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November 04, 2008
A Change Is Gonna Come
I am a bit of a mess today...
With due respect to the big, angry cynic who lives in my head and wants to cut everything down to the pieces that make sense... with due respect to the politics of all of it, including Obama's calm veneer as a safe black man and shrewd mechanic... with due respect to all of those who believe just as passionately about the political arguments coming from the right...
It is about hope.
It is about a nation so tied up in knots about race and religion and sex and difference.
It is about more that spouting hopeful words.
It is about a very real change... in my lifetime... from my father, who was born in 1917 and died in 1997 and who embodied all the dichotomies of living through that kind of change, to me... for the first time in America since the end of Vietnam and the revelations of Watergate...
We are moving into the next era four to eight to twelve years early by what seems to be our normal pace as a nation. That is an act of unusual maturity for this country.
It may not be true of everyone, but you can feel it out there... America is feeling something... America is choosing to take a chance on a guy who is not a machine candidate... a guy who turned the Democratic machine upside down... and we are rejecting fear - although has been pounded into our brains for over 7 months, by candidates of both parties - and we are, today, choosing hope. Real hope. Really different. Really beyond imagination.
When it ends, when there is a victory moment, assuming it’s Obama, I think even the hard, angry men and women of the right (which is not to say all the people of the right) who will lose a lot by losing this election, will feel that stirring in their hearts. It may be the wrong choice… but it is a choice to move forward.
With that, we have the chance of surviving our worst instinct at human beings. We are a step farther away from the mindset that seemed to be moving us inextricably towards our self-destruction.
And now and in the years to come, Obama will have to deliver to keep that hope alive.
But tragedy tomorrow… celebrate tonight. This is no small moment for America.
Sam
Otis
Al
Seal
Posted by dpoland at November 4, 2008 12:10 PM
Comments
I realized yesterday that for the last eight years there has been some comfort in not having voted for Bush either time. I watched as his popularity went down and down and down and thought, "Well I didn't vote for him, so this isn't my fault." Now it is going to be so very different.
Posted by: Stella's Boy ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at November 4, 2008 12:56 PM
I feel much the same way as you DP. I'm younger than you but still, when I walked out of my polling place today having voted Democrat for the first time-and meant it, I felt a huge sense of almost relief coupled by hopefulness that America doesn't let this one get away. Maybe the hopefulness was cynicism...but still. It's an emoitonal election and it truly means more to me than I ever thought an election could.
Posted by: don lewis (was PetalumaFilms) at November 4, 2008 01:02 PM
It is so refreshing to cast a ballot for a candidate and not against one.
Posted by: Stella's Boy at November 4, 2008 01:07 PM
For the record, Sam Cooke blows the rest out of the water on that track if you ask me.
Posted by: Kristopher Tapley at November 4, 2008 01:17 PM
"When it ends, when there is a victory moment, assuming it’s Obama, I think even the hard, angry men and women of the right (which is not to say all the people of the right) who will lose a lot by losing this election, will feel that stirring in their hearts. It may be the wrong choice… but it is a choice to move forward."
The trick, of course, is going to be keeping the man alive until January, and then for the next eight years. The country has a pretty clear history when it comes to charismatic agents of change. A big part of turning this corner will be finding a way to not have it end with a breathless newscaster telling us that the worst has happened -- again.
Posted by: JacksOrBetter at November 4, 2008 01:25 PM
"It is so refreshing to cast a ballot for a candidate and not against one."
Precisely how I feel, Stella's.
Posted by: storymark at November 4, 2008 01:51 PM
Hard to beat Cooke... especially when he's writing for himself...
Posted by: David Poland at November 4, 2008 02:03 PM
View me! Then vote for Dane...write his name!!!
Posted by: DaneCookForLife at November 4, 2008 02:06 PM
Anybody else starting to feel like they're at the end of The Candidate?
Posted by: sloanish at November 4, 2008 02:25 PM
"Anybody else starting to feel like they're at the end of The Candidate?"
That happened about 8 years ago.
Posted by: swordandpen at November 4, 2008 02:52 PM
Personally, I've been a huge fan of Kerry ever since living in Massachusetts for a few years back in the mid 90's, and was really excited when he ran, thinking him the most qualified candidate imaginable. I was happy to vote FOR him (as least as much as I was against Bush), but it's unfortunate he ran such a weak, spineless campaign. I don't know why they call Obama the most liberal member of the senate when I consider Kerry just as far left.
Posted by: lazarus at November 4, 2008 03:28 PM
sword, the problem is not with the president-elect but with the situation he's going to find himself in on January 20th.
Posted by: sloanish at November 4, 2008 06:16 PM
There's a new team in town. Time to put the other clowns down. It's time the people who sustain this country get their's. While those who have gotten away with fucking eight years of getting rich off of our work... get to carry the burdern. FUCK YEAH! IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME!
Posted by: IOIOIOI at November 4, 2008 06:52 PM
laz maybe living in Mass gives one a different perspective on Kerry. I didn't think him unqualified as much as I just found it hard to get revved up about his candidacy. He never inspired me or made me think, "Wow, I have got to vote for that guy and I can't wait to do so." And he did indeed run a very weak campaign.
Posted by: Stella's Boy at November 5, 2008 04:26 AM
DP, your timestamp is throwing my off here -- did you actually write this entry in the afternoon, before Obama quoted Cooke in his acceptance speech? 'Cause that's prognostication.
Posted by: Sean at November 5, 2008 08:08 AM
"I don't know why they call Obama the most liberal member of the senate..."
Because WHOEVER is running is always the most liberal member of the Senate: Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004, Hillary and Edwards in this year's primaries until Obama pulled ahead. It's one of the dopiest of all GOP tropes, and thank God people finally stopped falling for it.
Posted by: Cadavra at November 5, 2008 03:16 PM
I did, Sean. But I was inspired by seeing the Seal video on Andrew Sullivan's blog.
Posted by: David Poland at November 5, 2008 05:13 PM
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