Barack Obama’s convention speech exposed Donald Trump’s biggest mistake

CONFESSION time. I have never been a fan of Barack Obama.

That’s not a popular opinion in Australia, where something like 80 per cent of us view Obama favourably, but I’ve always felt he is better at giving pretty speeches than actually governing.

While his address to the Democratic convention didn’t change that, it did make me realise something important. The pretty speeches matter.

The American president has a responsibility you won’t find anywhere in his official job description; one that separates him from every other world leader. He doesn’t just veto bills, appoint judges and command the military. He shapes his nation’s character.

That is what Obama’s speech was about. He didn’t frame the upcoming election as a contest between two parties or even two personalities, but as a referendum on who Americans are. He directly challenged Trump’s vision of a despondent, fallen superpower yearning to be great again, instead describing the United States as the polar opposite.

“What we heard (in Cleveland) was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other and turn away from the rest of the world,” Obama said.

“That is not the America I know. The America I know is full of courage and optimism and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous.”

I spent a handful of my formative years in the United States, and I’ll tell you this much: Obama is right about the American people. For all their flaws, it is practically impossible to live among them without realising that. They are overwhelmingly patriotic, optimistic and good-natured.

His speech was a timely, desperately needed reminder of what the United States should be. It was his equivalent of John F. Kennedy’s most famous quote, or Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign. And it exposed Donald Trump’s biggest mistake: he has fundamentally misjudged his country.

When Trump addressed his own convention last week, his pitch was simple: everything is broken, the system is rigged against ordinary people and only he can fix it. “I AM YOUR VOICE,” he said. Check the transcript, it really was in caps.

Thousands of people in Cleveland stood and cheered, and millions more probably nodded along in their lounge rooms. Not because they’re all terrified racists, as you so often read in self-satisfied articles like this one, but because many are disillusioned with politicians who have let them down and feel like lashing out.

Those people are frustrated. And yes, some of the more vocal among them represent a darker side of America. But that does not mean Trump was right.
 

“Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared saviour. We don’t look to be ruled,” Obama said six days later. “America’s never been about what one person says he’ll do for us. It’s about what can be achieved by us, together.”

Trump is portraying himself as that saviour, a strongman who will march into the White House and immediately fix every problem through the sheer force of his braggadocious personality. He never explains how he’ll do it. There’s no coherent set of ideas driving him. He’s telling people to have faith in him and him alone.

That style of politics has worked in other places around the world — looking at you, Russia — but never in the United States, which was founded on a set of values completely incompatible with men like Trump. Its branches of government were explicitly designed to restrict the president’s power. Its people have always seen their leaders as servants, not masters.

The America Trump describes, the one where a “silent majority” is in his corner and he’s “going to win so big”, doesn’t exist. If it did, his favourability rating wouldn’t be stuck in the 30s, and all those Republicans wouldn’t have boycotted their own convention.

You know whose approval rating has actually skyrocketed in the last six months? Barack Obama’s. After years of giving their President lukewarm support at best, a clear majority of Americans have decided they prefer Obama to the fiasco unfolding in the race to succeed him. Yesterday he showed the world why. He reminded us of the real America, which is bold, proud and irrepressibly hopeful.

Sure, it was just another pretty speech. Obama has given plenty of them. But this time, in this moment, it really, really mattered.