Dave Matthews Speaks Out for Barack Obama

What did you think of the big speech Obama gave yesterday on race?
I was almost moved to tears listening to him take something that could have derailed anyone and turn it into such an opportunity to talk about real issues that face America, things that have been here forever — forever as far as the length our little history. He put it so beautifully. And he wrote the speech himself. Now there's a novel idea. Why does he sound so honest when he speaks? Maybe because he writes what he says, because what he's saying are his own words.

You were born in South Africa when the country was still under apartheid. How does that affect the way you see Obama and this moment in American history?
Race has been an issue forced upon me by my environment. Growing up as a white South African, I learned the absurdity of racism and the ugliness of bigotry. I get this sense of possibility with Obama that reminds me of when I was younger, when Nelson Mandela was finally out of prison. There was all this fear and confusion and worry and horror surrounding the future of South Africa, but the potential for a bloodbath was dissipated by the truly honest ideas laid down by Mandela. The clarity with which he addressed the future made everybody pause, and that was one of the reasons that the transition from apartheid was relatively peaceful. Great leaders have the ability to do that.

You spent much of 2004 working to get George Bush out of the White House. What did that experience teach you about politics?
Back then, the motivation was getting rid of Bush, of being against everything that he stood for. This time, I'm truly for something. Electing Obama will so radically change how the world views us, in a positive way. The rest of the world was stunned when the Bush administration was re-elected. The emperor has no clothes, but damn if thirty-odd percent of us still believe that he's not naked. It's evidence of what an incredible machine they have created of fear.

I don't like to call myself a Democrat or Republican, because to say I'm on one side over the other is like choosing a preference between broken toilets. Real change has been a comedy in American politics for the last three decades. When I look at Obama, I feel like, "Wow, here's this man who's going to try to break down some walls and try and revive the Constitution after the three-decade-long beating it has taken. Maybe we can finally resuscitate that poor old dusty piece of paper that?s been kicked into the corner for a long time."