The Awesome Landscape: Reflections

A newly Blue NC!  Have you ever seen such a beautiful sight?  Except, for our own newly blue Virginia map, I haven't.  Montgomery County, VA, did it's part!  The nearly eight hours outside at the polls, even the rainy part, were worth every minute of it. (Yes, it did rain at G-1, Gilbert Linkous precinct, in Bburg.)  I worked at two other precincts (F-2, Blacksburg Middle School; and F-1, Luther Memorial).  And, following the Nixonian Southern Strategy, in place all these many years, I never thought I'd see the electoral map change like this.

Please follow on the flip...
I only learned after the fact about how bogged down and backed up E-1, st. Michael's Lutheran, was, or that it had become news all over the country.  But thanks to all the newly registered Tech students, E-1 is now Blue too.  The little Repug gerrymanders' trick failed.  Thanks to all our new voters in MOCO!  Thanks also to lawyers from all over, who staffed our precincts and, who, by their presence, likely reduced "funny business" by the other side.  Unfortunately, we need this kind of show each and every time.  Thanks to the Obamakins who came to town to organize the campus and the town.

Not in all the years I've been a registered voter, has there been such an important or deeply felt Democratic election as this one.  I couldn't yet vote in 1964.  I wouldn't have been excited about it if I could have.  I was really concerned about Barry Goldwaters's proclamation that "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."  Though I didn't like our candidate back then, I felt the urgency of electing Lyndon Johnson.  

My first presidential vote was in 1968.  We (my husband and I) were "clean for Gene" (Eugene McCarthy).  Bobby came along much after we had committed ourselves.  That awful June night, we left McCarthy campaign HQ at the Beverly Hilton.  Gene had just informed us that we had lost the California primary.  And as we drove home to the radio-news of Bobby's passing over at the Ambassador Hotel, we wept with RFK supporters.  I stayed up all night that night.  We saw that night what injustice looks like.

Later that year, Hubert H. Humphrey had sat there in silence as heads were bashed in Grant Park--The party cowed by the first Mayor Daley, who unleashed police brutality upon largely peaceful protesters.  Anyone who watched that will never forget it, will never forget what injustice looks like.  Anyone who also wept that year as Martin Luther King was slain and taken from us knows what injustice looks like.

We saw what injustice looks like as Richard Nixon slumped home without sufficient punishment.  He was, after all, caught on tape in conversation with "plumbers" of another era talking about destroying the Brookings institution.  There's a word for what he was, a word leveled unfairly and unjustly this election cycle.  

I voted for Bill Clinton, did phone-banking etc., only to endure impeachment.  As I have noted previously, I worked to prevent his being removed from office.  And though Bill Clinton clearly erred, efforts to impeachment were again what injustice looked like.  We who to this day question the results of FL and OH in 2000 and 2004, respectively, know what injustice looks like.

This year, an utterly unqualified candidate ran for VP.  And as Sarah Palin rabidly roused her crowds to both falsely accuse our side and be precisely what they yelled about themselves, we saw the video clips of epithets and calls for violence against us and our candidate.  We saw again what injustice looks like.  We, Americans all, deserve better than the brutal, violence-provoking language that emanated from the Palin rallies.

At Obama rallies, the scene was different: People smiling, happy, and friendly.  Everyone made sure others could see.  We moved to and fro to make sure the next person could get his or her picture.  We watched out for moms and dads with kids.  Everyone sensed it: Something was changing in America.  In Roanoke, we found that the tears are different now. Like thousands of stars, camera flash flickered and bounced off tears in our eyes.  

As Barack Obama began to speak around midnight following election day, like so many others, I couldn't stop crying.  He (and we) did it.  At long last.  Yes we had some wins since 1968, but there were only three of them.  None felt like this.  By Election Night's end, I kept waiting for NC.  It turned out that I was to wait a good long time.

Yesterday, the AP finally called NC for Barack Obama.  As we (my husband and I) contemplate our retirement to NC --Blue NC, a few years from now, we could not be happier.  Of course, given the new economic realities we all face, we are not sure, now that a move can occur.  We shall see.  But RK does need another NC blogger, don't you think?

As Barack gave his victory speech, my mind wandered to my first vote for president--reluctantly for Hubert H. Humphrey.  The stain of 1968 tainted Grant Park--until this Tuesday night.  That night, it all looked brand new.  The hundreds of thousands who came to Grant Park that night saw the setting in a new light: Windy City, City of Lights, City of Change, City of Community Organizing, City of Barack, City of New Beginnings...

So many events came full circle this election.  But this one continues to stand out:  This marks the (beginning of the) end of the US government being used against its own people.  I began feeling lighter somehow.  I stayed up most of the night Tuesday into Wednesday.  And though I am getting too old for such things, I have never felt younger, more optimistic, or better.  We still have some work to do.  In particular, among my generation and older, we have lots of work to do before next time.  I refuse to concede my or my mother's generation.  (She did vote for Barack.  And the 96 year-old father of my good friend voted for Barack--the first time he ever voted for a Dem for pres).  We have major problems to solve.  Still, they seem less daunting.  As the world cheered what we did Tuesday, and as dawn rolled over the horizon, much as the the Obama logo-animation rolls out a new dawn, we can see it, feel it and be it.  Barack Obama made our political dream of a more just society finally begin.  Now, its up to us to have his back.

Comments