It’s hard to find the words to describe this right now. Amazing.
But this is only the start. We need to do our part, hold people accountable, and keep the faith.
For those who kept asking: Who is the real Obama?
Well, I think a better question is not “who is the real Obama,” but instead, who is the real citizenry of the United States and what are their biggest priorities? I doubt Obama could have ever been elected twenty years ago, but America today is different place. I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but it’s not like he beat McCain by a narrow margin; voters made a decisive choice. So I am asking, who exactly is the “real” America? Maybe the “center” is shifting to the “left.” No doubt we still have a fair amount of our xenophobic “I won’t vote for no Muslim” jackasses, but they either are not the majority or they didn’t vote.
But frankly I am tired of the rigid notion of liberals versus conservatives. From my perspective, the real problem is the mounting social inequality that results from governmental acquiescence (or blatant subservience) to elite corporate interests. And we see this from liberals and conservatives alike. This inequality is what people are against. If you want to call that “liberal,” that’s fine, but if that’s the case then there are a lot more liberals out there than you’d like to think. Obama holds out the promise to not only move beyond left/right, but more importantly to even the playing field for millions of people who are frustrated by a political economic system that simply isn’t working in their best interests. And I hope he can make some steps to do it, but it is all of our jobs to hold him to these tasks in the face of what will be immense resistance from the entrenched power holders.
All I know is that it feels damn good to finally be from a blue state! Maybe those doors I knocked on even made a difference. What a concept.
I love how well written your arguement above is. Unfortunately power corrupts and it happens to both parties that stay in power for too long. Maybe that wouldn’t be the case if there was a better system of checks and balances. Funny, there shouldn’t have to be a better sytem of check and balances–isn’t that a contradiction in terms? I like the fact that O’Bama wants to have Republicans in his cabinet/administration and he should. It’s sad to think of just how little Congress has done because of such bitter partianship. Now that the Democrats are in power I hope they do not completely ignore the minority party–unless they have the mindset of “our way or no way.”
Perhaps the up and coming youth that are elected to Congress and appointed to other high ranking positions will have learned to put their USA lapel pin ahead of their Donkey or Elephant lapel pin. For example, anyone that could honestly argue that Gov. Palin was qualified to be Vice-President or the President only cares about their side or power or winning.
Allow my more “liberal” Democratic side to seep through for a moment though…but why is it that Democrats as we know them from the 1930’s and forward, have to clean up the policies of fiscally and/or socially conservative Republicans. FDR guided us through the Great Depression and gave us a public works program. LBJ was responsible for sweeping legislation in the Civil Rights Movement, although he moved on the Vietnam War more aggressively than Kennedy and Eisenhower. From 1992-2000 Bill Clinton put us into surpluses, gave us the dot.com boom and cut some bureacratic waste. In 2008, we can see what O’Bama has to clean up after. Electing Democrats for the next 40 years isn’t the answer but wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to clean up anything and simply build on what the last Republican provided.
I never thought I’d see the day you were from a Blue State Crain! Thank you for all of your efforts in putting an American in the White House that will begin the clean up needed.
DT
Comment by David T. — November 10, 2008 @ 4:22 pm