I try not to veer away from RPGs that much here, but it’s my blog, so deal. I had to post to add my voice to all the people who are feeling joy at the election results and the hope that we might now have an opportunity to get our fine country off its current track and back onto a track to freedom, prosperity, and global leadership.
John McCain’s concession speech was one of the best crafted and delivered speeches of his campaign. It was gracious and wise (unlike many in the crowd). And then Obama’s speech was inspirational.
I’ve never voted Democratic before – and I’m old. I’ve been pretty conservative generally. In high school, our JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) gave me a joke award at an awards banquet entitled the “Jesse Helms Memorial Genghis Khan Was A Stinking Commie Liberal Pansy Award.” I liked Reagan. I’m a Christian. I’m upper middle class. Generally, I’m in the “other demographic.”
But I voted third party during the election for George W’s first term; I feel that having “dynasties” of presidents is somewhat antidemocratic (same reason I’d never vote for Hillary). I voted third party for his second term too, but that’s because we knew he sucked by then.
What I’ve seen out of the GOP for the last ten years – the contempt for human life, for individuals’ civil rights, for the Constitution, for ethical business, for fairness in politics – these aren’t my conservative values. And we need something, a real tectonic shift, to get our country back on track again. Where we don’t seriously debate if torture’s bad or not. Or whether cities should be able to exercise eminent domain to kick out homeowners to built a new Wal-Mart. I want habeus corpus, court orders to be required for wiretaps, and for anyone to have recourse to legal counsel. I want CEOs to stop running companies in the ground while they get their tens of millions of dollars in salary. I want the government to not blatantly lie to me. I don’t think these values are Republican or Democratic – I think they are the values of any patriot who loves the concepts America was built upon.
I hope and pray that Obama is the person to start that shift to get us back there. And I think he’s got a chance. If he gets enough people to unite and get off their asses, I think that these values – the values that most Americans hold, in my opinion – will come to the forefront and cut through the layers of garbage that have been heaped upon them. America can emerge again, and anyone who has that as their vision has a shot at making it happen.
Back to your regularly scheduled gaming…
Geek Related 
Tell me, are you familiar with the concept of “wealth redistribution”? You soon will be.
Gary, tell us all… do you take your Limbaugh pills every day or do you get the weekly injection. Because your stupidity smells like loser.
I tend to leave politics at the door at my gaming blog as well (actually thought about creating another just for my opinions on the matter), but one can hardly breathe today without thinking about what the future holds in this arena.
I never pigeon holed myself into considering myself one political party or another, in fact I despise the bipartisan system, but my views are conservative. Less government. Less taxes. Less bullshit. I find myself being more Libertarian than anything else.
I am not christian; I will breach 30 in February; I have a B.S. from IU; I have served four honorable years in the infantry of my beloved U.S. Marine Corps. I was raised in poverty, but now I am a home owner and family man and would call myself lower middle class (whatever the $55k-$65k demographic officially is, it feels like lower middle…).
I have scraped and clawed for what I have, with no government assistance (except medicare for my daughter when she was born, I swallowed my pride for her).
I too share your hope that Obama will turn this nation around. I had almost given up on my fellow Americans, but the record breaking turn out at the polls and SOUND victory of Obama has somewhat restored my faith.
However, my hope and faith in America is tempered by a large dose of cynicism and what seems like the reality that Obama is but one guy and the real power lies in the legislation making abilities of Congress. Where lobbyists constantly buy votes.
With the Democrats in firm control of the Legislative AND Executive branches, if this country is still fucked up in four years, the blame shall lie at their feet, and all my faith will be lost. I still wait to see how the remainder of Bush’s term goes, and what stunts he might pull as well.
Finally, I have had two words tumbling in my head for almost six years now “immigrate” and “revolution.”
These are most serious thoughts, not the ravings of a moron. I fear that if things do not change soon, the only recourse I have in living in a country I believe in is to either:
1) Immigrate to a new country and start over (Norway actually sounds nice to me).
2) We refresh the Tree of Liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants, starting over at square one again with the Constitution.
Either way, this nation needs a reboot.
@the Garys – I’m already familiar with “wealth redistribution”. I’m in the highest tax bracket and pay a lot in taxes that is redistributed to someone – I would rather it be the poor than the oil companies and Halliburton.
What I’d like to see is the companies that make way more money than I do paying their fair share. Strangely, none of the billion-plus club is paying that 40% the tax brackets say they should be. So many loopholes exist that corporate taxes are minimal.
@Mad Brew – I know what you mean. Though I’m not ready for revolution yet, it does become difficult to see how we can ever get back to the Constitution through the current process. We’ve managed to chip away at it with little laws and legal precedent until it doesn’t mean anything. It’s like we need to pass the exact same Bill of Rights again and say “we fucking mean it this time”.
@AntiGary
Is calling names the best you can do? The President Elect is on record talking about the best way to go about executing wealth distribution. Not a tiny soundbyte that can be misconstrued, but in a discourse that went on for several minutes.
