Last night, I sat on the couch in our living room, my husband on an adjacent couch, and watched history being made. It was also a special evening for another reason. Daughter had called me a few hours before the polls closed and asked if it was all right if she came over and stayed overnight with us, since she has a late start for school the next morning and her first class wouldn’t start until 9am. It would be the first time she stayed overnight with us. Her life at home with her mom and half-brother has been getting increasingly hectic so it was nice that she could come to us for some peace. She’s talking of getting a part-time job near us and staying with us on nights she works, so we will hopefully see a lot more of her.

Daughter was in the shower when John McCain gave his extraordinarily gracious concession speech, talking of new president elect Barack Obama’s acquisition of his respect, how our democracy has performed its function in the election and he hears the will of the people spoken loudly and clearly (Obama winning more than 2 to 1 in electoral votes), and how despite their differences in opinion, McCain has, in his congratulatory phone call to Obama, offered Obama his support and help in running this country as “my president.” He urged his supporters to join together as Americans to heal and strengthen our country under the guidance of the upcoming 44th president of the United States. Daughter was still in the shower when Barack Obama gave his “yes we can” speech full of optimism and hope and faith that we will overcome our present two wars, the worst economic condition in 100 years, and severed international relations, and we will rise again and be great as a united people. He promised to be honest with us and to always listen to us, “especially when we disagree.” He outlined all the major healing to be done, warned us the uphill battle is steep, and it may take more than a year, even more than one term, to turn this country around, but that change IS at hand, and anything is possible, and “yes we can.” And then daughter came down and sat with us as we all watched and discussed the Proposition results as they started rolling in. So far, without all precincts reporting, Prop 8 is ahead. Daughter had just gone through a school-wide mock election of their own (letting high school students vote on the same issues on our ballot) and she had been in support of Proposition 8, but seemed to understand my perspective on it when I explained the “banana ban” analogy to her. And then later, she cheerily hugged us goodnight and went upstairs to bed.

So some candid thoughts on this stuff, since I threw PC out the window in my last post anyway. I want to nakedly record my memories about this election that lead to this point. Don’t read on if you’re so political that you’re gonna get offended.

I’ve been disappointed and ashamed of the immaturity of a number of McCain supporters.
* A few weeks ago, there was a woman on the news, all beat-up looking with a black eye, who reported to the police that she was at a gas station pumping gas in her car when she was robbed by a stranger. After taking her stuff, he looked at the McCain/Palin sticker on her car and then because of that, alleged beat her up and damaged her car. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin personally called her to check up on her and to give her their sympathies. The implication is that Obama supporters are barbaric and criminal. And then, a week later, investigations find that SHE WAS LYING. She had apparently fallen unconscious at some point and had no idea WHAT happened to give her the bruises, and made up the whole beat-up-at-the-gas-station-by-an-Obama-supporter story. What does this say about McCain people and what they’d stoop to, to create negative publicity for Obama supporters?!
* I heard an interview on the news around the same time period about an older black man who, because he has an Obama/Biden sticker on his car, took extra care to be courteous and polite to people he meets, BECAUSE he doesn’t want to give haters an opportunity to judge him and hence judge Obama’s campaign and character based on his supporters’ behaviors. It’s a sad commentary on what social environment this man felt he lived in, and what he has enough discipline and resolve to overcome starting with one man’s — his own — actions. What does that say about Obama supporters?
* I was DISGUSTED when McCain gave his concession speech last night and as soon as he mentioned Barack Obama’s name, his camp actually BOO-ED. McCain, who’d done his share of mudslinging in his campaigning style, had to put his hands up repeatedly to silence the crowd’s hostility. This is still our next president, people, whether you wanted the other guy to win or not. Oh, and I was really proud of Americans when the polls showed that whenever McCain dealt low-blows during his campaign against Obama, that his popularity actually went DOWN. He’d hurt himself by trying to mudsling the opponent.

