I feel incredibly lucky to be living in Chicago right now. From my office window, I’ve been watching the Obama rally tents go up for the last week. I’m surrounded by citizens who believe in a black man from the South Side of Chicago, whose street I used to run down when I lived in Hyde Park. Last night I went to the rally in Grant Park and cheered and screamed and celebrated because this wasn’t just a referendum on eight devastating years, this was a mandate for change. This was an uncynical, unjaded acceptance of the word hope.
I hope that President-elect Obama exhibits the same thoughtfulness and spirit of unification that he’s shown in his campaign, and I hope that the tears welling up as I type this won’t someday dry up out of contempt or cynicism. I’ve never been so involved in politics before—this is the first time I’ve ever given money to a campaign, the first time I’ve cared so much. Some people complain that Obama is all style and no substance, but I guarantee you that it’s not substance that’s inspired investment in his campaign, and it’s not style that’s kept us there.
A year ago, blogger Andrew Sullivan wrote a beautiful post that I was happy to see reposted today:
Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.
I suspect McCain sees this, too. The enormous crowd in Grant Park stood quietly during his concession speech and clapped respectfully when he finished. I wish we had seen this McCain during the campaign—he was moving and gracious, not bitter and defensive, and he clearly recognized the magnitude of this election. This also made me tear up:
In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.
And finally, the words of the 44th President of the United States of America:
Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, “We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.
More pictures and video here.
I totally need to follow his example about not falling back on pettiness and partisanship. When I found out the largest chunk of California’s Prop 8 supporters were black church going women, I thought about all of those women I volunteered with here in Indiana and it made me furious. Totally robbed my Obama buzz. Somehow I got to get all my hopey back!
How can anybody vote for a measure that begins with the words, “Do you want to eliminate the rights…”? Prop Hate definitely robbed me of some of my Obama buzz, too. But if a black man can get elected president in 2008, then someday we’ll all have equal rights, too.
How exciting to be in Grant Park Tuesday night! It must have been very moving. Obama gave a great speech and I loved the remark about those who hadn’t voted for him but he was their president too.
While I don’t remember W’s first acceptance speech, I remember the press conference the morning after the last election when he proclaimed tauntingly that he had earned some “political capital” and could apparently do whatever he wanted. I always thought that statement would doom him and turns out it did – he ends his presidency with two unfinished wars and a economy in the toilet. Gotta watch that karma.