Now that I've shared both my pre-election reservations and my post-victory speech excitement, I thought I'd go ahead and close out this extraordinary 24 hours with a day-after-the-election post.
Jeremiah wrote today about the inevitable need to come down a little bit from last night. "Walking through my neighborhood last night as people were letting off fireworks and jubilantly yelling in the street, I may have felt a little too good about America’s future," he said, acknowledging that skepticism from certain quarters and a feeling of disillusionment are likely unavoidable in the coming months. After seeing all the typos in my last post this morning, I also admit that I might have been getting a bit too excited. But when you've got a girl dressed in a donkey mask kissing you on the cheek at the bar and your downstairs neighbor runs out to the lawn and plays "The Star-Spangled Banner" on her trumpet each time a swing state is called for the man you've been cheering on for months, it's hard not to get at least a little carried away.
So I'm certainly still enjoying what my friend Jeff proclaimed "the greatest Wednesday ever." Maybe it's the 70 degree weather in November, he said, or the over-the-top leafiness of the neighborhood. "Oh, or maybe it's that my faith and pride in America has been instantly restored, sort of like when Super Mario eats the mushroom that makes him all big and strong."
It's a great analogy, and the beauty of it is that this same renewed faith and pride is being felt across the world.
Another friend wrote from Berlin to tell me about watching his German colleagues become visibly moved as the results came in there in the early morning. "There really is substance behind the argument that people view the US as a land where anything is possible," Wade said, while noting that the incredibly high expectations are already fostering a bit of skepticism in the European press. Still, it's such a far cry from what it was like for me in Berlin just before the 2004 election -- when the only things anyone wanted to discuss with an "Ami" were 9/11 conspiracy theories, the supreme genius of Super-Size Me (of COURSE you'll get fat if you eat that shit every day, nitwits!) and what morons we were for letting Bush into the White House the first time, not to mention for a second term. In 2004, change didn't even seem to be on the menu, as I was coldly reminded that year with the graffitied phrase, "Fuck Bush and Fuck Kerry too!"
Now all that animosity seems to have disappeared, even if the problems and strategies that got us there haven't. It's nice to feel like part of the world again, and I hope the new President can build on that goodwill to work with foreign leaders on issues such as world hunger, climate change and making the American study-abroad student a sexy commodity once again.
Since my own study abroad days are gone, I'm glad all my friends won't be moving to foreign countries like they threatened to if McCain got elected. Still, it would have been interesting to see who really followed up on that and where they wound up going.
A few quick comments, and then I'm done with this subject until the "New Administration Mix" is complete (still taking suggestions, by the way).
Missouri: My own state proved something of a disappointment to me. Though it's not official yet, it looks like McCain took the state by a margin not much wider than the number of votes cast in Missouri for Nader. Thank goodness our electoral votes didn't prove critical, or I would have been newly furious with those Green party-spoilers. Given that he's already 74, I hope I never see the name "Nader" on another presidential ballot. It's not that I doubt the man's accomplishments, but if he's so hell-bent on serving the country in office, why didn't he start by running for something slightly easier to attain than the presidency?
So it looks like Missouri's "Bellweather" status no longer holds, which is disappointing, I guess, but something of a moot point now that this year's election is settled.
Light Rail: Like a lot of people in Kansas City, I really wanted to like this proposal. I love subways, streetcars and public transit in general, and I had hopes that this thing could help transform the blighted Main Street corridor into a more lively and utilized space. But the people voted this down pretty overwhelmingly, and I have to concede they had some pretty powerful reasons why. Just looking at the language of that issue, the phrases "tax increase" and "25 years" leap out as being pretty daunting in this economic climate. Also, I think a lot of people wanted to send a message that light rail is not their main priority right now -- schools, crime and even sewers come first.
