The arc of history is in your hands, it is yours to bend. What will you do with it? What will your political agenda be? Will you have an overt moral, religious, or spiritual agenda? Will you go so far as to have a psychological agenda? In my somewhat dumbfounded reverie, I wonder. These questions are my expression of hope, my own determined reach for a new American destiny.

Each human being has a destiny, the top end of fate, which is our greatest potential. While individual, each person's destiny is part of a national destiny and hopefully an even broader human destiny. Whether in our private-lives or as citizens, our destinies are unique, yet tightly woven together. While independence and freedom are marks of our genius, interdependence and mutual responsibility are expressions of our soul. Our genius and soul are now partly yours to weave. The crises of our time seem unparalleled. Will you fire us to transform our troubled individualized experience into a shared destiny?

We are already talking about whether your political agenda will renew liberalism or drive in the middle lane. Because of how far the Left stretches, many will expect you to champion justice in the face of every form of human suffering. Many will expect you to reform health care and education, address the inequities of the working poor, and end American warfare. They will expect you to finally respond to global warming while establishing sustainable energy practices without indulging in risky drilling, nuclear power, or coal. We on the Left have no end of urgent issues we will simply expect you to address. Please do not succumb to this "ever-fracturing-into-new-issues" liberalism. I trust that you will do what is possible to broaden and deepen human political and economic freedom. Instead of indulging the hubris of the Left to divide our attention into a cacophony of issues, be fierce with us. Do not allow us to fragment around the "reasonableness" of each of our favorite political issues. Expect us to follow you into the future.

The fact that a conversation about how far left you will go is even taking place reflects the Left's inclination to displace a much-needed conversation about morality and religion. Having an overt moral agenda would help redirect this displacement.

The Left is slowly reawakening to its own moral authority. For too long we have confused asserting moral authority with moralizing. The 1960s problematically led us to this confusion. Or, perhaps we have always been shy, constantly questioning authority rather than creating authority. Yes, there is a knife's edge between moral integrity and destructive righteousness; your character and demeanor seem wholly capable of guiding us across this edge and leading us back toward the necessity of asserting our American values at a new moral pitch. As you assert your own moral authority, we will learn how to do the same. Expect us to follow you into the future.

Will you have a religious or spiritual agenda? There may be, perhaps, no more troubling quagmire on the Left than its relationship to religion. Despite the stunningly obvious commitment to equality and justice exhibited by countless religious institutions-and despite the role played by religious leaders and congregations in the fight for human freedom-too many people on the Left ignore the potency of religious experience to bring people together. For too long we have relinquished this power to the Right. Many on the Left seem to be afraid to face the intrinsic mystery of religiosity. You seem to embody and articulate a new liberal wisdom that is at least open to the positive power of a religious community, if not to the full potency of the human being's capacity to be religious. Please help the new religious Left to bind together again (the true meaning of "religio") our people so that the unifying power of religion is not only expressed through the integrity or manipulations of the Right. Here too, expect us to follow you into the future.

Do you imagine having a psychological agenda? Unless I am mistaken you are a man who has faced inner demons and worked out some personal relationship to the unconscious, which I imagine is part of your obvious emotional intelligence, which clearly offers calmness, reassurance, and a model of humility and maturity. Like our relationship to morality and religiosity, many on the Left have some aversion to the psychological. I wonder how aware you are of your accomplishment in this area. Will you lead us into a psychological future, which may be the greatest taboo of all? Yet, psychology has long helped millions of Americans, especially in their private lives. Your emotional intelligence makes that success public. We too can follow you into the future of this public psychological-ness.

The American people are waiting for your direction, the world is holding its breath to see if Americans can activate their political ideals within a renewed moral vision. Recognizing the limitations and value of our religious experience and of the institutions of religion will be essential. Recognizing the psychological possibility of human development may help create the language that allows the Left to face its limitations and help you bend history.

Peter T. Dunlap is a psychologist working in private and political practice, using healing and community engagement learning practices with political change groups. See www.centerforpoliticaldevelopment.com.