It is quite incredible what is happening here after the election of Barack Hussein Obama (I like using his middle name because I feel that helps our racist friends out there to get used to it for the next four, sorry, eight years).
On election night, we saw Oprah and Jesse Jackson -- along with thousands of other people at the Obama rally in Chicago -- cry like babies. That was amusing and quite to be expected.
But yesterday, we saw Colin Powell, a Republican -- one of the best of them, for sure -- tear up in an interview as he was expressing his happiness for the Obama victory.
Wait, there is better.
Condoleeza Rice, current Secretary of State in the Bush administration, in an interview where she evoked the "extraordinary election" that has just taken place, could not hide shiny eyes from the camera.
Even Bush, whom -- whatever we think of his catastrophic presidency -- we cannot accuse of closing the door of his administration to people from diverse ethnic groups, sounded unusually sincere when he talked of the "stirring moment" that it will be when Barack, Michelle and their two girls walk into the White House.
Maybe I have stayed too much in the US and I am growing cheesy and sentimentalist, but that is something!
The New York Times titled "Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls."
Yet, I don't think this is the end of racism in the US.
Racial prejudice has undermined the whole campaign, in more or less covert ways. After seeing Obama on TV for two years, the question asked by Republicans, Who is Obama really?, was nothing short of racism.
Casting doubts on his religious affiliation as if being a Muslim was a bad thing was nothing but racism.
A student told the campus newspaper that she did not think Obama was a Christian. She said that if he cals himself a Christian, she might have to start calling herself something else.
I want to tell her that Yes, she should call herself something else.
Racist sounds appropriate.
Accusing prominent black political figures, like Colin Powell, of endorsing Obama just because of his black skin, was racism.
Thinking Obama was dangerous for the country was racism.
White men predicting that the Latino voters would never vote for a black man was clearly white racism.
The Latino community overwhelmingly voted for Obama.
Calling the US led by Obama an Obamination, as many people still do today, is racism.
I certainly do not want to be a killjoy. But I don't think such racist prejudices will disappear that easily.
Obama's victory is the best thing that could happen, but as I wrote yesterday, I think he owes his victory mainly to his phenomenal qualities as a political leader.
And I am pretty sure that, if not for racism, Barack Hussein Obama would have won in a landslide rather than just a sweeping victory.
Let's enjoy, but let's remain vigilant.
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There is so much I could say right now. I was surprised of my lack of emotion on election night. I had a huge smile across my face, but that isn't how I expected to react. I am a very sensitive male and thus expected Niagara Falls. Kenzie cried when President-Elect Obama spoke Tuesday night. I smiled.
I was exhausted I believe. I felt relieved. I felt proud. It was like "We did it." Time for sleep. I think I was asleep emotionally all trough out the day Wednesday as this campaign has been so long and so much of my emotional energy.
But...
Wednesday night I began to watch some of the videos from throughout this past year. I watched Obama inspire. I watched him grow up as our leader. I watched a nation believe that when we stand together we can fight against anything in this dark world. We can alter history. We can be the ones we have been waiting for. The flood gates were opened and an emotional breakwater was breached.
I am so proud of him. I am so proud of us. I am tearing up as I type. It's not just about the fact that he is African American, it is about the shift that has been brought to this country.
I truly see change. I see a systemic shift in our beliefs. Cynicism is melting in my heart for this country. I am beginning to believe that we can shape our destiny. That we can be AGAIN what the founding fathers were to a people of a misrepresented land and an instrument to affect revolution around the world.
That America can be a Revolution. That "WE the People" can rise again to bring hope and inspiration in the world.
I think of our impact on France after the American Revolution and what it meant to a people in a distant land that together they are stronger then the powers that seem impermeable to change and hope and belief in unalienable rights of man.
America can change the world. I hope this isn't coming off as American arrogance or nationalism. I am just proud of the people. For the first time in a long time I am proud to be an American.
