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On Obama's Victory
Senator Barack Obama is now president-elect of the United States of America. His victory in Tuesday's election was not quite a landslide but as these things go, it was certainly impressive. The chasm between the amount of votes that went to Obama versus those that went for Senator John McCain was staggering. In fact, it was a chasm that no bridge the McCain-Palin camp could build would span. It was a chasm that represented America and how Americans felt about a host of issues we currently face as a nation and which leader we desire to guide and direct our nation over the coming four years. In 2004, I remember watching George W. Bush defeat John Kerry and wondering what qualities Bush would bring to his second term. For his first term, Bush had gone from being a man who seemed nice enough and appeared to truly care about his nation to someone who brought about the invasion of Iraq and a war that now, in 2008, is still ongoing. Despite George W. Bush's priority of counter-terrorism, I feel that little has been accomplished even on a near-term tractical level to really reduce the chances of a terrorist attack on the United States. Given that no serious terrorist action since 9/11 has had its roots in Iraq, I really wonder why our emphasis is there rather than on nations such as Egypt and Syria where we know there to be terrorist cells. Sure, it's not an easy task to root out such cells and it requires time and the help of other nations, but in the long run, stamping out continued terroristic threats will take a multifaceted approach. 9/11, a date so known it can be written as I just did instead of the proper long-form of 11 September 2001, has become the rocket behind America's trajectory in international affairs ever since, and to be sure, it was a horrible day in our history and a terrible attack against our nation. However, there are places the world over where bombs explode every day, where child soldiers are forced to fight in wars, where people lack basic mechanisms of health care and benefits such as running water that we take for granted in these United States. On 9/11 the commonplace terror of the developing world and places like Ireland and Spain where strife has long been an undercurrent of life came home to our own nation, and it scared us badly. It scared us into being afraid of ourselves, our future, our international neighbors. It scared us into being cloistered away and fearing those different from ourselves nevermind that we, ourselves, as Americans are oft very different from one and another. I could quote a number of things Barack Obama has said about Americans, our diversity, and the need for us all in these tough times to be united with one and the other, but instead I will quote something John McCain said last night in his speech: he told his supporters that his first association is as an American. Before being a Republican or anything else, he is an American. And I believe him, I honor his service to this nation and respect his desire to serve it further, but in Barack Obama we have a man who will, if we let him, unite us. Many people I know who wished to see John McCain win the election desired such because they believed he would better understand the economy and also our military situations abroad. Whether or not McCain has a good grasp on the current economic status of America or not will not, in fact, be the way out of this tough situation. Nor will Obama as if by magic conjure up a solution to our fiscal woes. However, I expect Obama will surround himself with advisors who will provide sage wisdom and from day one he has promised to be open and honest with the American public. George W. Bush, on the other hand, took just how long before he even admitted we faced a serious economic downturn? Part of the appeal in Obama for me is that he knows that he needs to be the agent of change but he also knows he alone cannot make this manifest: he must reach across party lines and he must ask for help from all Americans. Where McCain desires to keep us in Iraq, I do not see a wise military leader but someone either too stubborn to backtrack on Bush's mistakes or someone simply caught, like the proverbial deer, in the headlights of a sweeping eight years of Bush Doctrine and policy promoted by Condi Rice and her Vulcans. McCain may have been a war hero, but as Obama has said, it takes more than a good soldier (or sailor, or airman) to lead. It takes a man of vision, but one who is ready to allow in the visions and advice of others. America possibly faces some of her toughest years in her long and varied history right here, right now. We face untold threats from possibly nuclear powers including some who may share their horrible weapons with terrorists; we face a growing energy problem in that we have for far too long believed that petrochemical fuels will be ample enough to fuel our cars, our planes, and nearly everything else that moves about with an engine. We face an economy based in large part on want, and not need, and thus the consumer retail market is such that if we do hit harder times and people must spend less, some will greatly suffer due to the loss of income and jobs as Americans can no longer spend on non-essential items as we have since the 1950s. Our real estate market, once robust in many regions, is now dismal. We face rough challenges, and we face possibly even more uncertain challenges yet to come. In such times, governments and entire cultures that survive do so via adaptation and banding their talents together. Look at the Inka, the Mayans, the vast empire of Rome and look at how all good things did, in some sense, come to an end because you had ways of life and people who would not, perhaps for reasons in part lost to history, change when they needed change. Currently, the United States does not, thankfully, face its demise but we do face challenges that may mark many further trajectories in our nation's course predicated on the choices we make here and now. When Barack Obama said he was an agent of hope and change he did not just mean a change from eight years of the Bush Administration. He meant, I believe, that he wishes to change government, that he wishes to change for the better the status of American lives and even insofar as possible the world itself. In his victory speech he mentioned a woman who was 106 years old who voted in Atlanta and how her long life had afforded her to see so many pages of history written out and how he hoped, should his own daughters be blessed with such long lives, they would note the positive changes wrought by America. Not just changes during the tenure of President Obama but the changes under other leaders, the changes brough about by other Americans. I wanted Obama to win this election, and I am delighted he has. I would be just as delighted to see, years from now, Sarah Palin still contributing in a positive way to her nation. She and I may not agree on many things, but I believe her heart is in the right place because I believe she, like John McCain and like Barack Obama, is first an American before all else. One of the main motifs of Obama's victory speech was that the hard work starts now, the work for all of us starts now, and that we have a long road ahead. I believe in the talents and desires and hopes of those of my friends who see things as I do myself, but I believe just as much in those who have other views yet are sincere in their desire to make our nation the best it can become. To the person who believes Obama is only out to tax and spend, please listen to him, read what he has written, consider the real goals he has set. To those who look at him and only see a black man, consider he is half white and under no circumstances should the color of his skin even matter. If a one-eyed iguana had run for president with ideas and dedication as astute as those Barack Obama presented I would have voted for it. To the person who is cynical and believes that no real change can come in our way of government, recall that our whole system is one that from its core is built on the concept of change and the idea of having something better than we had before. Our system of government is founded on the concept that every vote matters, every American can pursue their ideals, their goals, in a free nation. To the person who voted for McCain and wants no part of whatever they feel Obama will bring to the White House, consider this: I know people in their late teens who voted for Bush but would have supported President Kerry had things taken that turn because he would be our president. Despite their young ages, they knew that being loyal to America is not predicated on the party or fellow in office. We will not always agree with the man (or woman) in the Oval Office but we can always know, I think, that whomever has the drive to rise to such high office desires to see our nation become better than it was when he or she entered office. If John McCain was entering that White House, he and Sarah Palin would have just as much of my own loyal dedication to furthering the greatness of our nation as Barack Obama and Joe Biden have today. I encourage all reading this to support our incoming president and vice-president, to reach out to your neighbors, to see where you can make a difference. Barack Obama was, in nearly every sense, a most uncommon American to become president. He was not someone whom we would have expected even when most of us first heard of him a mere four years ago this past August as the person who would win this race today, but he is a man who believes in change. And he is a man, obviously, who has inspired massive amounts of hope. Those are not qualities he has trademarked and locked up as his own, but qualities of America and Americans. They are qualities we can all in like spirit encourage and represent. Let's make this nation again the best in the world. MIKE WALKER is a writer and journalist based in Gainesville, Florida. He covers topics germane to history, military history, and ecology for this and other news media and has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals in the fields of history, the life sciences, and the liberal arts. He may be reached via email at: cloudrace@prontomail.com |
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