10.11.08

new column: Obama won, yet I'm not ready to celebrate

I've remained silent on the November 4th election - AKA liberation day for the sensible and the Russian Revolution for the hard-nosed right - mostly because I've been utterly depressed over Prop. 8 passing. But now that a bit of time has passed, I'll chime in with a few semi-contrarian thoughts on Obama's victory.

Okay, so the headline isn’t, strictly speaking, true. I am plenty pleased that Obama won. President Bush and the GOP had eight years of governance, they botched it, and now comes someone new. Obama brought to the campaign a better set of policies and, more importantly, a superior vision and temperament than McCain. That Obama inspired so many to become involved in the political process is commendable. That the world is jubilant about Obama’s win and looking forward to renewing diplomatic relations that frayed under President Bush is encouraging. And, except for the hardcore Republican base who see Obama’s win as the Russian Revolution and will continue to see it that way no matter what, Obama stands a good chance of truly achieving a government that doesn’t shut people out the way Republicans have shut out Democrats and dissenters in the past eight years. Read the rest of Obama Won, Yet I’m Not Ready to Celebrate.
As for Prop. 8, well, the short answer is that it's in the lawyers' hands now.

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