EPTomgah seriously all day I was having nightmares about what would happen would McCain to win...I guess I'm not really an Obama fan myself,
Yet as the results started streaming in and the polls showed Obama firmly stepping on McCain's face across the nation, I kind of came to feel sad. Because I wanted to see more drama, and the election was anti-climactic? Maybe. That's a testament, though, to the sort of effort Obama put in, the keen decisions Obama's strategists made for his image, and also the massive screw-ups McCain committed on the road to this night...
In any case, I do believe that what was best for our nation happened tonight. I'm looking forward to a bright four years, especially as the Democrats ride a wave of optimism into a firm Senate majority; at last, they've breached the Republican defenses, the ranks have been thinned to a line of stalwarts. And as the balance of power shifts, regardless of whether or not it has shifted towards the "right" or "wrong/left", the stale routines of Congress are broken, or at least enfeebled...
Obama has indeed brought change. Not necessarily because of his policies, his potential, or any of his other promises; rather, through the wishes and hopes the people of America have invested in him. Had McCain triumphed tonight, it would not just have been a triumph of McCain's policies and image over Obama's...it would have meant the jarring halt to the optimism for change that had been charging America, the final drawing of blood from an already pale visage...by matters of destiny we haven't yet comprehended, by cosmic design and human intervention, Obama was made President this day, November 4th, 2008.
Maybe it is only now that I truly comprehend the modern American political system. All this time I had slandered American politics for its falsity and fabrication I had really misunderstood its workings. Ideas and policies don't really matter, not in themselves. They are but flags to rally the people, whatever it takes to earn the hearts and minds of the people, to become the vessel for their dreams...So then the people do not elect a President; they empower him with a mandate to do his will, and the Presidency then becomes a matter of keeping that mandate in order to exercise free-est control over the country. But when a candidate has earned the respect and hopes of his people, when he thus ties himself to the heartbeat to the country, then, nevermind his policies and views, he has certainly earned the right to be President. And so it is with Obama. With his victory he carries into the White House a triumph of a nation, a momentum of will and motivation, and an American optimism.
The cheesy slogans on all the campaign ads are right: we can make a difference. But it is not just through the votes; that part is merely the finalization of what has already been decided. Rather, it is through the invisible and ineffable collection of our spirit, the emotional and spiritual tie we forge with a candidate, that we make the biggest difference. Without it, a candidate would not be legitimate, can never become a President. So I at last, condone all the emotionality, the electorate grabbing, the massive ads, the supposed manipulation that goes on...the votes are meaningless and the victory impure without the people's mandate.
So though I don't know whether or not I fully support Obama, and have no idea whether or not the next four years will be any better than the next one. All I know, and all that matters, is that Obama has convinced me of hope...and, grateful for this gift, I scrape up my optimisms, meagre as they are, as my contribution to America.
