Thoughts From An Unapologetic Liberal After the Election

It's been a while since I posted, and what better place to pontificate on the mixed feelings I'm having after the election?

Last night was amazing. First: How quickly it all was over. I really only have had experience with the two previous elections, one of which took days and the other of which took hours upon hours to be settled. Second: The speeches, both the concession and the victory speech, were truly awesome. Both candidates did an excellent job -- but I have to say, Obama's victory speech gave me goosebumps.

Last night I was feeling elated. Today, I'm feeling for the people who backed the losing candidate, too. I was there the past two elections. I know how heartbreaking and devastating it is to see all the hopes you've wrapped up in the person you want to win come crashing down. And it makes it worse when people who backed the other candidate are gloating. So I'm trying not to do that.

Here is what I am thinking and feeling right now:

*Relief that Hillary was not the Democratic nominee. I have a lot of respect for Hillary, don't get me wrong. But I've seen as the Democrats have tried -- and failed -- to beat the Republicans at their own game in the past two elections. The Republicans have the monopoly on attack advertising and using key words and phrases to hammer home a point. Nobody does it better. And the Democrats have been doing themselves a disservice by trying to beat the Republicans at their own game. The only way to respond to that kind of campaigning is to act as if it isn't worth your time -- to rise above it, as it were. To spend as little time as possible contradicting and correcting the misconceptions being perpetrated by the other side, and then move on, focusing on the positive aspects of your campaign and not playing tit-for-tat with the other candidate. I think Obama did that admirably. He never once appeared flustered or upset by some of McCain's comments during the debate -- while McCain was huffing and puffing like a big bad wolf with some serious angst issues every time Obama scored a hit. Obama's campaign ads were uplifting and positive, leaving a good taste in the viewer's mouth, while McCain's were frightening and negative, leaving a bad taste in the viewer's mouth. And I don't think Hillary could have run a campaign like that. I think it would have been too much for her to resist to bite back at McCain and give him a taste of his own medicine -- and that didn't work for Gore or for Kerry. You can't fight that kind of fire with fire. You can fight it with water, though.

*Empathy for supporters of McCain. Really, I do feel it. Although I also feel as though many of them are being -- for lack of a better word -- poor losers. But that could just be due to my exposure to many of my McCain-supporting acquaintances via social networking sites. I didn't have a MySpace or Facebook page in 2004, so it's hard to say. But I can say this: I'm pretty sure I wasn't that ungracious. Was I depressed and sad? Absolutely. And my husband did say, more than once, "Maybe we should just leave the country" -- the refrain I'm hearing over and over again today. I kept telling him no -- that the thing that makes this country great is that every four years, we get to start over again. It's not a lifetime sentence to be saddled with a Bush; it's only four years. Eight, tops. It's going to be okay. And as hesitant as I am to use words like "unAmerican" -- I think that leaving the country because someone you didn't vote for won the presidency is, well, unAmerican! That's why this country is so great, and that's what I tried to explain to my husband: We have more freedoms here than any other country in the developed world. (Except gays. But I don't think that's permanent.) Our freedom of speech and freedom of the press is absolutely unprecedented. I don't WANT to live anywhere else! I truly do love my country. And it made me so, so sad to be called unpatriotic for feeling the way I do about it. I don't believe I said anything (out loud) like, "Well, better start praying harder for the country," or "Now things are really going to go down the tubes." I still had hope. Which leads me to ...

*Hopeful. Above all, I feel hopeful. I feel like Barack Obama was the better candidate by far, and I feel alive and glad that other citizens rallied behind his banner. I feel like we really ARE going to get some actual change in this country. I'm very, very happy with how the election turned out. I feel like the sky is the limit for Americans again; like we can regain the respect we've lost throughout the world; like we can again deserve descriptions such as "the city on the hill" or "the light in the darkness."

*Right. Not in the sense of right vs. left, or wrong vs. right -- just like this is exactly where we need to be at this moment in time. I think Sarah Palin (in her infinite wisdom, or lack thereof -- there I go being catty about the woman; I can't help it; I think she's a beyotch!) was right: God will choose the person who was supposed to win. God has spoken, Sarah. God has spoken loud and clear.

*Secure. This mostly has to do with that awful amendment (48) on the Colorado ballot -- the "definition of a person," aka life begins at conception. I feel as though my reproductive and privacy rights are intact. And that makes me feel good.

Oh, what a night!