Reactionary

Late last night the honking of the car horns and the screaming and yelling started up again, this in a city that has just seen its baseball team win the World Series. There were no fireworks last night, but the enthusiasm was no less than the night the Phillies won that last game. Never in my life have I seen so much enthusiasm for an election, never would I have imagined I’d see such a thing. All the horrible things that have happened the last few years, even unto this financial meltdown that’s evaporated my investments, will be worth it to see this. I have long been a proponent of popular involvement in politics since this form of government needs citizen participation to survive. How depressing it is to see people more interested in the vulgar antics of a brainless hotel heiress than the turning of the wheels of politics and public policy. Long have I said if you do nothing, you are not entitled to complain. This enthusiasm, CNN on every TV, college students spending their weekends registering voters, points of Constitutional law being discussed over lunch, is such an exciting change that I cannot express how happy that makes me. 

In full disclosure, I voted for Obama, but I am far from anyone who would go screeching down Broad Street at 1AM nor did I have any wish to stay up and watch the results. What I felt in the morning was relief, relief that that horrible woman wouldn’t be anywhere near the White House. I’m neither a religious wingnut nor an atheist. I’m not a trust fund baby neither am I particularly sensitive to the plight of the poor. My motivation for voting the way I did was presenting a 180 degree away from W to the world, especially our faithful allies because no one can go it alone. I also favor articulate speech and obvious intelligence. I’ve never been one for men “of the people”. I favor a national health care policy though I liked Clinton’s plan better. Note that I don’t call it a national health insurance plan. Health care must get away from its nonsensical insurance model. How can you insure something guaranteed to fail? But I digress. I also feel very strongly that oil-fueled energy is not only a national safety issue but horribly outdated. The environment needs more protection even if it’ll hurt. There is no more time and the only measures left are drastic ones and sudden drastic changes always hurt. On all these points, I felt Obama fulfilled my requirements for chief executive better than McCain.

Obama’s election has made the rest of the world very happy and while I’m not a proponent of doing anything to make anyone happy, it’s truly a moment of solidarity with old allies. Let’s not squander it. His success in being self-made, a child of a single mother who got himself through Harvard and onto the political stage, is a welcome change from W’s hoisting to the top only with the shield of his parents’ money and influence. (Imagine W as a the son of a blue collar couple in Texas instead. He would have stayed where he’d been dropped.) Obama’s success is being hailed by survivors of the Jim Crow years as a sort of victory for them and all they suffered. That’s all fine, but by the same token, it repudiates all notions of racism etc holding anyone down. It proves if you work hard enough and are the right kind of person, you’ll make it. You’re the only person who puts limits on yourself other than the ones nature herself hasn’t doled onto you. I never want to hear that stupid race card argument ever again. You’re responsible for your own success as well as your own failure. Call things by their true names. Wingnuts like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will hopefully begin to realise what this means for them and their more radical views. They’ve been proven wrong just as they get what they’ve wanted. Oh, the irony.

In spite of all the delusions by the more optimistic who are hailing today as a new day or a new world or whatever, reality calls. Reality’s a bitch, isn’t it. The Great Equalizer. We’re in a recession. The world is violent and the military overstretched. Even when President Obama takes office in January, the land will not suddenly flow with milk and honey nor will there be peace and justice throughout the land. The disappointment of the delusional not withstanding, this doesn’t concern me more than the problems do in and of themselves. It makes me wonder what the delusionals’ world views are like or if they’re really that black and white and simplistic in their thinking. I guess I’ve never felt that powerless or that ill-informed. The Constitution provides for almost crippling shackles on all branches of government, one on another, and the one real boss is the populace. The one person I trust and the one person on this earth I can change and challenge and demand anything of is the same one whose eyeshadow I do every morning. The President is a mere figurehead for the country, important but not the most important. The real power comes from the streets and neighborhoods and internet, in involvement or silence. Americans, the real President is you. Don’t forget it. Don’t hand off the reins.

I voted for him, I employed him. I’ll demand some kind of return and I’ll read everything and write and opine where I see fit. I don’t let anyone off the hook and I’ll be hard on him because if I don’t, I fail myself and that’s the person I’m hardest on the most. I expect it also from the masses of latte-sipping, New-York-Times-reading, arugula-chomping wiseguys in black. Use your education for something. You’re the group who turned this election. The world is watching, Arugulites.

November 6th, 2008 | Category: Life, News |  Print |  Send it | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL