Via John Schwenkler, Will Wilkinson on how it's possible to be pro-Obama, to be moved to tears by last night's victory, and yet to "hope never to see again streets thronging with people chanting the victorious leader’s name."
As I see it, the chanting-the-leader's-name issue is in part the problem Wilkinson mentions, that of failing to see the presidency as a government job and not a divine role of some kind. But it's also about missing that edge of dissent. Depending your environment, it's possible to feel, with the Obama win, that you're maybe some kind of Republican, not if you supported McCain (did people really do that?) if you're merely very happy Obama won and incredibly relieved that the other ticket lost.
Obama was so clearly the better candidate, and Palin so openly disdainful of such broad swaths of the population that when everyone around me just assumed I was for Obama, I didn't feel the same qualms as I did when, at other times, acquaintances have assumed I lean left. 'How could you not vote for Obama?' is at once unappealing as political discourse and, in this particular election, a fair point.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Last election post, 2008
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I am sad about what serving in the Bush Administration has done to Rice's reputation, such that she's pretty much impossible as a future candidate. Can you imagine how awesome it would have been if the GOP's first female candidate on a presidential ticket gave interviews that required footnotes instead of a translator?
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