keep on baracking in the free world
Dear Internet,
I've been struggling to codify my political perspective and emotional experiences of the last 48 hours or so with my fair-to-middlin' talents in our native tongue. You'll forgive then, I pray, my recent resolve to speak plain. I assume, as fallen scribes often do, that an event marking a change in the arc of history, an inflection if you will, requires an equally arched set of words for description. So like other fair-to-middlin' scribes, I reach beyond my skill to grasp a whisp of wind far above my vulgar lexicon, hoping providence might find it carrying a stray parchment with a phrase or three that captures my emotions, rewards my faith, and makes me look like I can keep up with the bdars and the Unibrows of this blog-eat-blog world.
When in truth, the words need not sing to sound. They need not shout to be heard. They need not bleed to prove life. Sometimes the copywriters are right: it's better to be clear than be clever. And as such I offer the following:
Dear Internet, I am joyful, tearful, relieved, amazed, rewarded, and inspired by America's choice as her next President. Our next President.
Before the host of challenges in our future can temper or increase this emotion, I'd like to pause for a moment and reflect. As always, you're welcome to join me, if patience and opportunity allow.
I've been struggling to codify my political perspective and emotional experiences of the last 48 hours or so with my fair-to-middlin' talents in our native tongue. You'll forgive then, I pray, my recent resolve to speak plain. I assume, as fallen scribes often do, that an event marking a change in the arc of history, an inflection if you will, requires an equally arched set of words for description. So like other fair-to-middlin' scribes, I reach beyond my skill to grasp a whisp of wind far above my vulgar lexicon, hoping providence might find it carrying a stray parchment with a phrase or three that captures my emotions, rewards my faith, and makes me look like I can keep up with the bdars and the Unibrows of this blog-eat-blog world.
When in truth, the words need not sing to sound. They need not shout to be heard. They need not bleed to prove life. Sometimes the copywriters are right: it's better to be clear than be clever. And as such I offer the following:
Dear Internet, I am joyful, tearful, relieved, amazed, rewarded, and inspired by America's choice as her next President. Our next President.
Before the host of challenges in our future can temper or increase this emotion, I'd like to pause for a moment and reflect. As always, you're welcome to join me, if patience and opportunity allow.
- I am struck by the vast change in our national tenor and rhetoric from the near 1-to-0 shift of state from pre-election to post. I think McCain's concession, for example, was among the most graceful I've ever heard. Like others have said, were he to have struck that tone throughout, I think he'd have bettered his chance of winning the election. The ugly stump speeches from all corners of his campaign questioning who the "real Obama" was, championing the virtue of "real Virginia" and "real America," and inciting fear of "socialist" policies were remarkably distinct from the reputation of a measured, dignified conversative statesman McCain had enjoyed. A friend in Arizona wrote his sorrow at watching his senator shred his integrity. Yet again, consider that concession.
In so much as I believe in anything, I believe in the human power to repair ill will. I believe that, absent the weight of political machinations, even the most divergent of ideologues can find common ground in a basic definition of decency. I am at heart an optimist. Some might say naive. But I will not let cynicism destroy my most basic need--to find joy and beauty in the everyday drudge of living. When bitter campaigns end--and this has hardly been the most bitter--I delight in the recursive American shift to kindness. McCain's concession was not only gracious, but inspiring. And I choose to believe it better represents the man's character and philosophy than the venom spread by him and his campaign over the last many months.
- History. History. History. This is all I've heard over the the last day and a half. We just made history. And in truth, we did. Like adickers recently wrote, I cannot presume to understand the magnitude of meaning this victory holds for people with browner skin than mine. But I know in my heart that I and many more voters did not choose Obama to make history. Rather--and wait a moment, because I'm going to be clever here--we chose Obama to make the future.
We've probably taken the largest step forward in the collective American tilt against racism since Martin Luther King's day, but we haven't solved it. Not yet. Not with one election. In fact, I think for America to have chosen a "black" president, it would have to have been a politician skilled on the order of Barack Obama. The black candidate on the order of, say, George W Bush, still doesn't stand a chance in this country, not that there are a lot of legacy Yale grads and oil heirs sitting around the south side barbershop. And of course, like many have noted, were the black candidate the one who had divorced his wife and married a younger heiress or the one who had 5 kids and an "illegitimate" grandchild on the way, he wouldn't have stood a chance.
But that's all beside my desired point.
My desired point, and one that I think speaks well of the republic, is that race really didn't seem to be an issue during the campaign. It's history now that it's over. And I suppose it was about making history throughout to some. But I think the majority of voters (and sure, I'm projecting my point of view a bit), voted for the candidate that best matched their take on the issues.
And even if you should disagree with that, I think you can't disagree that Obama himself never made race or identity politics an issue--except when it was thrust on him by the negative campaigning of Clinton or McCain. I think it speaks well of the republic that we the people never forced him to make race a priority. Even though we can champion the historicity now that it's passed.
- I've been struggling with the notion that Obama won by circumstance. That is, that he somehow lucked his way into the White House.
For example, did he only win because of the timing of the financial crisis? Because of McCain's inept campaign?
And then I thought, "well, that's the job of the politician, isn't it? To position themselves as the answer to the public's most burning question?" Seriously, in quotes. Just like that.
And I'm comfortable with that. I'm comfortable with Obama not necessarily having as much support as election day suggests. I'm comfortable with 52% of American voters not agreeing with me, per se. I don't really expect that even 52 actual voters agree with me on all issues. Perhaps my candidate did make it in due in some small part to providence. But that's not different than any other president. And there's still the other, larger promise of leading by hope instead of fear.
Perhaps conservatives would prefer "grim resolve" to "fear," but whatever it's been, I won't miss it. American security isn't solely fueled by hate. There are alternative sources out there, and if Obama proves to be a good president, he'll manage them well. An ounce of prevention, after all.
- Well 2 out of 5 ain' t bad. At least, the big one.