I’ve been avoiding the temptation to write a political post in this blog. As my friends and acquaintances know, I’m prone to long political monologues and treatises which, with the recent plethora of similar postings filling the Web to the brim, I worried would seem trite, repetitive or even base when compared to the relative expertise of many of the eyes upon the election. However, I’d like to share some personal thoughts about this year’s election results and describe the feeling of being alive, in Oakland, at this very special time.
I remember when I was first introduced to Barack Obama. It was 2004, and Joe Klein at Time has just run this article: “The Audacity of Hope.” I had missed Obama’s appearance at the DNC and I’d been feeling and inevitable sense of dread about John Kerry’s chances against Bush. But, here was a man who was neither familiar nor immediately repulsive. Hell, even his NAME was interesting. Barack Obama. I admit, I had the immediate doubts about my countrymen that, at that time, were easy to have: Americans will not elect a black man, particularly one named Obama, to president.
But I was curious. Who is this stranger to the political scene? I immediately YouTube’d his speech from the DNC. I watched a man who was young, charismatic, and very, very smart, grab an audience by the lapels and say “We NEED You.” There was no anger in his voice, no aggression; only a sense of pride in a nation so woefully cast aside by many of my generation. I became a believer and, for the first time in my life, I’d found a politician I could admire.
I’ll spare you a summation of what happened next, except to say that four years of bullshit caused half of Bush’s second term to be during the next presidential campaign. On Tuesday, November 4th, the culmination of two years of campaigning, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in an undeniable landslide.
I was at Luka’s in downtown Oakland with three of the people I care most about in the world. I cannot imagine a better place to be. At 8:00pm, CNN called PA for Obama and the bar went wild. People were hugging and cheering and crying. I’d never witnessed and election like this, and I’d never witnessed such rejoicing for a candidate’s success. Oakland is a perfect embodiment of Obama’s target audience: liberal, middle class, young and sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I’m proud of our country, and while the election was tainted by the victory of Prop. 8, I’m sure that the next 4 years will lay the groundwork for a new century. We’ve been clinging hopelessly (politically, economically and socially) to the “American Century” instead of forging a national identity for the century we live in now. Many Americans have been afraid, and rightfully so, that if the “American” era ends, we will inevitably lose our influence and therefore our potency as a world power. Well, the era is over… the new century (which, c’mon people, we’re well into) is a time for the whole world, not just superpowers. The landscape is changing in global politics, and the key to success will no longer be dominance, but true politicking - compromise, cooperation and compassion.
Progress is all we can hope for, so let’s make sure we’re hoping for the right first steps. There’s a long hole we have to climb out of… so let’s drop the shovels and climb on each other’s shoulders.
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