Posted on 11/05/2008 5:50:51 AM PST by shortstop
It is a sea change, but not a mandate. And that's not a hit on Barack Obama, it is a challenge.
A challenge to make his rhetoric about no more blue states and red states, but simply United States, actually mean something. Unity is earned, not declared, and the simple fact is that one more 51-percent president doesn't bind a country together.
Rather, like George W. Bush, he has tremendous potential to leave it decidedly divided. Democrats are exultantly talking about a wave sweeping the country, about a new hope and an era of change, but the fact is that almost as many people opposed Barack Obama as supported him. Those people aren't cheering today, they are licking their wounds. And while the best of them will give Barack Obama a fair shake, many made up their minds months ago about him.
So President-elect Obama must avoid the temptation to do an end zone dance with his friends. He must rather immediately and convincingly reach out to people who feel like he has looked down his nose at them and their values and culture. The people he once mocked as clinging to their guns and their religion are just as American as the people who voted for him, and almost as numerous, and the country will only become united if he respects them. If he, however, marginalizes them, if they continue to be the object of his scorn, the butt of his followers' jokes, there will be no unity. There will be merely smoldering resentments that will bear fruit in two years and four.
Barack Obama must throw his efforts and his abilities into the large task of winning over the people he hasn't yet won over.
And those people must give him a chance.
Something as big as a presidential election is no more complex than a Little League game. You play hard and you hope to win but after nine innings it's about what's on the scoreboard. If you have the most runs, you win. If you don't, you don't. And if you don't, you accept the outcome and politely congratulate the winner. Win or lose with dignity or grace. That's the American way.
And the American way means that, when the votes are counted and the victor is declared, it's a clean slate. This is 2008, not 2012, and there is nothing to be gained by refighting the last election or by prematurely fighting the next election. It is the duty of every American to wish the new president -- every new president -- the very best, and to do the duty of citizenship, which is to build up, not tear down, and give the benefit of the doubt.
That doesn't obligate anyone to support anything they disagree with, but it does, in the name of decency, require people to give the new regime a chance, to give it a fair hearing. In our country, the president is the president of all Americans, and if the treatment of George W. Bush didn't reflect that, then we can try to do better this time.
Certainly, it has been a long time since either political party has held as much power as the Democrats now hold. But with that power comes a temptation to misuse it, or to fall prey to arrogance. The Republicans proved that, as both parties have in their turn. This can be either the beginning of a Democratic dynasty, or the beginning of their end. Which it is will be determined by them.
Largely, it will be determined by him -- by the president elect. The Democratic leaders in the Congress have proven over two years to be caustically partisan, to be enthralled with smashing and mocking all who fail to match their high liberalism. Whether or not Barack Obama can change that -- if he wants to -- remains to be seen.
But here's hoping for the best.
Election Day is our greatest day. It is the defining American day. We fight wars as a means to an end, and the sovereignty of the people and the liberties necessary to protect that sovereignty are the end. We transfer more power than humankind has ever held on the peaceful basis of counted ballots. We do it with grace and faith. The grace to act as citizens and the faith that our system will work and the right will be done.
Barack Obama was not my choice, but he is my president. That is true of all Americans. For the last eight years, there has been an ongoing campaign of destruction meant to handicap and hobble the last president. I refuse to be part of an effort to do the same to the next president. Those who didn't vote for Barack Obama must set a higher standard of civility and citizenship than those who didn't vote for George W. Bush. In defeat, there must still be nobility.
That doesn't mean silent servility. It doesn't mean differences and principles are ignored.
But it does mean the new president gets a new chance. It means we all must pray for him and work with him to make our country stronger and safer and better.
Pretty speeches notwithstanding, there remains a great divide, much of it created by the recent election. To the extent it needs to be bridged, it will be bridged by an effort by the president-elect to reach out to those who don't trust him, and by an effort by the people to reach out to a president who might not trust them.
The last eight years have taught us what happens when you set out to destroy a presidency for political gain. You help your candidate, but you hurt your country. That pattern must not be followed with this new president. America must treat Barack Obama better than he treated George W. Bush.
He has preached a "shift to the center," he has claimed to be "post partisan." Through the campaign, those were just words.
In the administration, they will need to be more.
Or all the hope and the change and the hooplah will be meaningless hype.
But today is a new day, and a fresh start. And the president-elect gets the benefit of the doubt.
So many potential comments- so little time.
Hussein will never be my president.
