The United States, and along with us the world, has been through a momentous political season. This was that partly because of the things that had happened in the eight years preceding it. If you didn't know it, the world lost faith in us. Many of us doubted our own country. How could we have gotten so far off kilter? This, combined with the potential to elect an African-American as president, made this election season stand out.
Now it's over and from all around the world we have seen the headlines, heard the joy, gotten the congratulations. It is a huge deal that Americans elected Barack Obama as our next president. The world has shared the joy of those of us who wanted him and who felt he could make a difference. Tuesday night, a lot of tears were shed and they were mostly those of joy.
Not all feel that way. Obama knew that also when he gave his speech. Some are upset, fearful, angry, feel cheated, resent those who voted for Obama. Those emotions were stoked heavily during the election season by McCain/Palin. Some are already plotting his failure and even though it will hurt their own hopes, they will do everything they can to undermine what comes next.
I will be paying attention to what comes next in his administration, which of the many huge issues will he tackle first, but I don't plan to write much about it. I would like to see us all let this new president have a chance, without micro-judging every single thing he does. Some things we won't like or won't think he moved fast enough to do. Some might be mistakes, but I for one would like to let him do what we have elected him to do without second guessing every choice-- at least for awhile.
Not writing about it here won't mean I have lost interest. It will just be there are other things that matter also, and for months it's been so much about politics that it'll be a relief to write about something else. I also think it will be unhealthy for us to let the media turn everything into crises as you know they will. We don't have to let them take us along for the ride.
A couple of last thoughts about this election. What is it with Americans and wanting to ban gay marriage? After this election, 30 states have put through gay marriage bans. What is in the psyche that finds it satisfying to deny someone else the right to form families and have the community rights of any other mated couple? Is the reason gay marriage suffered a loss in California, Florida and Arizona because it doesn't impact enough voters?
Evidently, in the case of California, the Mormon church was the big supporter of this ban putting what some say was $17.6 million dollars into advertising. Here is an article from the LA Times on it: Mormon Church steps into the Prop. 8 battle. Why was this so important to Mormons who at one time believed in polygamy? Well I wrote about this earlier but it was a disappointment to me as I had hopes we had begun to move beyond it. This is not about special rights but about equal rights. I think it would be healthier to let all marriages be civil unions from a government perspective but that will have to wait for a future day.
Then, what was going on in Alaska re-electing Ted Stevens with a felony conviction hanging over him, likely expulsion from the Senate, and prison time? I suppose it was party loyalty and better your own convicted felon than a senator from another party? Al Franken apparently lost in Minnesota but Norm Coleman did have to move toward the center (whether he stays there is a good question) to do it. If Gordon Smith loses in Oregon, something I hope happens, the Democrats will still only have 57 seats.
President Obama will not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and I don't think that's bad. A lot of the solutions to our problems will be in the center. We need both parties working on things and creating solutions. We have seen too much bitter partisanship. Obama wants to end it, and we will all be better off if we have two political philosophies questioning each other and working together to fix what is wrong.
Because so much is wrong, we could make terrible mistakes if we tried to solve everything instantly. Throwing money at problems has never worked in the past. Where it comes to social issues (see above) most Americans are not ready for big change. A heavy Democratic majority would have put more pressure on Obama to move left, not what he said he wanted to do Tuesday night nor what is on his website.
As for those worried that he will roll over for Nancy Pelosi, I have one name for you-- Hillary Clinton, a far more formidable woman in my opinion. If there are those who want payback for the last eight years, Obama had never indicated he is one of them. The path forward is to not look back other than to learn from our mistakes. If crimes were committed, that is a matter for the legal system to evaluate (assuming Bush doesn't pardon his whole administration before he leaves office).
Whatever issues Obama sees as his first priorities, it's going to be an interesting time to say the least-- an exciting time. I hope all Americans come together to make it a productive time for the nation. We can't afford politics as usual any longer and for the first time in a long while, we have a chance to leave that behind.
[An after thought: America really dodged a bullet (at least temporarily) with Palin no longer in line for the presidency. The more that comes out about her ignorance, her temperament, her greed, the worse that choice looks, and it looked bad before! All I can say is wow, and there should be a better way of vetting vice presidential choices than a presidential candidate going eenie, meenie, minie, moe.]
12 comments:
I, too, was disappointed that three states voted against giving gsy's the rights the rest of us enjoy. The only good news is that the majority against it was much smaller than it was the last time it was on the ballot. It takes generations to eliminate bigotry but progress is slowly being made.
It was the Arizona Mormon church that got that initiative on the California ballot. I was incensed over that. We in Arizona were bombarded with ads for the amendment prior to the election.
It always amazes me of the evil that can be done under the guise of religion.
I think the problem of religions becoming the cover for evil purposes comes from so many of them requiring absolute belief. They ask us to give up judgement for belief. Then highly emotiional music and chants drown out any questioning thoughts. People with evil purpose find these people do not believe that man can solve problems on their own human abilities.
The "Yes we can." belief in man is a great step for all the challenges we will have.
I agree with all of you. I find this strangle hold that religion seems to have on so many to be really disturbing and it seems to get stronger every year. I don't understand it, don't understand why people allow themselves to be manipulated by those pretending to "speak" for God.
My thought has always been that morality and sexual cannot be legislated. One would think we would have learned something from Prohibition which spawned organized crime but we didn't.
