Despite what the Pennsylvania chapter of the Black Panthers may believe, coercion is not a means of necessity. Our elections, and the periodic transfer of power they represent, will happen because the great majority of the people wish it so. (Did they really think standing outside of a polling place in black leather wielding a baton would go unchallenged?)
On Oct. 27, Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee Chairman, was interviewed on MSNBC and said, "Republicans had a chance to rule. They failed miserably. I think it's time to give the other party a chance." A revolting choice of words -- never mind the political hyperbole. In this democratic society, the people rule. The ideology held by the Democrats may now be the prevailing preference, but they still serve at the will of the people.
These anomalies are unfortunate, but they are just that -- anomalies. The people continue to hold the supreme power in this country and no idiocy has yet undermined this hierarchy.
So, now what? What do we talk about? What do we rally for; what do we rail against? As for myself, I take comfort in knowing that getting red and sweaty over the asininity of the few -- exampled above -- will always bring me a curmudgeonly joy.
But outside the context of a greater issue, these sorts of dialogues reek of self-aggrandizing mockery and as ends in and of themselves, they deserve no indulgence. (They don't deserve it, but I'll still give it. I don't feel alive without a complaint on my heart.)
I, along with every other columnist in the country, am left with one last duty, one last obsessive-compulsive vice, in this election: Watch the polls. And at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday night, CNN.com called the election for Obama.
Though I am a conservative, I feel great relief. The people have spoken and that is enough for me by which to abide.
That is why we are a great nation. I also feel relief because the eternal campaign is over. If this election cycle were a parochial school, I'd call it Our Lady of I-Pound-My-Head-With-A-Hammer-Because-It-Feels-So-Good-When-I-Stop. I digress.
The New York Times is reporting that people all over the world are celebrating Obama's victory -- in different ways. In South America, the Venezuelan vice-president of the Unified Socialist Party -- Hugo Chavez's party -- Alberto Mller Rojas was quoted as saying, "I am afraid for (Obama). The pressures he will face from certain sectors of society, especially from white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, will be enormous." Last I checked, the president of the United States is under constant pressure. It's called leadership.
Oh, wait. Rojas means that WASPs are racists. I keep forgetting that little social narrative. (OK, this isn't so much an Obama celebration as it is an America bashing celebration on the Socialist's part, but the world's far-left has it's own sense of fun. The world's far-left generally hates America and any opportunity to belittle it is an opportunity well spent.)
In Moscow, Sergey M. Rogov, the director of the Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, said, "Definitely, this will improve America's image in Russia. There was this perception before of widespread racism in America, deeply rooted racism." Did The New York Times go into the back alleys of Moscow and find some guy in a trailer with an Obama bumper sticker? How is this guy relevant? He's probably right, but how is this institute representative of Russia?
Now I'm mad. But wait just a second...
If this country is as racist as the world perceives us to be, then this election proves something arrestingly powerful about us: We, as a people, are not ruled by our petty bigotries. We, as a people, vote our principles and not our cowardices.
Yes, I am meandering. I am meandering through the bittersweet realities that make this nation the greatest this earth has ever known.
Elections sometimes don't go the way one wants them, but at the same time they always go exactly as one wants them.
Freely. Bloodlessly. Democratically. (Historically, I can't say the same for Socialism.)
And these traits, these fundamental traits, I don't want changed. I want Obama to be a great president, but I don't want this country changed fundamentally.
Improved? By and large. But not through intimidation, not through "rule," and not because others perceive us as flawed. I want improvement because that is the direction the founding fathers chose for this country -- with a Constitution forever amendable.
Obama is now my president. Obama is our president. God bless him, and the processes by which this came to be in office.