You move on with the president you have, not the president you wish you had.
I don’t like the fellow either, but he will be the prexy in a couple of months. We should still respect the office. Reminds me of all of the old veterans who came to attention on Memorial Day for Bill Clinton, just as the president was about to speak in the amphitheater at Arlington. That sight astonished me because I knew that sign of respect meant virtually nothing to Clinton(nor Hillary).
There is a bright side to this: The Clintons are probably toast!
So now, we begin to rebuild on the principles that matter: God, country, patriotism, less government, etc.
Keep that chin up. Remember, it may hurt a mite this morning to understand what happened yesterday; but this is still America, bless her, and we are still Americans and proud of it!
I’ll email this to the libs back in 2001 see how far that will get us.
Enough with the reaching across aisles.
It’s amazing so many Americans are so color-biased that they would elect such a charlatan to the presidency.
There's a fat chance of that happening.
As of January, I have no president, a Marxist dictator yes, but no president.
I agree. He is not my president, will not be my president and as long as he occupies the office I will not respect the office. Bitter? You’re damn right! I will give him the same respect the left gave my president these past eight years. No more, no less.
Pull your head out. America just elected the marxist party to make itself "feel" better. The damage is going to be extensive.
“and there is nothing to be gained by refighting the last election or by prematurely fighting the next election”
But isn’t that exactly what the Rats have done since 2000 and how Bush “stole “ the election??
The hatred towards the millions of good, sensible Americans who supported Bush through thick and thin will not go away just because the election is over.
The Democrats are going in for the kill. They don’t want us to come back. I guarantee. Obama now has his young minions of organization in place to do his bidding and dirty work of intimidation to silence the conservative movement forever.
Democrats are not going to be nice, nor will they get along with bipartisanship. They are coming at us like a runaway dump truck. Are we going to smile at them while they try to run us over, or are we going to fight for our lives now we know what we may be losing is just a pen stroke away??
As much as I was depressed last night, I’m far less so this morning. When I woke up I could tell my girlfriend was really bothered by something. When I asked, she said it was the election.
I said, “Don’t worry - the conservatives will be stronger, and have a much stronger platform in four years. In fact, I think it will eventually be good for us, as painful as it may be in the meantime.”
When I got to my desk I said a prayer. Minutes later a spectacular rainbow appeared outside my window. No joke, as corny as it sounds. (I even took a picture.) Then, within a half hour, the skies cleared. It was an answer to the prayer, and a sign that a new day is coming. Reagan conservatives will return to Camelot - the Once and Future King.
You should have more confidence in your country.
But thanks for your post. I know how you feel.
I should have more confidence in my country..and I would if I still had a country that was free. The MSM is a political arm of the left and it owns our elections. Democracy dies when the media is owned. We are slaves.
So you're going to act like a Rat?
“The MSM is a political arm of the left and it owns our elections. Democracy dies when the media is owned.”
But, even AFTER all of the support NObama got from the MSM and the left, McCain - far from a Reagan conservative - STILL got 55 million votes! It may have been an electoral landslide, but it was FAR from a popular landslide. He played the game better, that’s all.
Cheer up. All will be well. The country’s been in tough times before...and prevailed...and endured!
You are not a slave, nor am I. Promise.
I hope the sun is out where you are today.
My question is, why should he get the benefit of the doubt? The left dominates the media and all major institutions. They run almost everything. There is and was no level playing field. My mother-in-law voted for Obama. She thinks this is the America of 20 years ago. If the nightly news projects Obama as a decent family man, then he must be. It never occurred to me that she was unaware that Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in the Illinois legislature. It’s my fault for not having informed her, but how can the electorate ever be fairly informed in this environment. I don’t trust him. He thinks the Constitution is flawed. I have to live here, but I don’t put my faith in men. The press was supposed to be the watchdog of the government, hence the first amendment. This one party rule and genuflection of the media is perilous.
Isn't it called cheating when you have the media, and the universities in the tank? I remember when the left felt disenfranchised because the right occupied the "lofty towers". Is it any better now to have one side with an overwhelming advantage? And will there ever be a balance? The pendulum doesn't like to stop in the middle. Someone always has "revenge" to reap and they can't seem to stop until they have a dictatorship of one sort or the other.
That’s nothing! I saw a unicorn this morning, and a pink elephant playing tambourine. The autumn leaves are falling in neat little piles.
There’s work to be done. Hard work.
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