Across the world people have heard about the large voter turnouts in America--for both candidates. After all the voter apathy throughout my lifetime, the excitement over the election literally gave me goosebumps. We had two great candidates and voters on both side were voting FOR something, not against something. What a great moment for us!
I am thrilled about Obama. So much of our economy is about how people feel, and like him or hate him, he has energized this country in a way I've never seen. By including all 50 states in his campaign, he really made us all feel part of something. And he propelled himself into the white house by working directly with the VOTERS, not the Democratic Party, so he owes them nothing. I love that.
That America, 143 years after the Civil War and 43 years after the Civil Rights Movement, now has a black president--and that people of all races voted for him--is inspiring. May we finally realize that skin color has as little to do with a person's worth as freckles or crooked teeth.
I also think John McCain has done more for this country than many of us realize. When Lyndon Johnson championed the Civil Rights Amendment, he specifically stated it had to be done by a southern Democrat--pretty much because they were the ones doing most of the discriminating. In many ways the Republican party has long been the party of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) men, so for John McCain to pick a woman as his running mate in spite of the possibility that it would cost him votes was a huge step for women.
I also admire Senator McCain immensely for not allowing his campaign to be about racism. He might have won, but it would have torn this nation apart. Instead, he made sure his campaign stayed away from race as an issue. I think he showed a tremendous amount of integrity and leadership, and even a sense of doing what is best for the country over himself. Maybe he's read John Locke or Rousseau? At any rate, I think he's shown the country that real statesman exist.
Kudos to BOTH candidates.
1 comment:
You rock! I, too, am delighted that so many Americans CARED this time, and I think we had a choice between two decent, honorable, and intelligent candidated. ANd that's something to be grateful for!
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