I just got back from three weeks away from YouthNoise (I know. How did I live without it?) and I feel like I'm still catching up on everything that happened while I was away. For one week, I was getting ready for my wedding, so I hardly even read the news or my email (shameful for me).
Then my husband and I went to Panama for our honeymoon, so we missed all the inauguration hype and festivities. This was pretty tragic for me. I am a big Obama supporter and followed the election the way some people follow "Lost"... OK, the way I follow "Lost," so to miss the big day was a little sad.
On the bright side, we got to talk with a lot of non-Americans about the election and the way they perceive it. Every time we met a new group of people-- from Canada, Panama, Argentina, you name it-- they would inevitably ask the question, "So who did you vote for in the presidential election?" When we answered, "Barack Obama," the response was always the same. Grins, high-fives, congratulatory cheers.
Wow. I knew most people around the world supported Obama over McCain, but I guess it didn't really register until I was in a foreign country. I have lived in France twice in the last few years, once right before Bush's re-election in 2004 and once in 2005-2006, and both times I got a lot of flack for the role the U.S. government was playing in the world. I got into a lot of political discussions, trying to get across the point that all Americans are not ignorant about world events or arrogant about our presumed dominance of... well, just about everything.
This was the first time I have ever traveled abroad where I could proudly say, "Yes, that is my president. I supported him, and I am proud of the direction our country is going in."
Last night on the way to the metro, I met a group of youth activists and fellow Obama supporters. Like millions of youth old enough to vote, these three decided to take matters into their won hands and become involved in the Obama campaign. They painted a car/mini bus red, white, and blue with Obama's image on the passenger's side and called it the "ObamaBus." They have been touring the country, hitting up a bunch of swing states, to tell people why they should vote for Barack Obama.
On their way from the East to the West Coast they encountered many people with very different political beliefs and their blogs on youtube show what exactly some people thought about Obama. Scary! But they continued driving west and managed to raise $15,000 by selling Obama t-shirts. They created several Obama stencils and people could choose a stencil and spray paint a white t-shirt in whatever color they liked! That's amazing!
This is one of the coolest cases of political activism that I have come across in the past year! It goes to show what each of us can do for the causes we care about! All it takes is a bit of imagination and an optimistic attitude.
Check these guys out at http://www.artthechange.org/bamabus/
So we are all aware that Barack Obama is our new President-Elect. Bad move America. Not that John McCain would have been an angel, but at least he stood for Christian values. The saddest thing of all is that people voted for Obama "because he's black" not on his past record as a congressman or because of his stance on the issues. Obama promises tax cuts for the middle class, but with his proposed universal healthcare plan the middle class will be receiving a lovely increase in taxes. Universal heathcare is not working in Europe and it won't work here. At lease McCain would have left us alone in that respect.
Obama was not the right choice in this election and his popularity will soon go down as soon as he starts making good on the things he promised us. People did not consider the consequences of some of his proposals (i.e. universal healthcare) in the long run, they just saw his skin color. In my opinion, this was the most messed up election yet.
It’s
over. The election, that is. I have spent the last 2 weeks
“recovering,” by which I mean further putting off all of the things
that I put off to do after November 4.
It was certainly an interesting ride. I spent my election day waking
up at 6am and doing visibility in North Berkeley for NO on 8, the
campaign to maintain the rights of same-sex couples in California, that
unfortunately ultimately passed (more on that later).
I also was lucky enough to work for the Barack Obama campaign
(spoiler: we won this one) in Reno, Nevada. I’m ashamed to say it was
the first and last thing I did for the Obama campaign (which I should
note that I fully and passionately support, regardless of my earlier
work for Hillary), but I was glad to be a part of it nonetheless.
It has been said many times, most no doubt better than it will be
here, but that Barack Obama will be president is an incredibly
groundbreaking feat. In Europe, the United States is often thought to
be a land still filled with racism and hatred (granted, much of this is
probably true, but not to the extent believed). Great Britain, Ireland,
Turkey, Finland, and others in Europe have all had women Heads of
State, so having a woman president or vice president would not have
been a huge deal for them (not to say that it wouldn’t have been a good
thing). But a minority, a man who a little over 40 years ago may not
have had the right to vote or marry a white woman? That is something
that even Europe, in many ways proud of its progressive thinking,
cannot claim to have had. For the first time in a long time, the United
States is leading the world in a revolutionary and positive way, in
overwhelmingly choosing to overlook racial divides to elect a black man
as president. [Where is Europe's Obama? this interesting BBC article asks]
It’s a wake-up call for a part of the world that has gotten rather fond
of hating and looking down upon us for the last 8-odd years.
Much is promised by Barack Obama, but he cannot, of course, perform
miracles. He will not in his (hopefully) eight years, solve global
warming. He will not untangle the US from the Middle East. He will not
eliminate poverty, or world hunger, or racist tensions. He is one man
who will direct American foreign and domestic policy, and many of his
hands are tied up in the fact that much of what he will be doing is
cleaning up after the Bush administration. He could not have come at a
better time.
I went to a talk by a panel of polisci professors at my school
answering the question “what will Obama change about American foreign
policy.” The three of them differed on several things, namely, what to
do about Iraq and the Israel-Palestine conflict, but what they could
agree on is that the most important thing that Obama will bring to
American foreign policy is not change itself but the concept and
promise of change. That is, if foreign leaders and people think the
United States is going to change dramatically, they will start treating
it differently, and that is what actually could begin to facilitate the
change necesary. They will begin to stop thinking of us as
imperialists, bullies, etc, and even if we maintain many of the same
policies (most of which are too old and embedded to be changed), good
things will happen.
So I am excited, as you can probably tell. There are certainly still
far too many racists in this country, as any visit to a white
supremacist or conservative message board will tell you. But Obama’s
election is a new American revolution, and I am incredibly excited to
be a part of it.
(Cross-posted on my election blog- stopbeingsokate.wordpress.com)
That was a wild ride, wasn't it? I feel like I've been so obsessed with the election for the last few months that I almost don't know what to do with myself now that it's over. No more yelling at the TV during debates? No more mocking Sarah Palin on a daily basis? What else is there?
Well... I suppose I could focus on the hard work ahead for President Obama. I laughed out loud when I saw this news brief in The Onion: "Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job":
In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with
such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy,
repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please
more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a
daily basis... Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you
that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."
Seriously! I can't believe there are so many people who still want to be president, God love 'em.
I think what I will miss most about this election is the brilliant comedy that came out of it. SNL, The Onion and YouTube kept me laughing to keep from crying, and I hope they can keep it up now that we have an administration I actually have faith in (it only took eight years, right?). I'd like to make a shout-out to my personal favorite comedian from this election, the brilliant Sara Benincasa, whose Sarah Palin vlogs made me choke on my coffee more times than I can count.
Here's the video that started it all (check out the rest on her YouTube channel and 236.com):
