Jewish tradition, seeking to preserve the values of the Judaism of the past while giving them contemporary force. May it inspire us to be an active force for good in the lives of the individuals around us, our families and communities today, and equally make our contribution to the betterment of society.
Of the Obama ‘HOPE’ image, Fairey told CBS News: "I didn't predict that it would take off so strongly but if you want to change what's going on around you, you have to be willing to participate."
Keyn y’hi l’ratzon – May it be God’s Will.
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