I’m nervous about the really high expectations various people have in our next president, and how they may judge him if he doesn’t walk on water adequately enough to people’s demands.
* I work around a lot of black coworkers and the whole way through, they were saying that if Barack Obama doesn’t get elected, it would be because of this country’s racism. I have heard smatterings of promises of riots among malcontent black Americans if the “white guy” wins again. There was a recent exit poll taken under the subtitle of “Who’s REALLY racist?” and it shows that 50% of white men voted for Obama, over 60% of women, over 80% of Hispanic voters, and 96% of black voters voted for Obama. It seems from my own experience also, that many black Americans are the ones who REALLY see color lines today and are supersensitive to perceived prejudice. So I’m thinking that our black votes for Obama did so largely NOT because they truly stand behind his platform and beliefs, but simply because he’s black. They forget he’s also half white. They didn’t see that, as Colin Powell pointed out, Barack Obama ran not as a black man, but as an American. Nothing in Obama’s campaign and nothing in his victory speech last night lauded black power; instead, he mentioned a variety of groups as a unified American whole — “black, white, Hispanic, Asian, gay, straight, disabled, not disabled,” “not red states and blue states.” He talked about the progress reflected in this country’s history, mentioned not only black history but also Lincoln, women’s suffrage, our original founding fathers. So what I’m getting at in a long-winded way, is that I’m afraid the people who voted for him ONLY because he’s African American will expect him to do impossible things for the African American community, and if he doesn’t, or if he looks out for the better interest of the country as a whole (in which black America is still a minority), they will call him a sell-out or Uncle
Tom.
* He harped on “change” as his platform. I hope people aren’t unrealistic about what they expect to happen overnight. The war is not going to go away tomorrow. International differences are not going to settle next week in a magical civil conference. He is still one man who is subject to a government controlled by checks and balances.

Proposition 8’s passing.
* I don’t know what to think about a state that is so progressive it votes a black man into presidencial office by such a large margin, but at the same time is bigoted enough to pass Prop 8 and go backwards in progress.
* College roommie texted me earlier today: “What’s with all the so cal people voting for pro 8? Only bay area and nor cal coast voted against it.” I wish I could’ve voted against it. I hear a large part of its passing is due to the Mormon votes. You know, the people who think it’s okay to have multiple wives. Around me, I see the Christians and Catholics supporting it. How could people think depriving a small group of Americans their basic civil right to marry their loved one is Constitutional? Is that what Jesus would do?! In talking to the adamant supporters of Prop 8, it appears they’re all delusional enough to think that passing Prop 8 is a demonstration of OPEN-MINDEDNESS and ACCEPTANCE. They say the homosexual community is trying to force their agenda down everyone else’s throats and this stops them. WHAAAAAT???

My thoughts and feelings on this presidential win so far.
* I like him. Not because of I’m a Democrat or because he’s a minority figure. I like that he’s calm, educated, hard-working, open-minded, respectable and honorable. I like that he was able to stand against an opposing campaign full of low blows and mudslinging and not stoop to that level. I like that despite the “inconsistencies” the other campaign accused him of having, when you look at the facts, he’s been consistent. He’s always had this Palestinian friend from Harvard. He’s always had his differences with this professor, despite his friendship and respect for him. He’s always voted for Israel despite his friendship with this Palestinian friend. When a big to-do was made about the supposedly scandalous video tape showing his “support for terrorists” at the party of that Palestinian friend, in that tape even THEN he’s shown as saying that he’s sat at the dinner table with this friend and friend’s wife, and that those dinner conversation disagreements have made him aware of his own biases and presumptions, and that he hopes to continue these disagreement conversations for years to come, and that all around the world, people should be having these conversations. I like that he stood by that again in his speech last night, giving us the hope that he will sit down and have these conversations with international disputes, too. It shows a humility and maturity that says, “If we disagree, I could be wrong, and I would like to hear your reasons so that I may see if I should change my position.”
* I don’t expect him to walk on water and create miracles to heal our country. But I am comfortable under his leadership. I’m not scared under his lead. I think I would have been uncomfortable and scared under anyone else. But I trust him and have faith in his future decisions based on what I’ve seen him do thus far. (Plus, if he’s your cookie-cutter politician who cheats on his wife and sells his soul, that surely would’ve surfaced with the McCain campaign run the way it had.)
* It takes a strong man to want to take over our drowning panicking country at this time, when everything seems to be failing us. Countries hate us, we’re self-destructing from the inside-out, we’re in war. This is not a prestigious time when he could just step into a gravy situation and reap its riches. He has to really want to take the reins and make the hard decisions, to be scrutinized and criticized and condemned by our country, to guide us back on course for the greater good at even greater personal sacrifice. Kinda reminds me of our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
* Nevertheless, I am nervous about various Democratic principles that I can’t get behind in my present state. I don’t like giving those who take advantage of the system continuous access to this country’s teats at the hard-working people’s expense. I don’t like having laws about immigration and then not enforcing them. I don’t like paying for people to keep committing illegal acts.

I guess we’ll all see how it goes.