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At 11 PM on Tuesday night, with the exit poll data establishing a clear rout on the West Coast, CNN called the election for Barack Obama. I screamed like there was no tomorrow. I jumped and danced and screamed again. And then as I settled down - still in a stupor of mixed ecstasy and disbelief - and watched the ebullient masses of hundreds of thousands in Chicago's Grant Park, I cried. At first lightly, but before I knew it the tears were steadily rolling down my cheeks.
I cried as I saw the essence of America reflected in those crowds - young and old; all races and ethnicities; rich and poor; erudite professors and people who had never finished high school; first generation immigrants who couldn't even vote and people whose families have been here since colonial times. I cried because the Melting Pot is not just some empty cliche, but a vibrant reality.
I cried as I reflected on my mother who would have loved to see this night, who spent so much of her life working to bring about social and racial justice at the detriment of her own economic well-being; who was part of the first generation to integrate schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And I cried as I thought of how much this meant to my grandmother, who tells stories of the Jim Crow days of dilapidated schools and "Colored Only" drinking fountains.
I cried as I watched people all over the world - Toronto, London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, Nairobi - celebrate with fierce joy the results of an election in which they could not even vote. In their faces I saw a renewed willingness to believe in our country, to believe that we really are the land in which all dreams are attainable.
I cannot recall another single instance in my life when I was as happy as I was Tuesday night. That is not the hyperbole of an Obama supporter attempting to amplify the moment; that is an absolute fact.
Some cynics are already referring to the night as nothing more than the continuation of a long-established trend of booting out the incumbent party during recessionary periods. Some are saying it's just the final referendum on the Bush Administration. Well, let's be clear. Americans across the nation (with the notable blemish of the racist South) did in fact overwhelmingly give their final repudiation of the Bush Legacy on Tuesday. Americans, a majority of whom now believe that more government is the solution and not the problem, did in fact thoroughly reject the entire Reagan/Bush philosophy of hateful social conservatism coupled with damaging supply-side economics. Americans did overwhelmingly indicate that we are now dangerously on the wrong track and that a generational course correction is now necessary.
But Tuesday night was far more than the summation of these individual political trends.
From day one in this campaign, President-elect Obama spoke of a new politics. Not simply a shift back to a liberal orthodoxy, but a new way of doing things. Consensus-building instead of governing along contentious 51-49 fault lines. Replacing lobbyist hacks with competent, independent public servants. An end to the mindless Rovian politics of Big City-bashing, gay-bashing, Muslim-bashing, atheist-bashing, liberal-bashing, East and West Coast-bashing, and "different from us"-bashing that has characterized the entire Bush regime, returning to an America of civic discourse and an embrace of the diversity that defines and enriches us. A politics that does not attempt to unilaterally impose a militant agenda on the rest of the world, recklessly tearing down partnerships and alienating billions of our fellow brothers and sisters. A politics that builds us up instead of tearing us down.
None of that is liberal or conservative - I dare say that it's common sense. And though Obama is a liberal who will at long last, enabled by large Democratic majorities in Congress, move our country in the right direction, it was not the message of liberal politics that drove him to such an overwhelming victory. It was his message of a return to American decency, of a return to a government that works to solve problems instead of working to help itself, of a return to American exceptionalism, respect for diversity, and shared prosperity and responsibility.
I have never been the type to ostentatiously and pretentiously opine that "Americans are better than the rest of the world." I don't believe that now any more than I believed it five years ago. But what is irrefutable and fundamental, what people all over the world do acknowledge, is that we are the only nation in the world where something like this could happen. The fabric of our nation is fundamentally different from any other in the world, as is our unyielding spirit, and it is those things that have always attracted steady streams of immigrants to our shores in search of attaining a better life for themselves and their families. And most of all, it is our ability to self-correct when need be; our ability to shatter the trends of history after twice voting for George Bush. It is what makes our nation so great, and our collective faith in what makes us special has just been renewed by President-elect Obama.
Yes we did - and yes we will!
I cried as I saw the essence of America reflected in those crowds - young and old; all races and ethnicities; rich and poor; erudite professors and people who had never finished high school; first generation immigrants who couldn't even vote and people whose families have been here since colonial times. I cried because the Melting Pot is not just some empty cliche, but a vibrant reality.
I cried as I reflected on my mother who would have loved to see this night, who spent so much of her life working to bring about social and racial justice at the detriment of her own economic well-being; who was part of the first generation to integrate schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And I cried as I thought of how much this meant to my grandmother, who tells stories of the Jim Crow days of dilapidated schools and "Colored Only" drinking fountains.
I cried as I watched people all over the world - Toronto, London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Sydney, Nairobi - celebrate with fierce joy the results of an election in which they could not even vote. In their faces I saw a renewed willingness to believe in our country, to believe that we really are the land in which all dreams are attainable.
I cannot recall another single instance in my life when I was as happy as I was Tuesday night. That is not the hyperbole of an Obama supporter attempting to amplify the moment; that is an absolute fact.
Some cynics are already referring to the night as nothing more than the continuation of a long-established trend of booting out the incumbent party during recessionary periods. Some are saying it's just the final referendum on the Bush Administration. Well, let's be clear. Americans across the nation (with the notable blemish of the racist South) did in fact overwhelmingly give their final repudiation of the Bush Legacy on Tuesday. Americans, a majority of whom now believe that more government is the solution and not the problem, did in fact thoroughly reject the entire Reagan/Bush philosophy of hateful social conservatism coupled with damaging supply-side economics. Americans did overwhelmingly indicate that we are now dangerously on the wrong track and that a generational course correction is now necessary.
But Tuesday night was far more than the summation of these individual political trends.
From day one in this campaign, President-elect Obama spoke of a new politics. Not simply a shift back to a liberal orthodoxy, but a new way of doing things. Consensus-building instead of governing along contentious 51-49 fault lines. Replacing lobbyist hacks with competent, independent public servants. An end to the mindless Rovian politics of Big City-bashing, gay-bashing, Muslim-bashing, atheist-bashing, liberal-bashing, East and West Coast-bashing, and "different from us"-bashing that has characterized the entire Bush regime, returning to an America of civic discourse and an embrace of the diversity that defines and enriches us. A politics that does not attempt to unilaterally impose a militant agenda on the rest of the world, recklessly tearing down partnerships and alienating billions of our fellow brothers and sisters. A politics that builds us up instead of tearing us down.
None of that is liberal or conservative - I dare say that it's common sense. And though Obama is a liberal who will at long last, enabled by large Democratic majorities in Congress, move our country in the right direction, it was not the message of liberal politics that drove him to such an overwhelming victory. It was his message of a return to American decency, of a return to a government that works to solve problems instead of working to help itself, of a return to American exceptionalism, respect for diversity, and shared prosperity and responsibility.
I have never been the type to ostentatiously and pretentiously opine that "Americans are better than the rest of the world." I don't believe that now any more than I believed it five years ago. But what is irrefutable and fundamental, what people all over the world do acknowledge, is that we are the only nation in the world where something like this could happen. The fabric of our nation is fundamentally different from any other in the world, as is our unyielding spirit, and it is those things that have always attracted steady streams of immigrants to our shores in search of attaining a better life for themselves and their families. And most of all, it is our ability to self-correct when need be; our ability to shatter the trends of history after twice voting for George Bush. It is what makes our nation so great, and our collective faith in what makes us special has just been renewed by President-elect Obama.
Yes we did - and yes we will!
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