This clip is back from 1995 when Obama was talking up his new book “Dreams From My Father”. It was first posted back in 2009 here but for some reason I’ve never seen it.
The most revealing thing about this clip is captured in the following portion where Obama is pushing for that collectivist spirit just as you see in unions and the civil rights movement:
I think that recapturing the spirit that existed not just in the civil-rights movement but in the union organizing movement, in the populous movement. I think there is a running thread; one of the better angels of our nature in this country which has been the notion that, you know, we can sit around the table and find common ground and make democracy work in the way that it should be working.
Earlier in the clip he talked about how we can collectively decide on our fate:
We, collectively, can decide on our fate, that things like technological change, things like mass media, things like the market are all subject to our control, that we can make decisions for better or for worse and continue to move forward and progress.
The part at the end that gets cut off is this:
Interviewer: “You’re willing to stake your political career on the idea of there being a common ground?”
Obama: “That’s the core of my faith.”
Watch the entire clip:
(h/t Weasel Zippers):