Obama Isn’t Out of Touch, We Are.

I woke up this morning proud to live in America. Proud because last night, day three of the DNC, reaffirmed the many virtues I was taught as a child were unique to America. That through our nation’s history, we haven’t ascended through a fear of ourselves and others, but through a focus on the future we believe to be bright and ours for the taking.

In the words of Joe Biden, America’s patriotic grandpa:

“It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America… And given a fair shot, given a fair chance, Americans have never, ever, ever, ever, ever let their country down. Never! Never!”

In the words of your 44th President, a man who, despite his faults, has never told Americans that they are less than what they truly are:

“We are not a fragile or frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order. We don’t look to be ruled. Our power comes from those immortal declarations first put to paper right here in Philadelphia all those years ago; We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that together, We, the People, can form a more perfect union.

That’s who we are. That’s our birthright — the capacity to shape our own destiny. That’s what drove patriots to choose revolution over tyranny and our GIs to liberate a continent. It’s what gave women the courage to reach for the ballot, and marchers to cross a bridge in Selma, and workers to organize and fight for better wages.

America has never been about what one person says he’ll do for us. It’s always been about what can be achieved by us, together, through the hard, slow, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately enduring work of self-government.”

But still. On the day that I wake up energized by the words of the night before, proud of our place in the world and the virtues in our DNA. On this day, I wake up to criticisms of those words. That the DNC is a fantasyland. That Obama is the “same old dismissive, out-of-touch professor he’s always been.” That I should be recognizing the real fears of the average American.

All I can say to those criticisms are the words uttered fervently last night by Grandpa Joe: “That’s a bunch of malarkey!”

And I can say that because the data backs it up. While our crime rates are down and ISIS has shrunk, our economy is up and our population has grown more diverse.

To say that I should have to accept and express the fears of the average folk is to say that if I am a child I should accept and propagate the fear of the dark shared by others. Yes, darkness is always going to be there, and you can always turn out the lights and wallow in it; but I prefer to be comfortable in it and reach for the light when fear takes hold. I don’t worry about our economy because I know that all great innovation comes from American entrepreneurship, and that industries come and go but Americans have always found a way. I don’t worry about ISIS because our national intelligence is second to none and our military is the finest in the world, with brave men and women who’ve pledged that the sanctity of our safety transcends that of their own lives.

But I do worry about one thing. And only one thing. That our nation is growing depressed, and that our greatest therapists, our greatest luminaries, will not be able to break the darkness we surround our self with. I don’t mean that our citizens are growing depressed, though they are. What I mean is that our national psyche, our country’s irrational groupthink, is turning upside down, from unwaveringly positive to impenetrably negative. After 9/11, our psyche was no longer invincible. Our resolute belief in American exceptionalism faltered. The voices in our head: the pundits, the parties, our peers; they’ve all been telling us there’s something wrong with us, that we’re less than we really are. Yet the difference between us and our ancestors who built this country is that where they stood firm in the face of doubt, we have begun to believe the belittling.

The America I know and love and firmly believe in is under attack. But not by forces foreign to us. Not by peers with different points of view. But by our selves. Don’t dismiss the people trying to reach out and bring you back into the light. They see in you what you don’t: a strong, fearless, American frontiersman.

It’s on you to see it too.