Wanted to post something about the elections last Wednesday, but I was too exhausted, then sick, then exhausted again. Now on my holiday (thank you government employment), I can share my thoughts.
Last week was watching the online polling since 7:00 (sure beat the TV and listening to pundits). I didn't let myself celebrate anything until I saw that Barack Obama won California.
Actually, that's a lie. I did a little dance when Obama won Pennsylvania. After seeing spectacles like the one below...
I didn't want to see those people cheer at having their state go red.
"Go out and find an Obama button to wear, but go in there and vote McCain-Palin; I mean, that's the safest way to get in and out of a polling place in Philadelphia today."
-Rush Limbaugh, From his November 4th program
At first I regretted not trying to tune to Rush's show the day after the election. I wanted to see how lost for words he would be. Then I read quotes like the one below.
"I would like to congratulate President-Elect Barack Obama, ladies and gentlemen. Without Obama, we would still be dealing with the specter of Hillary Clinton lurking around the Democrat Party, seeking the White House."
--Rush Limbaugh, from his November 5th program.
Idiots like that are never lost for words. I do want to print some of these quotes out though. Even now, Rush, like the other extremist-mouthpieces, is putting all his money on Sarah Palin. Someone needs to freeze these glowing statements from die-hard supporters heralding her as the next Ronald Reagan, in the hopes that they can thaw out and eat these words in another four years.
With that last Rush quote I am actually hitting myself (more) for debating with Lynne that racism would trump sexism. Boy was I the doofus in that argument.
Rush and others of his ilk are right on one thing, though. The republicans lost this year largely because McCain tried to be an actual moderates (a couple of times). Poetic justice. Democrats have been losing for years (almost intentionally, it seems) by catering to people who were insane. The Republicans trying to cater to sane people and the lunatics was just too ironic and ultimately just as successful as the Democrats' attempts to cater to all sides.
To McCain's credit, I saw a TV clip where he was trying to talk sense to a crowd, telling them that Obama was not an Arab and that people didn't have to fear him. Compared to the tactics that kept Bush in office in 2004 (fear of French, fear of married gays), that's admirable, though perhaps not saying much, given the fact that he still tried to sell his credentials to these people and succeeded with millions of votes.
I've been saying for years that the Democrats can't cater to both sides because one side is insane. McCain tried to do the same with the insane side already in his camp. Thankfully, this time they weren't in the majority.
Also poetically just was the fact that commentators and critics complained about the race issue and how it susposedly made Obama untouchable. Not that his race mattered in relation to his views, whcih were pretty much comparable to McCain's. Bombing Afghanistan instead of Iraq as a strategy doesn't make you a radical anti-war candidate.
Still, people screamed no fair while people like the ones in the above YouTube video rallied together to bring up race the one way it could be: with immaturity, fear, and racism. Other than that, it didn't matter. To those people I say this. Obama's race was the equivalent of Bush's "9/11" card that kept him office for almost a decade. Deal with it the way we had to.
I am still skeptical of Obama and don't know if he's going to be the savior everyone thinks he'll be. I wonder if this feeling is shared. Do others feel the same? Is this why I didn't see a lot of rallying at Stone Soup the night before the election? Is that why the mood at the Cantab the day after Obama's win seemed a little stiffled? That's ultimately why my victory poems were not read that night. I din't hope for Obama until after it was certain he would win (or maybe it was when he was against Hillary alone. Having voted since 1992, I didn't want to keep going from Bush and Clinton to Bush and Clinton). Maybe it's hypocritical of me to march in the victory parade.
Maybe we've had eight years of boot rallying and parades declaring victory after victory and now, finally having something that feels like a victory, more and more Americans are exercising their newfound right to stop the parades and just wait and see.
Last week was watching the online polling since 7:00 (sure beat the TV and listening to pundits). I didn't let myself celebrate anything until I saw that Barack Obama won California.
Actually, that's a lie. I did a little dance when Obama won Pennsylvania. After seeing spectacles like the one below...
I didn't want to see those people cheer at having their state go red.
"Go out and find an Obama button to wear, but go in there and vote McCain-Palin; I mean, that's the safest way to get in and out of a polling place in Philadelphia today."
-Rush Limbaugh, From his November 4th program
At first I regretted not trying to tune to Rush's show the day after the election. I wanted to see how lost for words he would be. Then I read quotes like the one below.
"I would like to congratulate President-Elect Barack Obama, ladies and gentlemen. Without Obama, we would still be dealing with the specter of Hillary Clinton lurking around the Democrat Party, seeking the White House."
--Rush Limbaugh, from his November 5th program.
Idiots like that are never lost for words. I do want to print some of these quotes out though. Even now, Rush, like the other extremist-mouthpieces, is putting all his money on Sarah Palin. Someone needs to freeze these glowing statements from die-hard supporters heralding her as the next Ronald Reagan, in the hopes that they can thaw out and eat these words in another four years.
With that last Rush quote I am actually hitting myself (more) for debating with Lynne that racism would trump sexism. Boy was I the doofus in that argument.
Rush and others of his ilk are right on one thing, though. The republicans lost this year largely because McCain tried to be an actual moderates (a couple of times). Poetic justice. Democrats have been losing for years (almost intentionally, it seems) by catering to people who were insane. The Republicans trying to cater to sane people and the lunatics was just too ironic and ultimately just as successful as the Democrats' attempts to cater to all sides.
To McCain's credit, I saw a TV clip where he was trying to talk sense to a crowd, telling them that Obama was not an Arab and that people didn't have to fear him. Compared to the tactics that kept Bush in office in 2004 (fear of French, fear of married gays), that's admirable, though perhaps not saying much, given the fact that he still tried to sell his credentials to these people and succeeded with millions of votes.
I've been saying for years that the Democrats can't cater to both sides because one side is insane. McCain tried to do the same with the insane side already in his camp. Thankfully, this time they weren't in the majority.
Also poetically just was the fact that commentators and critics complained about the race issue and how it susposedly made Obama untouchable. Not that his race mattered in relation to his views, whcih were pretty much comparable to McCain's. Bombing Afghanistan instead of Iraq as a strategy doesn't make you a radical anti-war candidate.
Still, people screamed no fair while people like the ones in the above YouTube video rallied together to bring up race the one way it could be: with immaturity, fear, and racism. Other than that, it didn't matter. To those people I say this. Obama's race was the equivalent of Bush's "9/11" card that kept him office for almost a decade. Deal with it the way we had to.
I am still skeptical of Obama and don't know if he's going to be the savior everyone thinks he'll be. I wonder if this feeling is shared. Do others feel the same? Is this why I didn't see a lot of rallying at Stone Soup the night before the election? Is that why the mood at the Cantab the day after Obama's win seemed a little stiffled? That's ultimately why my victory poems were not read that night. I din't hope for Obama until after it was certain he would win (or maybe it was when he was against Hillary alone. Having voted since 1992, I didn't want to keep going from Bush and Clinton to Bush and Clinton). Maybe it's hypocritical of me to march in the victory parade.
Maybe we've had eight years of boot rallying and parades declaring victory after victory and now, finally having something that feels like a victory, more and more Americans are exercising their newfound right to stop the parades and just wait and see.
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