A NEW DAY, A FRESH START
It is a sea change, but not a mandate. And that's not a hit on Barack Obama, it is a challenge.
A challenge to make his rhetoric about no more blue states and red states, but simply United States, actually mean something. Unity is earned, not declared, and the simple fact is that one more 51-percent president doesn't bind a country together.
Rather, like George W. Bush, he has tremendous potential to leave it decidedly divided. Democrats are exultantly talking about a wave sweeping the country, about a new hope and an era of change, but the fact is that almost as many people opposed Barack Obama as supported him. Those people aren't cheering today, they are licking their wounds. And while the best of them will give Barack Obama a fair shake, many made up their minds months ago about him.
So President-elect Obama must avoid the temptation to do an end zone dance with his friends. He must rather immediately and convincingly reach out to people who feel like he has looked down his nose at them and their values and culture. The people he once mocked as clinging to their guns and their religion are just as American as the people who voted for him, and almost as numerous, and the country will only become united if he respects them. If he, however, marginalizes them, if they continue to be the object of his scorn, the butt of his followers' jokes, there will be no unity. There will be merely smoldering resentments that will bear fruit in two years and four.
Barack Obama must throw his efforts and his abilities into the large task of winning over the people he hasn't yet won over.
And those people must give him a chance.
Something as big as a presidential election is no more complex than a Little League game. You play hard and you hope to win but after nine innings it's about what's on the scoreboard. If you have the most runs, you win. If you don't, you don't. And if you don't, you accept the outcome and politely congratulate the winner. Win or lose with dignity or grace. That's the American way.
And the American way means that, when the votes are counted and the victor is declared, it's a clean slate. This is 2008, not 2012, and there is nothing to be gained by refighting the last election or by prematurely fighting the next election. It is the duty of every American to wish the new president -- every new president -- the very best, and to do the duty of citizenship, which is to build up, not tear down, and give the benefit of the doubt.
That doesn't obligate anyone to support anything they disagree with, but it does, in the name of decency, require people to give the new regime a chance, to give it a fair hearing. In our country, the president is the president of all Americans, and if the treatment of George W. Bush didn't reflect that, then we can try to do better this time.
Certainly, it has been a long time since either political party has held as much power as the Democrats now hold. But with that power comes a temptation to misuse it, or to fall prey to arrogance. The Republicans proved that, as both parties have in their turn. This can be either the beginning of a Democratic dynasty, or the beginning of their end. Which it is will be determined by them.
Largely, it will be determined by him -- by the president elect. The Democratic leaders in the Congress have proven over two years to be caustically partisan, to be enthralled with smashing and mocking all who fail to match their high liberalism. Whether or not Barack Obama can change that -- if he wants to -- remains to be seen.
But here's hoping for the best.
Election Day is our greatest day. It is the defining American day. We fight wars as a means to an end, and the sovereignty of the people and the liberties necessary to protect that sovereignty are the end. We transfer more power than humankind has ever held on the peaceful basis of counted ballots. We do it with grace and faith. The grace to act as citizens and the faith that our system will work and the right will be done.
Barack Obama was not my choice, but he is my president. That is true of all Americans. For the last eight years, there has been an ongoing campaign of destruction meant to handicap and hobble the last president. I refuse to be part of an effort to do the same to the next president. Those who didn't vote for Barack Obama must set a higher standard of civility and citizenship than those who didn't vote for George W. Bush. In defeat, there must still be nobility.
That doesn't mean silent servility. It doesn't mean differences and principles are ignored.
But it does mean the new president gets a new chance. It means we all must pray for him and work with him to make our country stronger and safer and better.
Pretty speeches notwithstanding, there remains a great divide, much of it created by the recent election. To the extent it needs to be bridged, it will be bridged by an effort by the president-elect to reach out to those who don't trust him, and by an effort by the people to reach out to a president who might not trust them.
The last eight years have taught us what happens when you set out to destroy a presidency for political gain. You help your candidate, but you hurt your country. That pattern must not be followed with this new president. America must treat Barack Obama better than he treated George W. Bush.
He has preached a "shift to the center," he has claimed to be "post partisan." Through the campaign, those were just words.
In the administration, they will need to be more.
Or all the hope and the change and the hooplah will be meaningless hype.
But today is a new day, and a fresh start. And the president-elect gets the benefit of the doubt.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2008