Legacy: Someone pointed out to me the stat (I'm not sure if it was national or a specific state) that 96 percent of black people voted for Obama, which certainly is one of the most lopsided demographics in this election -- even more than fundamentalist Christians for McCain-Palin. He asked if voting strictly along racial lines did not in itself constitute some form of racism. Not wishing to get into it with this particular elder, I cautiously agreed that they may have a point. But thinking about it today, I realized what I could have said: While race should never be the chief factor for choosing a candidate, think of what this election means for African-Americans -- that a people whose ancestors were brought over as slaves less than two centuries ago can today reach the highest office in the land. No matter who you are, how you voted or where you're from, that's pretty powerful stuff.
Thanks for reading, and tune back in tomorrow for some Thursday tracks to close out my political coverage.
Sincerely,
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Now what will Tony rant about? Oh right, Funkhouser is still the mayor I guess.
nice post here bro. i went through a similar coaster ride of disbelief, elation, and sober reflection. i think for many on the obama side, the issue now is realizing that while getting elected was an immense challenge, it pales in comparison to the charge of holding office and rising to meet what mccain called (perhaps not altogether wrongly) the "transcendental challenge". it isn't that i think obama himself ever underestimated what he was faced with, but as our faith now shifts from the american voters to his shoulders, well, that is a lot of faith. still, it is hard to think of anything about obama that doesn't show a man immensely more deserving of the office than bush has been. even that a picture of obama holding the wall street journal elicits the thought, "he might actually be reading that paper" feels like a significant change. i sincerely look forward to president barack's term, maybe even terms.
of course there are worries too. for example, no one has left the presidency in the last several decades in particularly good standing, at least not without a huge shadow being cast over their every move. it is difficult to imagine barack walking away with any less of our respect and admiration than he currently commands. luckily, he has already proved to be able to break with longstanding tradition.
with respect to the idea that black voters were or are not thinking about policy but only about race as they cast their votes: if this cynical argument was reflected directly back onto whites who voted for mccain, should those people also then be called racist? or, were the 85-90 percent of blacks who voted for Kerry or Gore being racist? the argument just doesn't hold water. it is a bitter and ill-gotten notion that discredits either race's ability to think critically. obviously neither segment of the country is color-blind. but in some ways race is less of an arbiter in this election than it has been in every presidential election up to now, which has been exclusionary. clearly there is no easy answer. if people still want to say it is all about race, they should get over it, it's still only 43-1. or even 43 & 1/2 to 1/2, if you're gonna get technical.
i can't help but think of the movie bulworth, which in some ways predicted that the only viable race-blind future of our country was in biraciality. i haven't seen it since about 6th grade, but i remember thinking that the end conclusion was a slight bit of genius, for as crude and probably dated as the movie now is. regardless of who is right and wrong about race, it is far from the most important issue, but it will no doubt be as difficult or more to work through than any other. perhaps blogs hold the key?
obama '12!
excellent insights, young brother
I never even once called you an Ami. But I sure am glad this went our way and one of the first things I said to Herb, the Vietnam veteran working on the campaign in Cleveland was: Now this is a country I want to come back to.
As for your comment about the "legacy" of this election:
yes, I do agree this is some pretty powerful stuff, electing a black president and all, but I would like to bring up one point. Whereas this election has been one for the history books, on all accounts, I feel we have been a bit premature of our becoming as a nation. Just because you "call" a boy a man at a bar-mitzvah, doesn't mean he's done all his growing.
If 96% of black people came together to accomplish Martin Luther King's dream, did they fully realize it? It hit me as ironic all the times MLK has been cited and quoted throughout this election, but when it comes time to cast a ballot, 10% more African-Americans vote democrat rather than republican.
Why so important? One line from MLK's famous "I Have A Dream" speech kept looping through my head. I realized that until the day, "where [people] will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character," will this dream truly come alive.
I believe a greater statistic to look for in the future, when a non-white/non-man candidate inevitably runs (again), would be demographics that stick to party lines.
I hope everyone can feel Dr. Martin Luther King's dream easing closer. We will become that ideal one day, when a vote is cast to accomplish a promise, not accomplish a race.
keep on writing,
Phillip Wolff
Post a Comment