On a less serious note, a gay friend asked me how I felt about gay marriage. I told him that I was all for it. Why should we straights have all the "fun" of divorce and all the crap it entails?
You hit the nail on the head Kay. The rest of us have done such a good job with marriage when half end in divorce, why not let them be miserable with the rest of us.
I did not realize the Mormon church was involved. I know the Catholic church was campaigning heavily for Prop 8 and the Knights of Columbus paid for many of the radio and TV ads. From what I am seeing many of the Blacks and Hispanics voted for Prop 8 and that is what defeated it.
Like you, I'm also going to be backing away from my political views on my blog for awhile....except in a fun and light-hearted way. Check out tomorrow about First Dog.
On the gay marriage....I truly do NOT understand it. Actually, I'm not that surprised with Florida. But I have to tell ya....I was pretty shocked about California.
The thing is...here in Florida, it doesn't JUST affect gay unions. Nope. It affects ANY civil union. Yes...even between a male AND female. Those that live together and might be covered by the other's health care, etc. I'm wondering, here in Florida, HOW many of those voters against the amendment TRULY understood exactly what it meant.
Terri
http://www.islandwriter.net
As opposed to Sarah 'Crazy' Palin,
you elected
Barack "Who's Sane!" Obama :-)
Well done, America :-)
Very insightful post, Rain. For now I am remaining hopeful, but it would be foolish to "play on the freeway," so to speak. Russia is saber rattling and there will be others.
Prop. 8 passed in California and tonight there is a huge demo down on the westside by those who opposed the amendment. I opposed it but I know this is an incredibly hot button issue, as is right to life. In California, it was not a resounding defeat and that's progress, I think. Whoever thought we'd have a black president? Equal rights for anyone wanting to marry will ultimately pass. There have been about 90,000 gay marriages in California since the Cal Supreme said it was legal. It will be interesting to see what happens now.
The Mormon Church article is very interesting. I have Mormon friends who are totally supportive of gay rights. It's like us Catholics (former, in my case) who theoretically oppose divorce, abortion etc., but look the other way. There are ideals and then there is reality.
Don't stop writing about politics, Rain; you do it well, but I am looking forward to hearing more about daily life on the farm, too.
Beautifully said Rain, as always.
You have such a wonderful way of putting everything in perspective....It is really Marvelous!
In regard to Prop 8 here...My understanding is that The Mormon Church spent 22mil. Whatever...The fact that this is so important to them is truly beyond my understanding! I do not understand any religious organizations being against Human Rights....And I STILL do not get how Gay people marrying effects The so called Sanctity of Marriage.....! I mean, it just makes no sense to me at all....!
Anyway, I agree with you wanting to give our new President a chance to start tackleing what needs doing without the excrutiating scrutiny of everyone. Let's hope people can do that.
I am sure I will write about it once in awhile but I just meant I don't want to second-guess or have an opinion on everything Obama did or didn't do as we go along. I feel it wouldn't be healthy for me and there is so much more out there that is fun to think about, enriches my life and might others, that I just don't want to stay as fixated as I felt I had to do these last months. When we can do something about it, it makes sense to do that, but now I'd like to be less informed for awhile and zero in on things that are more beautiful to dwell on-- not that the Obama family is not beautiful :) What a joy to see them up there and know they are what we will have in our photos the next 4 years. Hallelujah!
So now liberals think we should all "come together" behind Obama. LOL.
Where were they the past 8 years when they attacked President Bush from day 1???
When Bush came into office, he had a high approval rating. After 9/11, it was almost 90% approval. He took that capital and used it to attack Iraq where people still wanted to believe in him and think he was telling them the truth. In 2004, he got more votes for president than he had the first time but you can lose faith in someone. Obama can lose his supporters also.
Nobody is saying everyone should agree with Obama on everything he does. I have said several times that I would like to see Republicans become conservatives like they said they were instead of the neoconservatives that they currently have been with increasing our deficit, with going to war for no reason that anybody can explain now. Conservative people act certain ways. What I have said is we benefit as a people to have two parties that are both strong and together they work on ideas. It should be more around liberal and conservative though rather than Republican and Democrat. Ideas are more powerful than partisanship.
If we want to see our country do well, we should want the Congress and White House to work together on jobs, health care, the war, environment, and so forth. it won't benefit any of us to wish badly on the party in power but I know a lot will do it just out of bitterness. Sad... but Obama may succeed despite that. Time will tell.
If Obama does well with bringing down the deficit, getting us out of Iraq without further hurting the Iraqi people, figuring out a way to make health care work for all people, getting the economy going, he will have everyone doing better.
But people can whine and pout when they don't get their way in their personal lives or about their government. See how happy it makes you. That's the real criteria for whether it works.
Frankly I think if McCain had not picked Palin, if he'd picked someone who had the ability to be president (think Lieberman), it might well be us Democrats who would be the ones moaning. People liked McCain. They still do. He didn't lose by a disgraceful margin even with her. He said though he will try to help make the country strong again and that says something for him. Hopefully all people will put aside their desire to get their way (which Obama is not going to make dems happy all the time either) and think of the larger good. That's the real hope we need. Hillary put aside her loss to help Obama and she really came through for him increasing a lot of people's admiration for her. People can look to the good of the country over their individual selfishness.
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