Posted by
flagwaver on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 8:46:29 PM
Tuesday November 4, 2008 will long be remembered as one of the most historic nights in the history of the American republic, for on that night, The One officially became “The Chosen One.” The American electorate has spoken and Barack Hussein Obama is due to become our 44th President of the United States.
I offer congratulations to the victor and the same prayer that I have prayed for every President that I have voted for (or against) in the time that I have been eligible to vote; I pray that he governs us well, with no attempt to rule; I pray that he is and remains in good health; that he leads us with wisdom and foresight; that he remembers that he is in office to serve us and not his personal ambitions or any political Party, and that he allows Almighty God to be the Ruler of his heart and the Governor of his actions.
But as I look at the end of this long…long…long campaign, I am struck that the Pope of Hope’s election has shown me several things that I would like to share with you now.
Woody and Bo were right! Back in the 1960s though early 1970s Big Ten football was defined by the way Ohio State and Michigan played the game: “Three Yards and a Cloud of Dust!” That meaning the team that was successful was the team with the better ground game, and Obama proved that it works in politics as well as football. The Obama campaign had the better ground game all though the campaign season, and I can personally attest to that: In the last week of the campaign I had two “robo-calls”, a visit by campaign volunteers, information through the mail, and a personal call from an Obama volunteer. During the course of the campaign I, a duly registered Republican in a battleground state (!) received NOTHING from the McCain campaign; not a call, not a piece of mail, and not a visitor. When the opposition is reaching out to your supporters more than you are, you should know you are in big trouble!
This is the last “First”! With Barack Obama becoming the first African American to win the office of President, maybe now we can stop celebrating meaningless “firsts” for blacks in this country. After this, being the first black to win a gold medal in the high dive or something just loses whatever luster it had!
The Justice Brothers…R.I.P. As many of you may know, Rush Limbaugh likes to call Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton “The Justice Brothers” on his radio show, and Obama’s election just put a serious crimp in their hustle, as well as the prestige of the old line civil rights groups. Because Obama did not kowtow to the NAACP and did not rely on them for support and/or prestige, the NAACP now finds its standing diminished. Barack Obama won the Presidency without having to rely on them, and that basically makes them irrelevant. As for “The Justice Brothers”, it is going to be really hard to work the racism hustle when America just put a black man in the Oval Office.
Our “Original Sin” has been washed away. The one thing that I really hope this election result does is finally put to bed the idea that America is a Nation filled to bursting with racists just waiting to “keep a brother down.” Barack Obama just rose above all of that and showed that the promise of our founding “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” is not just lofty rhetoric penned by “dead white men”, but it is a promise that has now been kept. While I do not agree with President-Elect Obama’s politics, I do recognize that his is a life and a story that could be found (to steal one from Don King) “Only in America!” We have fulfilled the promise that Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, and Madison made to us ad now we can move freely into the next chapter of our history.
One brief aside: While I was watching the “Fox & Friends” segment talking about the impact of the youth vote in this election, I was appalled to see several young people in the crowd shots wearing the Hammer and Sickle of the old Soviet Union on tee-shirts, and one guy waving a Hammer and Sickle flag at a celebration of Obama’s victory. Do these young dumbkoffs not know what that means, what it represents…or do they just not care?