my reaction to the election - not the time for cynicism

Wow, the dust has settled and we have a new president-elect! The general feeling I have about the election is relief! Not only was it a long election but the choices between the hopeful message of Obama and the fearful message of McCain were in stark contrast and I for one am very relieved hope prevailed.

But the feelings go far beyond relief. Obama is much more than the lesser of two evils. He is a phenomenal person. Look at the way he ran his campaign to the end. He really focused on positive messages and his calm cool attitude and message of hope is so refreshing and admirable. Of course the cynics will say he did what he did just to get elected. But at least he chose to try and get elected with a positive message rather than the message of fear that McCain resorted to and that has defined the Bush administration. Obama is intelligent, thoughtful, a loving father and husband, calm under pressure, and I believe he has the best of intentions both from his heart and mind. And it is so incredibly wonderful to have a leader that has these characteristics! It has been awhile since we have.

And besides being enjoyable to listen to and besides the fact he has a capable intellect, he happens to be half black. And this fact actually was impressed upon me most significantly on election night and during the initial reaction to his win. I must admit I was a bit teary eyed during his acceptance speech. Much of was what he said and how he said it, much of it was the view of the crowd, and much of it was the thought of what this meant to our country and the world who was watching. We all know what he said, it was beautiful, (as I must say was John McCain's speech that night - we are lucky he did not speak so eloquently throughout the campaign). I was struck by the crowd. Especially in contrast to McCain's crowd which was as white as snow. The crowd gathered to watch Obama was young and old, white and black, and just looked so beautiful in their happiness and diversity. And to see the Obama and Biden families on stage together. What a sight. What a day for America!

And the third thought I had that night was that the world was watching! America for quite some time has been a dominant country in the world. The global opinion of us had slipped dramatically with the presidency of Bush and our actions post 9/11. To an all time low in fact. In one night much of that has changed. We once again set the bar high for democracy. No other western country has done what we have done and I doubt any third world democracy has done it - to elect a member of a small minority (12%), a minority who has suffered incredible oppression, to be the leader of that country in open democratic (relatively) elections. And it wasn't just that he is black. The world recognized what a significant change Obama represented in American leadership and they were rooting for him overwhelmingly. Obama is not just an American leader, he is a world leader.

And then during the initial reaction to the election the significance was clarified for me even further. My cell phone was blowing up with text messages, the country, the world was celebrating. You could hear mother Earth make a huge sigh of relief. I received a call right away from a friend in Indonesia, and emails from South Africa to London. Some of the poignant reactions came from African American friends. It is easy as a white person to think we understand, but we do not, we can't. This was illustrated to me by friends. One talked about his dad who grew up in the south in the 50's. He said that this day was as likely to him as seeing aliens land on our planet. And a coworker of mine, one of my mentors really, someone I think of as being successful and confident told me that for the first time in his life did he truly believe he could be anything he wants to be. Think about that. That is such an incredible change right there. Imagine all the kids in this country and in the world who now have a whole different set of possibilities ahead of them. Imagine all the adults that do now too.

It makes me proud to be an American.

Now for the cynics! Even I have had a hard time shedding my cynicism towards our government. During the Bush years I was quite a cynic as we watched the administration get away with crimes against the constitution and humanity. And hearing Obama talk about which wars he would fight or watching him choose Wall Street and Washington insiders to run his transition team definitely ignited a bit of that cynic. But I am officially giving that up right now. and I will explain why I think we all should.

I agree with the positions of Ralph Nader on issues, more so than Obama in fact, but hearing Nader's cynicism about Obama after his election made me quite disgusted. Let's get real. We will not likely ever agree with every policy stance by any national political figure. That is part of the beauty of living in a free country, we can disagree and say it out loud. But I lost what little respect I had left for Nader when he could not put his differences with Obama aside for a minute, to feel some pride for the Nation and honor Obama for the man that he is.

I know the root of any cynicism is that Obama is a politician and the idea that Obama may not make everyone happy with what he does once he is in charge. The cynics ask will he really bring about change? Or will he smash our hopes with another corporate aligned administration? Many see a third Clinton administration as the worst case scenario and for others that in itself would be a welcome change from the past 8 years. We all have different ideas of what change we would like to see. But the undeniable fact is Obama has already brought change, he has already inspired hope, and I believe much of this will be here to stay and there will be many more positive changes to come.

Sure he has two unwinnable wars to deal with and the worst economy in generations. He won't be able to do everything he wants or that we want. But he is gonna dramatically change the course of this country and the world. A few examples:

First off, I am OK with the fact that Obama is surrounding himself by Washington and Corporate power houses. We know this is how Washington works and this is smart for a few reasons. First without insider knowledge of the players and the game, making change would be difficult. Plus the fact is we may want to change the way the system works but we are in a mess right now and we do want to avoid screwing things up with good meaning but ill informed change. And thirdly and perhaps most importantly Obama needs to be inclusive as to not alienate any powerful groups. He needs to bring all the players down the same road for true success. If he can keep the powerful players content while helping the players who have been previously left out he will be truly successful.

Two great examples of this is his plan to change our nation's policies towards the environment and labor. While he has much of the corporatist elite on his side, he also has talked extensively to labor and environmental leaders. He has an aggressive agenda to role back as many as 200 presidential directives of president Bush. He has teams of lawyers identifying the most controversial directives Bush made and compiling a list to reverse. These are things like Bush's decision to deny California the right to regulate it's own carbon dioxide emissions. With a stroke of a pen this will be a real game changer in the fight against global warming.
Bush has ignored his administration's own scientists in the FDA, EPA, NASA, and elsewhere and relaxed regulation on pollution, increased restrictions on stem cell research and taken away funding for it, and has prohibited family planning groups in other countries who receive US aid from counseling women on abortion, even when it is legal. These are the kinds of things Obama will change. He is talking with labor leaders, environmental leaders, scientists, as well as congressional leaders from both sides of the isle before taking action.

In fact as Bush leaves office he is planning on a wide range of his most controversial deregulatory actions in the coming months including wiping out rules on pollution, protecting endangered species, labor laws, and others. The Obama team is watching these moves and has vowed to overturn whichever last minute moves they can. Unfortunately it is easier to erase laws than to reinstate them.

And luckily there are people who Obama will certainly listen too like Gore who are pushing for quick and decisive action to fight global warming and making the argument that this is the action needed to help the economy and our national security.

Another example is the military. He seems to be pretty pro-military action but at the same time he has met at length with groups like Iraq Vets against the war and is clearly a level headed, diplomatically inclined leader.

So I truly believe that while he will be keeping the Empire running, he will be doing it with a good conscience, and what a change that will be. He will make green energy a focus, he will appoint competent experts to run departments like FEMA and the EPA rather than cronies and corporate hacks, he will end the war against the working class, he will improve our health care system, he will repair alliances with countries around the world, and he will close Guantanomo, return the rule of law to the justice department, and undo many of the bad policies of the Bush Administration.

In short he will make change a reality and that gives me Hope.

PS We need to join with groups that are working to lobby Obama and the congress to bring about the change we want to see. Don't just sit back and watch and then complain that he didn't do what you wanted. Get out in the street, organize your community, write letters, join Internet groups, and ask for what you want from your federal employees.