I just want to make sure that the comment about the French Revolution was not too far glorifying the events of what happened. I have limited knowledge of the events and realize that there were negative, as well as, positive aspects of the Revolution. I am speaking in regards to when something is not ok among government, it is the obligation of the people to change it. It is the words of the Declaration of Independence, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." that I speak of when talking about American influence and the French Revolution. I hope my understanding, or lack thereof, of the history and attitude among french people to the French Revolution has not in anyway disaffected my love of French culture.
I'm glad to see that I am not the only one going back to watch the things I've seen a hundred times just to make myself cry. I've been verklempt for about two days, and every time I pause in my day I hear "...and I promise to listen to you, *especially* when we disagree." It's affects me nearly as much as "I love- I love-- I love you," from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice. Trust me, that's quite a lot. For a communist who eats Republican babies, I sure am a softy. Freakin' love my country these days, though.
Even on Wednesday when a hush fell over another department when I walked through -- the employees there were undoubtedly maligning President-elect Obama's radical Muslim tendencies and probably plotting a midnight exodus to Canada and were apparently not elated to see me bouncing past them -- I still felt warm and fuzzy. It hasn't left me yet, and I'll keep it for eight years if the Powers that Be let me.
By the way, I like to call his sweeping victory the Obamalanche. Try and spread that one about. I think it'll catch on. : )
I do love Obamalanche, Adrienne.
And I think that if indeed Oklahomans are preparing for an exodus to Canada, that will be a good thing. After the exodus is completed, Oklahoma won't be the reddest state of the US, with the biggest margin for the Republican candidate.
Thank you, Blake, for your comments, and don't worry too much about what you write. I am sure I would be ashamed or embarrassed too if I read what I have written these past few months. That's why I never read my blog.
Out of the top of my head, though, let me give a completely ignorant input about our Revolutions, the American and the French. My knowledge of French history, and of the French Revolution, is distant, though, so don't take what I am writing for granted just because I am French. I actually know more about American history than about French history.
At first sight, though, I do not think the American Revolution influenced the French one very much. The French Revolution started from the lower classes, and I don't think they were knowledgeable enough about what was going on on the other side of the Great Water.
Sure, the bourgeois who then channeled the peasant revolts to bring the Revolution to its acme knew about the US Revolution, but they were also following the precepts and principles put down in words by the philosophers who had an impact on both Revolutions. Montesquieu, Rousseau, John Locke, etc.
Anyway, again, I am no expert but what I do know, though, is that the American Revolution had a war-of-independence dimension that the French Revolution did not have. That, I think, makes them fundamentally different.
In any case, it is an interesting discussion, and I will look more into it.
So thank you for your remarks.
I agree completely.
I do agree that it was a shift in thinking in the west during the Enlightenment that lead to the eventual revolutionary period.
My guess would be that the movement in Europe actually had more of an effect on the American Revolution then vice versa.
As to the people's revolt in France, I do also see that the bourgeois could not have possibly created the revolution without the use of the people. In a similar fashion the leaders of the American Revolution could not instigate change without the backlash to the King and taxation without representation.
In a similar fashion, progressives could not have had the victory in this election without the revolt against Bush.
We shall see if this is a new political movement towards liberalism, or just another election. The GOP jumped the gun on their "permanent majority", as well as, their "center-right" country philosophy.
It is my hopes that a majority of people are waking to a progressive philosophy. We see some resistance as all prop 8 type questions were approved. In Arkansas they approved a ban on homosexual couples adoption rights. Thus 400 children will now be stripped from their families and sent back to foster homes and orphanages.
It is funny how Republicans want to strip abortion rights away but when it is time for those children to get adopted they take them away from the families that have promised to take care of them. I think I recall Jesus talking about orphans and how it is right for us to take care of them...
I am sure I have begun to ramble about progressivism.
I have been meaning to study some of these philosophers of the Enlightenment to gain insight on how to spur on a revolution in reason.
It is my belief that progression is the future, however redundant that sounds.
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