Book Review of Michael Wear’s Reclaiming Hope
Reviewed by Dan McDonald
As someone nearing his senior
citizen years I have had a journey even to reach the point where I would find
myself interested in Reclaiming Hope. I was raised in an independent home
where my Dad consciously refused to vote in primaries, because he would have to
express himself as a Democrat or a Republican and he was neither. He was a
farmer who generally liked the idea of free markets, and a welder and factory
worker that appreciated the need for unions. Like most sons I thought my
generation could do a better job of doing politics in a new time. I grew
attracted to the cliché “the government which governs least governs best”, and
also to the idea of a strong defense (as if one can have strong defense without
big government) and I also let’s have balanced budgets and as a Christian I
wanted pro-life policies. I can now look back and realize how believing we
could get it all was truly naive. But a few days after my 25th
birthday I cast my vote with great hope for the Presidential candidate that issued
a call for a new morning in America. I supported Ronald Reagan for the
presidency and remained deeply conservative for another twenty years. The
strange thing about my Dad at the time was how he had loved Reagan’s radio shows,
but he was thoroughly disappointed in Reagan the presidential candidate. He was
approaching his senior citizen years and was tired of it all and didn’t trust
Reagan’s new morning.
Nearly three decades later Michael
Wear was a new believing Christian and he was attracted to a new candidate
expressing hope and change, Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Wear was a young
man, and met the Senator even before he had announced his campaign for the
Presidency. Soon he was working to help elect Obama to become the 44th
President of the United States. Afterwards he would work on the President’s
staff as someone who helped the work of the President’s dealings with faith
based people and groups. It has taken me time to realize that a generation of
youth found a similar sense of hope in the candidacy of Barack Obama as many in
my youth generation had discovered in Ronald Reagan. I think those in my
generation who continue to be shaped by Conservative thinking have never quite
realized how similar were our two generations of experiences for a candidate
that focused our hopes and to whom we were willing to give our energy to become
president. There were plenty of policy differences between these two candidates
who became President, but so much similarity in the sense of hope and the
energy willing to be spent on their behalf. This might in itself be a suitable
reason for reading Michael Wear’s book Reclaiming Hope.
The book is partly a memoir by
Michael Wear of his coming to faith in Jesus Christ, and then his work in Obama’s
presidential campaigns and his work on the White House staff in relation to faith
based voters and organizations. While Wear’s political perspective is expressed
from time to time, it is not primarily a book trying to convince you of how you
need to support the policies of the author. The book is written more as if to
answer the questions of “What was it like to serve in the Obama administration?”
and “now that you have served in politics, what do you think of political
service whether one is a Republican or Democrat; Progressive or Conservative?”
The book is well written in that it
is a book that is reader friendly. I recently started to try to do my personal
reading by reading a few pages a night from a number of diverse books of
differing genres and messages. I disciplined myself to read a few pages of the
book a night, but this is the kind of book that you could delightfully read in
large sections.
I am convinced that one of America’s
great needs is to discuss political policy and issues with much more respect
for those whose opinions differ with us. I expected Michael Wear’s book to
exemplify respecting an opponent’s point of view. I expected this because I had
followed him on Twitter for a good while and had noticed how respectful he is
in dialogues on the site. I had a couple of dialogues with him on Twitter and
you knew he thought about what you said and gave answers that were both honest
and encouraging. He is one of the people who impress me with his civic manners in
the public square. I could see myself, sitting at a table, having a wonderful
discussion about politics while eating pizza, drinking soda pop, or working on
disposing of some ale. If that isn’t likely – at least I get to read his book,
his story of service in government, and how he hopes that whether we are
Democrat or Republican, Progressive or Conservative – we don’t grow cynical
about the work of government. We can learn much about how to approach
government and politics by considering both Michael Wear’s book and his
example.
