There's a lot of work ahead of us. The slough that the loyal Bushies have driven us in is foul and deep, and we will need all our energy and hope to pull ourselves out.And the 27 percenters are NOT going to help - far from it; they will fight fiercely any attempt at a return to an America that did not bow and scrape to malefactors of great wealth, disappear the innocent along with the guilty, torture its helpless captives and attack anything it feared.
That's why, along with some celebratory joy, I'm filled with a fine gleeful rage that McSame and Bible Spice were crushed. Because:So shove THAT, Karl Rove, Dick and Dubya.
But enough. Today I am letting myself be glad, and hopeful.
President Barak Obama.
10 comments:
I feel...light today, and I'm trying not to put too many eggs in that basket called hope.
But I have to admit...for some strange reason...I still feel light despite my cynical desire not to be too hopeful.
For the first time in my life I am actually excited about the outcome of a Presidential election. The dead-enders are really going to be a pain-in-the-%ss, though.
YOU? Glad and hopeful?
Be still my heart.
Heh.
I'm not feeling any of your exultation, all I feel is drained exhaustion from the campaign trail and the road ahead looks just as hard.
It's going to be a long hard slog (that will go all too quickly) while Obama puts together his administration. Then we get to see if Congress will actually work with him or if they are going to royally screw up and play when they should be working.
So far (one day) I like what Obama is doing. Tomorrow is another day.
Pluto, don't be so glum and rational. We all know this is only the first step and there is plenty of room for missteps. But for now, savor the moment. Not only did our nation finally reject the true evil empire, we did it through a dude whose complexion isn't at all like those of the 43 presidents before him.
The most important thing is we've made a giant step towards discrediting what the Republican Party has become. Now we just have to hope that the winning party will be smart enough to leverage the election results into something lasting. Frankly, I'm more concerned about Pelosi, et al, than I am about Obama.
I also have to admit that, as an old white American, I have some really good feelings about us having elected this guy with the strange complexion. Guess it's my old civil liberties instincts coming into play.
Actually, I feel real good. Strangely better, I think, than I would have felt had Hillary been the winner. Maybe that's because I don't think there's any way Hillary would have won. This guy is hands-down better than Hillary. This guy is good. Now I just hope he doesn't send out some of those Negro terrorist death squads out to kill me and mine, which is what I gather a lot of McCain supporters are convinced is going to happen.
It's true - I'm letting myself enjoy the moment, as Publius expresses it so well, wherein the American public let itself reach for its hopes instead of cowering from it's fears. True.
I'm not looking away from the task at hand - it's immense, and also as Publius points out, we have a LOT of our own housecleaning to do. I have deep fears that Pelosi and many of the senior Congressional Dems are foully implicated in Dubya's spying and torturing - the only explanation (other than sheer incapacity and cravenness) I can come up with for their behavior the past two years. I KNOW that the Rovian slime machine is still working, and we will have to put our shoulders to the wheel with the dittoheads and the MalkinMunchkins shrieking and flapping at us, refusing to help and, worse, actively trying to drag us back to their safe, comfortable bog of fear and war and secrecy and spying and torture and lies.
But all that is for tomorrow and tomorrow. Today, I just want to marvel in the sight of a man who one hundred years ago could not have sat down to eat with me and two hundred years ago could have been my property - no different than a coat or a book - who is today the President and Chief Executive of my country and who has promised to lead us our of that hate and fear, our of that secrecy and despair, and into the broad, sunlit uplands that are the promise that our nation has so often deferred and so often denied.
For tomorrow, the work. Today, only the dream.
Chief, you're the eloquent one. Just glad you're as glad as I am. A really funny feeling: I feel good for my country for the first time in a long while. And, yeah, that we elected the particular guy we elected is a major plus for us. We done good. Maybe we still got that mojo. Ain't no Brits, Germans, French, you name it, who will ever elect a black dude. We're still better.
BTW, Chief, I'm working on maybe being in your AO sometime the week after XMas. We'll be in the SF Bay Area for the day, but may go afterwards to see some young folks of whom we think highly in the Lake Oswego area. Plus my old buddy in Medford on the way back. Beer's on me if you'll be around. Give me an email address: can't find one here on the site.
Publius: We'll be here and would be proud to hoist one with you.
My callsign and freq: dlgellar@msn.com
I think you nailed it: I'm proud. Proud that we're still the country where the sons of immigrants, slaves and refugees can aspire to the ranks of the lofty and powerful. The old nations of Europe wouldn't, the Japanese and Chinese couldn't...we have a lot to do. But yesterday we made a good start.
Trust me, I want to believe, but I've seen far too much between what is said publically, and what is said privately.
Personally, I think Obama is going to have a devil of a time.
He's a political cherry in the midst of a whole bunch of grizzled old political veterans, and that savvy that carried him through the primaries, and the campaign is not going to be enough to get him through the upcoming bar-fight he's going to find himself in the middle of when he tries to enact his first piece of legislation.
I'm sure he'll get a couple of honeymoon passes...for legislation that conforms to what the old dogs want to punch through, but if he tries to enact something that steps on the toes of the old-timers...he's going to find out how much of a pollywog he truly is in his own party.
/sigh
As I said, I want to believe serious change that is good for the nation is on it's way, but that is all tempered by the realization that a lot of those tools that could chuck a wrench into the works are the same ones who were all singing, "on our way to Iraq!" with W back when.
Well China has to hold an election first, then we'll talk about electing a black man. Aaaaaany minute now...
Regarding Conan, the governator is proposing $4.4 billion in new taxes to pay California's deficit. I wonder if anyone's explained the meaning of the word "ironic" to Arnold considering he campaigned for a John "Obama's going to raise your taxes" McCain.
Leon
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