Indescribable relief. Unbridled hope. Limitless pride.
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That's how I feel this morning after watching the historic election of Barak Obama as President of these United States. Four years ago, when the uncurious and dogmatic George W. Bush won a second term, he smirking at the victory podium and saying, "Americans gave me political capital, and I intend to spend it,", I felt thoroughly confused and embarrassed and shocked and despondent. I have shrunk with shame that he represented my country and my neighbors.
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Today I have watched the page turn with unprecedented speed. I don't expect miracles, but my faith in karmic redistribution has been restored.
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I know there is strong Republican-Conservative concern, even anger, that President Obama and a Democratic congress will prove far too liberal. As a moderate liberal myself, I understand that concern. I support Welfare-to-Work. I'm in favor of fewer abortions and more alternatives. I oppose deficit spending. I know immigration has to be worked out in some way fair to the border states like Texas that bear the burdens.
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And yet, this election is about so much more. Here's what conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby said in this morning's Boston Globe:
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A turn in the wilderness will do Republicans good. During the GOP's years in power, the onetime party of fiscal sobriety and limited government turned into a gang of reckless spenders and government aggrandizers. Perhaps a few years in exile will lead Republicans back to their conservative, Reaganite roots.
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But the most lustrous silver lining of all is the the racial one. As a politician and policymaker, Obama distresses me; his extreme liberalism is not what the nation needs. But as a symbol--a son of Africa poised to lead a majority-white nation that once enslaved Africans and treated their descendants with great cruelty--Obama's rise makes me proud of my country. The anthem of the Civil Rights Movement was "We Shall Overcome." Impossible as it might have seemed scant decades ago, we have.
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Myself--I offer two remaining words on this remarkable morning: AMEN and YIPEE!
I'll second that... yippee!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are so glad with the new president. Mr. Obama, undoubtedly a charismatic man, has a lot of credits here in Europe too. The word most used was change in this campaigning period, I believe. Maybe it is the time now for change in all respects. I wish you ánd your fellow Americans good luck with the first coloured president in the history of the USA.
ReplyDeletehey liz! i'll bet you are busier than you ever imagined. and i'm sure you are in deep deep love!
ReplyDeletewieneke, he may be an uncommon man. i hope so.
Congratulations :D
ReplyDeleteI have never understood why our politics need to fit into boxes - if we believe it this - we must believe in that - what utter rot. I am quite left on some things and can swing far right on others.
My father - a well travelled man - told me how one day he wandered into a bar in America and as common practice in the UK asked the man next to him if he would like a drink. He said that man looked at him amazed and refused graciously. He then turned to my father and advised him politely that it would be best if he finished his drink quickly and left. My father was astonished and asked why and was informed that he was a white man in a black bar and that was how things were in that part of the USA. He never did get his head around it...
I'm so proud of you, my American friends! You done good.
ReplyDeleteI know - pretty incredible. I'm filled to bursting with hope.
ReplyDeleteI do think it matters symbollically that we elected a black man, but I also am thrilled about the changes we might make in environmnentalsm, civil rights peace, and in a return to greater economic sanity.
miladysa, i am intriqued with your father's tradition of buying a drink for a bar-mate. at first i thought he was asked to leave because the other guy thought your father was 'coming on' to him--what a surprise it was actually because of skin color!
ReplyDeleteone thing terrific i can say about myself: i failed to understand prejudices even in kindergarten!
andrea, what a treat to see your words here. yes, the country came through. :)
cs, i imagine you and i are both breathing easier today. what an incredible feeling.
KJ - It is a kind of unspoken tradition in the UK - particularly in the North amongst the older generation.
ReplyDeleteI think it dates back to WWI and WWII - men would come home on leave or sick leave and their friends would still be away serving. Asking a stranger if he would like a drink is a way of introduction.
"i thought he was asked to leave because the other guy thought your father was 'coming on' to him"
LOL - I nearly wet myself when I read that!
What a positive attitude the blogosphere has this morning! Watched it all live yesterday (afternoon for me so little work was achieved!). Let's hope the man can follow through! You did well America!
ReplyDeletemiladysa, you are too cute!
ReplyDeletebaino, i obviously live in a blue state. even my dentist was smiling and told me why. we do know one thing about the man: he's intelligent. that's a good starting point...
:)
What a day! What a feeling!!
ReplyDeleteWasn't that brilliant?
ReplyDeleteI was so excited and I don't even live there! What an amazing event to witness.
Congratulations.
don, it was awesome. it is awesome. last night people spontaneously filled the sidewalks and city squares of america.
ReplyDeletelet's hope...
ps nice to see you here
:)
congrats for all the change you chose to happen...
ReplyDeleteA big event in history ! during the last months of the election period our newspapers and television news was filled with it, we - Europeans - also followed the whole exciting period with very close attention. I admire how Obama emphasizes unity and working together to achieve change.
ReplyDeletehb, i like the way you say that, 'all the change you chose to happen'. i think my country was surprised at the exuberance.
ReplyDeletehildegarde, i think we're holding our collective breaths hoping he knows, either emperically or instinctively, how to do what needs to be done. i am hopeful.
I think he was just telling commonplaces. That's why.
ReplyDeleteHis victory has renewed my belief in all our victories...that we, who are not white, wrinkly men, might have a voice and count for something in this world.
ReplyDeleteropi, i like your use of the word 'commonplace'. i also hope you are wrong.
ReplyDeletedebra kay, 'white wrinkly men'.
you've made me laugh outloud! btw, i'm glad you've had some down time.
Well I was using it because I wasn't sure I could spell platitudinize.
ReplyDeleteas a south african who watched nelson mandela being imprisoned, then his release (we wept that day)and become the first black president of that blighted country, i am sooooo proud of obama, and i say gobamago!!!!
ReplyDelete