The day after election day…I honestly was very nervous Tuesday night as I waited for the results of the election. I don't remember being nervous the last time around because that was such a new concept, the thought of our country electing it's first Black President. It was like an eighth seeded team or a wild card team making it to the championship game. I was just happy to see such an event taking place. A part of me then had a good feeling that the country was ready for the change that Obama campaigned on. It turned out to be true.
This time around, different ball game. After seeing how many in our country viewed and disrespected the office of President like no other time in our country's history, I was extremely unsettled. As I watched the polls and, early on, watched Mitt Romney jump out ahead, I wondered: Did the hatred work? Did the propaganda machine with all the lies and misinformation work? Were the citizens of this country going to elect the worse option over the best option for reasons outside of political qualifications? My heart repeatedly and calmly said 'No'. But my mind was saying 'Maybe'.
Turns out, Obama had it hand, and convincingly so. After weeks of talk of a possible tie, a very close race, ridiculous negative campaigning (from both sides) and, of course, your everyday run ins with seriously ignorant people and conversation, Obama nabbed 303 electoral votes to Romney's 206. Not the landslide we saw in 2008, but convincing nonetheless. That's what I was hoping would happen. I was really worried about a close call; I definitely did not want to see this country go through the same episode we saw in 2000 with Bush-Gore. I honestly think no good would've come out of any scenario there, with recounts and legal battles and a Supreme Court ruling. This country could not have withstood the ramifications of another such debacle. At least not with this election.
So, it seems the majority of Americans feel like Obama is the right person for this country for the next 4 years. Of course, the race in many states was very close and there are more individuals this time around who opted to go with the Republican nominee. Overall voter turnout seemed to be down considerably from what it was in 2008. So more vitriol, more hatred, more disrespect is very much expected. I have seen a number of my friends on social media express concern that things are going to be much worse this time around. Unfortunately, I can only agree with them. Here's why.
Early Tuesday, while at work, I was told of a co-worker who ran into a customer with a shirt that read something like "I'd rather let my son shower at Penn State than to have Obama as President". Now, I know how rumors get started and stories can be greatly exaggerated. So I went online to see if these shirts existed. Maybe this person could have just made this shirt themselves. Unfortunately, a derivative of that sentiment does exist here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251189655
So this is what it has come down to, folks. People are MAD! Mad enough that they would go so far out of their way to make themselves look silly to prove a point. And that point is? They don't like Obama? They don't like Black people? They don't like the fact that Obama is Black, that he is STILL the President and that the one thing they thought they were still in control of, they have realized that they no longer have sole control? I don't know, but what I do know is this: Positives always outweigh negatives. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Obama has made progress and the country is on the path to recovery. Anyone who cannot see this is either ignorantly closing their own eyes to the facts or hopelessly helpless. Those people can continue on living their lives in their bubble of ignorance. I hope the air is good in there.
Aside from that, the main question of 'Now What?' or 'What Happens Next?' is out in the forefront. Obama still has his work cut out for him. Republicans are still the majority in Congress and Democrats still hold the Senate. Many have labeled the President 'toxic' when it comes to bipartisanship, due to either his "refusal to work with Republicans" or his "inability to" work with his colleagues across the aisle. I put those terms in quotation marks because I've heard this many times over the past couple of months (not that I hadn't heard it before that). But we cannot afford another four years of this. Real compromise has to established, and soon, because any resistance on either side can wipe out the little bit of progress that we've made so far. There is a new budget crisis looming at the end of this year with the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 set to go into effect on December 31, 2012 at midnight. This means deep automatic cuts in defense spending and Medicare and the end of the temporary payroll tax cuts (which will mean a 2% tax increase for workers) and certain taxes for businesses and the beginning of the taxes related to Obama's healthcare law. Some of these are unavoidable due to new laws (i.e, healthcare reform) but some of these cuts and increases would be the result of our lawmakers not being able to come to an agreement on budget issues, therefore automatically putting these things into effect (remember the Super Committee that was formed to prevent this?).
If that isn't enough, we are also dealing with a virtual split in the feelings American citizens have towards our Government, namely our newly re-elected President. There is a lot of hatred towards him, more so now because there was a very prevalent feeling that Obama would not be re-elected. Many Americans, mostly older white males, supported Mitt Romney and knew the country would too, or at least felt that they should. When this didn't happen, the disappointment seen on the faces of those who were at rallies supporting Romney were almost reminiscent of the type of faces that you would see at a funeral. Many people feel like America died on Tuesday night, for a second time. That's really unfortunate, because those feelings are based on nothing related to the future of this country. They are based on feelings of our nations past.
We must move on. This country is changing. We are no longer the dominant nation the world once felt like we were. That is no fault of Obama's or any politician for that matter. The world is changing as well. The election and subsequent re-election of Obama seems to be a positive when it comes to the way the US is viewed by the rest of the world. Mitt Romney and the Republicans and the Tea Party often referred to American exceptionalism and and eliteism during these past four years saying that we needed to get back to that, that Obama had taken our country away from that. The truth is, the domineering, militaristic approach that the United States had taken to foreign affairs over the last 20 to 30 years had slowly done that. The way our country has viewed immigrants, mainly those of Hispanic background had slowly done that. Obama's presidency showed the world that maybe the last standing 'superpower' of the world was changing; that maybe they were ready to embrace new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things. Politics aside, maybe that feeling can continue. But it has to start here, with all of us. Elections can be bitter, and this has to have been the most bitterly contested campaign in the history of our country's modern election process. But it is now over. There is a healing process that some of us have to go through. But things must change and they must change now. If not, there will be a constant divide in this country and we will have wasted not just the progress that we have made over the past four years but also the progress this country has made over the past 60+ years.
No comments:
Post a Comment