@the myxlplyks
If you think wealth redistribution in the context of Barack Obama is merely about taxes, then you aren’t familiar with it.
@MadBrew
If what you want is a withdrawal of power by the federal government, think hard on what happened the last time the Democrat party held both congress and the White House. We have no reason to believe things will be any better this time.
I think a lot of us want the same things: less government interference in our lives, less taxes, better choices about where tax money is spent, reduced influence from lobbyists, and so forth. I sincerely hope we can meet back here in four years and say these things have been done. I hope the new administration does something about the numerous and grave sins of the outgoing administration without making things worse. I just think it’s foolish to expect these out of the President Elect given his legislative voting record, the history of his chosen social and political philosophies, and his personal statements.
@Gary – Sure, he may really be a terrorist socialist Muslim, in addition to other scary attributes like being black and Harvard-educated. I guess we’ll find out.
@Gary:
The last eight years with Bush did not give me any of the things I wanted either and McCain would have more than likely followed the same path, as I have seen no evidence to the contrary. Where has McCain differed from the general Bush-Republican agenda in the last eight years, except where he tried to distance himself during his campaign to obtain more votes?
I’m tired of the same old bullshit, and while the Democrat controlled government will more than likely prove my fear that every politician sucks, at least it will be a different flavor of bullshit.
I’m very happy for your country. I’m a politically active Canadian (I actually ran to be a member of parliament in September & October) and I think that you all have a very good opportunity right now. I’m one of those “socialists” that are much maligned in America, yet considered to be fairly normal up here.
@MadBrew & mxyzplk: Thanks for giving me some faith in the conservative side of the political spectrum. Up here our Conservatives have started to swing more right-wing and it worries the rest of us, but I’m heartened when I hear conservatives talk about how lower corporate taxes don’t help the rest of America and how people are paying more than their fair share. Up here in Canada, our left-wing parties basically want corporations to pay their fair share for the services that government provides, not destroy business. The difference is that we (Canadians in general) have a tendancy to think that government should have a significant hand in poverty alleviation and health programs, as well as looking after the military (of which we do have a small one that is serving in Afghanistan) and working towards a positive business climate. I hope that Mr. Obama takes a cue from us and starts to work towards some of our “socialized” programs. They’re not perfect, but things like crime and health-care costs lower if you improve the lives of everyone, not just the few.
Good luck, my friends. I hope everything works out well for you.
Hey, you know that socialised medical system we’ve got over here? You know who paid for that? The US did. You guys gave us a loan after WWII, which was used to set up the National Health Service, and which was only finally paid back fully last year.
The NHS isn’t perfect, but to my mind free healthcare for all is an essential part of a modern civilised nation, and I’m glad we have it. And I’m glad that you Americans gave it to us in the first place. Just so you know, “socialism” isn’t always a bad thing.
Welcome foreign hippies! 🙂
I am in favor of some kind of guaranteed health care for all; I don’t think that full socialism is healthy – despite our current travails, which were largely caused by one single administration, the incentives that the free market provides have driven American (and world) growth over the last couple centuries. It does of course need to be tempered with some responsibility, but there’s a long space between unfettered capitalism and socialism.
But we are happy the rest of the world is pulling for us. To me, the biggest shame that the Bush administration has to bear is how far back they set the cause of democracy throughout the world. For what I mean, check out the Russian part of the Newsweek “The World Responds to Obama’s Election” article at http://www.newsweek.com/id/167733/page/2.
It reads in part, “Vladimir Putin happily used Washington’s arguments and methods to expand his personal control over Russian political institutions.
Throughout the Bush administration, the Kremlin studiously followed the White House road map on how to make excuses for controversial actions and policies. ‘Look at these guys in Washington,’ was the constant message, ‘they are doing the same thing down there we’re doing here and still call it democracy!'”
Frankly, those who tread on the cause of freedom and democracy allegedly in the cause of democracy deserve a traitor’s fate. Bush, Cheney, Rove et al. are guilty of betraying our country and its ideals in the basest way.
But the cause of liberty always has its setbacks. I hope not only Obama but the administrations to come (of whichever party) have learned their lessons from W’s presidency and return to behavior that earns us the place of being a shining beacon of freedom to the world again; working with all the other countries of good intent to improve not just our country but the rest of the world.
My response to those who are grumpy about Obama’s win is to review the news footage from around the world; look at the faces of the people celebrating not only in the US, but in Switzerland, Kenya, Germany, etc. It’s not an expression of snide superiority on their faces, but pure and basic joy. Frankly, I don’t see how all this happiness can be a bad thing; it bodes well for America’s role in world affairs over the coming four years.
Which is not to say, of course, that Obama is going to be the perfect saviour of the world, but such overwhelming joy suggests we should all give him a chance.
And that’s about all I have to say about an election in someone else’s country. 😉