President-Elect Obama

I’m not much of a blogger as evidenced by my inaction on this site, but what better reason is there to write than President-Elect Obama? Anyway, please bear with my self-indulgence with this next post, and forgive my optimism—I just can’t help it.

[Written 11-05-2008]

So how can I write about this, genuinely, in a way that doesn’t echo all the noise of the pundits, news articles, and political blogs? What can I write that’s true? That really expresses the deep import of it all?

From the start of this year, I’d always said 2008 would be a big year—a year of big happenings and big changes. Why did I think this? I don’t really know… I guess because personally I was really ready for it, ringing in anticipation for it. My life was changing; my friends’ lives were changing around me; Taiwan (where I was living at the time) was majorly changing, the Beijing Olympics were coming up; the globalized markets bounced up and down like a yo-yo; and of course… there was the Election.

I know I have little to compare it to, but I feel in my gut that this decade, and this year in particular, marks a new and distinct direction, and it seems as if all of a sudden, a collective consciousness and mobilized will has gelled across the nation. 2008 is the new 1968.

On election night, I watched the results with my friends, some of whom I had canvassed with in Virginia a few times. In Ulah’s Bistro on U Street, cheers erupted at every Obama take. Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania. Tar Heels picked up a Senate seat with Kay Hagan. New Hampshire picked up a Senator too. Periods of electric enthusiasm peppered lulls of quiet(er) waiting and commercial breaks.

State after state announced results. CNN made projections, often—puzzlingly—only after 3%, 5% of votes had been counted. But hours after polls closed in Virginia, why wouldn’t they announce results in a state where so many of us had invested our time and hope? After polling so many points ahead, colored blue on so many electoral maps—could it be that Virginia would go red after all?

Waiting, waiting, waiting…

Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio

Finally,

Virginia

51% Obama
49% McCain

(The final count puts Obama at 52% with a 5 point lead, but these were the results at the time of CNN’s projection)

Virginia goes blue! President. Senate. Governor

We scream scream scream! Turns out, all our efforts had amounted to something. What we did really mattered, and mattered all the more for the small margin and nail-biting finish.

We are the momentum of a sea change in America.

But that’s not all. After Virginia, we still wait. … but for what? It’s clear Obama will win… unless McCain wins California… and Oregon… and Washington… and all the states in between. Even so, we cannot leave. It’s not enough yet, and so we wait.

As the final polls on the West Coast close, we count down as one, not knowing why we are counting—but even this was a small part of belonging to a something big, and it felt good to do it.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …

OBAMA WINS THE PRESIDENCY!!!
11 PM EST

Shock!

So soon?!?


Jumping Screaming Hugging Crying

Our bodies cannot convey what we feel. They cannot move enough, do enough, release enough to express this great catharsis, months and months—maybe even years—in coming.

Jubilant, moved, and greatly relieved, everyone celebrates together. We’re strangers mostly, but tonight we are united and made familiar by hope and history.

We rush out onto the streets, grabbing, jumping, screaming, made heady with joy and relief.

We have taken back our country.

What we do matters. What we think matters. We have ownership of our democracy, of our government, of our country, of our future. We have taken back our country and things will never be the same. We will remember the power of our voices and move even greater mountains in the knowledge of this power.

There is nothing we cannot do if we try