Barack Hussein Obama wins the Presidential election. I love it when things that are sure to be milestones in human history occur during my lifetime. It will give me license at some point in my life to tell stories starting with, “I remember when….”
Sure let’s state the obvious, BHO is the first black President of the United States of America. Okay, yes a milestone considering that not to many years ago a black person had to sit at the back of the bus and drink out of water fountains marked, “For coloreds only”. America has come a long way. Or has it? Maybe our prejudices have just changed or been re focused? Maybe racism or prejudice had absolutely nothing to do with this election at all?
What I saw during this campaign and election was a country hungry for a status quo. For quite a few years now America was content being fed a steady diet of the Whys and What for’s. Fresh from a presidency of relative peace and prosperity we were told that the national budget was not only balanced but had actually given birth to a surplus. National turmoil mimicked reality TV created under the desk of our political savior. National debate rose around the definition of what sex really meant at the same time our military shrank to but a shadow of what it was at the end of the cold war. Walls fell and we were fat and well fed, eons apart from soup lines, world wars, nuclear bomb shelters. Hey, these guys knew what they were doing.
We then moved into an era where we were told that if we were given some of our money back and got to keep more of what we would earn in the future, the country itself would ride the wave of prosperity into the foreseeable future. Three airplanes and two wars later, lo and behold the New York Stock Exchange was still above 13,000 and your house was worth 4 times what you paid for it. Hey these guys know what they are doing.
After a double dose of Democrats and a Double dose of Republicans where have all these gains gone? Most of us know the meaning of sex now and can correctly pronounce nuclear. Even more obvious to us, we can see the current value of our homes (Which for many Americans is ZERO) and the balance of our 401k’s (Which for many Americans might as well be ZERO considering retirement may be just around the corner.) We are being told that Social Security won’t exist much longer but the wars will. That our kids have to say happy holidays at school instead of Merry Christmas for fear of angering some organization or another, but then those same groups want Islam and the Jewish beliefs to be taught in public schools so as to foster understanding and tolerance. Wouldn’t you want to know if your child wanted to get an abortion? Ever anguish over the fact that your loved one will be leaving for his/her 5th tour of duty in some country you were never taught to locate on a map, or that you don’t have a job because the company you worked for decided it was cheaper to do business in another country? Maybe, they don’t know what they are doing. Maybe they never did.
When we don’t have to answer the tough questions we can stay in the boat a little longer. When the ugly things come home, we start to be concerned. When you can see it affecting your ability to protect and provide for those that you love, you might think it is time to do something about it. We can jump off the boat or row it to someplace we want to be.
Bush claimed during the last election that he was given a “mandate” by the people to do what he needed to do to preserve life, liberty, and the American way. His misinterpretation came when he overstepped the real mandate of basically maintaining a certain status quo. President Elect Obama has been re-issued the “mandate” that Bush had been given yet slightly more daunting, to return America to the lifestyle to which it had become accustomed. At best, Mr. Obama will be expected to make the real changes that all politicians promise they will bring yet rarely truly deliver, at the very least he must return America to the level of “status quo” that it had become accustomed to. If he can accomplish either level of this “mandate” he will have put the woken giant back to sleep and will then enjoy many years governing the well fed slumbering masses, thus ensuring 12 possibly 16 years of Democratic rule in the White House.
I contend the real milestone about this election was that it was a true display of people empowering themselves to make a difference. Enough people wanted to do something for themselves that it actually made a difference for a country. Isn’t it wonderful what can happen when enough like minded people get together? What is the real limit of what can be accomplished? Is there a limit at all?
In truth my hero is Obama himself. Not the politician but the man. This man believed in himself and had the vision and fortitude to overcome every obstacle in his life. He accomplished exactly what he had set out to do. He took control of his life so that he could protect and provide for those that he loves. Somebody at some point of his life told him anything was possible, his real strength is that he believed it and lived his life accordingly. I believe enough people saw this and wanted to be part of it. Never mind political experience and longevity. It is this extreme and powerful kind of positivism that I expect of myself and want for all of you.
