05 November 2008

What the Obama Win Means to Me

I have a number of reactions to the Obama electoral win. The obvious one about having higher hopes for a better future for my children is the biggest. But the most interesting is probably the chance to end policy driven by fear.

Toast wonders why we ever let fear drive us as a nation. More than anything else, W's presidency was about fear. Fear of confronting global warming. Fear of terrorists. Fear of brown people. Fear of liberals. Fear of gays. Fear of muslims. Fear of financial ruin in this recent bailout. Even the McCain campaign focused on fear of Obama in myriad ways. These last eight years have truly been ruled by and defined by fear.

Obama's message of hope is, to me, a message of courage. He has the courage to earnestly attempt the outrageous act of becoming POTUS. He has the courage to face death threats that I believe are all too real. He tells the nation "Yes We Can" confront the problems that face us and overcome them. The courage and inspiration to face our problems and try to grapple with them is the most important message I get from Obama. Its such a refreshing change from trying to get us to all cower in fear and hand authoritarian power over to a tyrannical administration.

May Obama live through his years as POTUS and be as effective as W was destructive.

2 comments:

Toast said...

May Obama live through his years as POTUS and be as effective as W was destructive.

Indeed.

The Other Susan said...

From your mouth to the FSM's ear....