Four More Years of (mostly) Sanity

Barack Obama won a second term last night---it was after 11:00 EST when the network we were watching, NBC, called the election for the President---and all around us at the local Obama campaign headquarters, people were going crazy with delight, not least of them our own Obama Fellow, and some friends who had come to campaign all the way from upstate New York.  [*Footnote: this post is a day late getting out :)]  She (our Obama Fellow) was justly pleased that the Senate Democrats had picked up a few new members, most celebrated among which was Elizabeth Warren, whom the Democrats considered to have inherited the seat of Ted Kennedy.

It was a moment of mixed pleasure for me.  I have come to deplore the fact that this victory had come at such cost in personal relationships and neighborhood unity.  People on both sides have come to take the struggle very personally---I know I have---and are resentful towards former friends and acquaintances whose politics seem to have favored the other party, or parties.

Most amazingly, we seem to have re-elected a Democrat President, but have been content to also re-elect a Congress which is just as heavily Republican as it was.  Do people want progress or don’t they?  Do people want the deficit reduced or do they not?  Do they believe in this fairy-tale of deficit reduction AND tax cuts?  Most of my friends and acquaintances are of the same economic class as my wife and I: these are not millionaires.  But the conservatives among them seem to believe that their taxes, under Obama, will go up significantly, but would not have under Romney.  If Romney were to have been elected President, how would he have reduced the deficit without raising taxes?  Would he have rented out the White House to Donald Trump, and reduced the deficit with the rent money?

I am even more depressed for yet other reasons.  Looking at the states that were announced through the night for one candidate and for another, an unfortunately clear picture emerged: diverse counties and districts voted for Obama; all-white, middle-class suburbs voted for Romney.  University towns with a diverse student population voted for Obama, rural districts with few or no immigrants or Americans of foreign descent voted for Romney.  Districts with many employed women, or women seeking employment voted for Obama; districts with home-makers dominated by their spouses voted for Romney.  This election reflects the fear of Middle America for the increasing non-whiteness of the nation.  People who have met, and come to know foreigners vote one way, those who prefer to view foreigners from across the street or through thick windows, or only on television, vote another.  An exception is conservative, middle-class Hispanics, who have bought into the paranoia of fiscal conservatives, and are embarrassed by their undocumented former compatriots, probably vote the GOP ticket.

Barack Obama, in his victory speech, quite clearly underscored some of the issues.

“Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.”

Read: we are not working for today alone, but building for the future.

“Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes you’re growing up to become two strong, smart beautiful young women, just like your mom.  And I’m so proud of you guys. But I will say that for now, one dog’s probably enough!”

Read: we must set an example of restraint, rather than conspicuous self-indulgence.  I have forgotten that praising little girls for their looks is not considered a good strategy, but fathers tend to forget that in their excitement sometimes.

“To the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics...The best. The best ever. Some of you were new this time around, and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning.  But all of you are family. No matter what you do or where you go from here, you will carry the memory of the history we made together and you will have the life-long appreciation of a grateful president. Thank you for believing all the way, through every hill, through every valley.”

Read: Politics has evolved into a massive team effort.  Remember that this is just the beginning of the job, not the end.

“I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly. And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics that tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you’ll discover something else.

[Paraphrased: There are many wonderful people who fought for me, who deserve much better.]

“That’s why we do this. That’s what politics can be. That’s why elections matter. It’s not small, it’s big. It’s important. Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and messy and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held beliefs. And when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy. …

“But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for America’s future. We want our kids to grow up in a country [with good schools and teachers, a leader in technology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow.  … We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by … a warming planet.  We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth. …

“But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this time of war, to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. We believe in a generous America, in a compassionate America, in a tolerant America, open to the dreams of an immigrant’s daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag.”

Read: My picture of America is a bigger one than the GOP envisages.  It will be admired for more things than just its economic power and military might.  It has to have room for immigrants and their dreams, and big ideas that flow from knowledge and education.

“Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual.  You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours.  And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together.  Reducing our deficit.  Reforming our tax code.  Fixing our immigration system.  Freeing ourselves from foreign oil.  We’ve got more work to do.”

Read: I’m impatient with self-serving Congressmen who are more concerned with being re-elected and enjoying being in Congress than with making the US a better place for their constituents.  This is a big point: Obama is declaring that he did not seek office to make Democrats happier, but the people happier, and the USA a better place.  Romney, in contrast, is open to the accusation that he was running for office to keep Big Business in the style to which it was accustomed at the cost of the people.  And the voters saw  through this.

“But that doesn’t mean your work is done. The role of citizens in our Democracy does not end with your vote. America’s never been about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That’s the principle we were founded on.”

Read: Without pressure from the electorate, nothing is going to be accomplished for the next four years.  

Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the Senate, announced that it was time for the President to stop playing games, and offer legislation that the Republicans can stand behind.

Read: McConnell sees his job as showing up the President as a do-nothing Democrat who promises but can’t deliver.  He thinks this is what is best for the Republican Party.  McConnell is representing the GOP.  Obama is representing the nation as a whole.  McConnell has stated repeatedly that he sees his primary duty as overseeing the voting out of Obama.  McConnell has failed both the GOP and all his constituents.  He has to be eased out, and fresh leadership given the Republican minority in the Senate.  Obstructing an Obama re-election is no longer a priority; with a Democrat President and a Democrat Senate, being obstructionist will become increasingly transparent over the next several months.

Obama: “This country has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our diversity, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

“What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.

“The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That’s what makes America great.

“I am hopeful tonight because I’ve seen the spirit at work in America. I’ve seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors, and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job.

“I’ve seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.  I’ve seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm.  And I saw just the other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter, whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care.  I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meet this incredible daughter of his. And when he spoke to the crowd listening to that father’s story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes, because we knew that little girl could be our own.

“And I know that every American wants her future to be just as bright. That’s who we are. That’s the country I’m so proud to lead as your president.  And tonight, despite all the hardship we’ve been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I’ve never been more hopeful about our future.  I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I’m not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight.

“I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.

“America, I believe we can build on the progress we’ve made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.  

“I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.  And together with your help and God’s grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.

“Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.”