Obama Won: Now What?

Tuesday will be a night to remember for years to come. It'sa night that we will tell our kids about. It's a night that will be written in the history books.
Obama has become the first African-American President to ever be elected. To say I was shocked, that was an understatement. I was overwhelmed. Was I happy? Yes. I sure didn't want McCain to win. But to have Obama go all the way? And in a major landslide? I didn't expect that. I didn't expect that America was ready. In 2008, I wasn't sure we were. It's momentous. It' revolutionary. The future's been thrown into a curveball. What might have happened with McCain has now been plunged into an alternate future loaded with possiblilties.
To get a handling of what Obama's win means, I'll write a blog with musings over what's happened. If you can get anything out of this, great. If not, I'm sorry. This is more of a thought process.
With Bush out of office, it signals the end of an era, in more ways than one. With him gone, ends an eight-year excruciating, painful, agony-ridden term filled with more downs than up, when we have seen some of the worst atrocities that could happen in a lifetime and faith in the government nearly destroyed. We got through it all and now we emerge, ready to begin anew. I bet many breathed a sigh of relief, just knowing that soon, Bush will be out of power. And with Bush, ends a 232 year era (I count from the Declaration of Independence) of old, middle-aged, WASP men dictating over the country over and over again. No more. The cycle is broken.
Obama's win opens new doors of possibilities. We have more than one choice of person to vote for. A woman President is now not far out of reach. Hopefully, it won't take another fifty years to have that happen. And personal side note: no, I don't want Palin to be the first woman President. We can have a non-Christian President (not too scandalous). We can have an Asian-American President. We can have an Indian-American President. We can have a Hispanic President and it's a possiblity not too far out of reach, since Hispanics are supposed to be the majority by 2050. Who knows, we might even one day have a homosexual President. I understand that right now, this possiblity is only a fragment and it will be a long time if and when that will ever happen.
I'm upset and confounded over the loss of same sex marriage in California. That was a low point for this historic election and it shows that maybe we're not as progressive or ready to take all the steps to be completely progressive. It's a shame. My opinions over same sex marriages are irrelevant. It's beyond not fair to take away someone's rights, to essentially tell someone, you're not good enough to have the same rights I do. It's telling someone who is the right person is to marry. I'm sorry, but that's a personal decision that can't be made by anyone but you. What does the loss in California mean? Gay rights have gone back to square one. It's back to the same place it was before May. How long it will take to soothe people into tolerance is undetermined. Maybe it will get better in ten years, twenty, or fifty. I can't say.
Obama will take office in January. Will he do a good job? A bad job? I don't know. He does have a few noticeable flaws that showed in the election and all the hype has risen expectations to an ultimate high. Since he is the first African-American President, everyone will be watching, waiting to see what he will do. He will be the golden standard for any future African-American Presidents to come. He will be the one the future leaders will be compared to. Do I want him to do a good job? Absolutely. My guess is since he's left with the fragments of Bush's legacy, his term will be similiar to Jimmy Carter's, who was left to pick up the pieces after Nixon and the little progress of Ford, who has been seen by a few, fairly or unfairly, to not getting anything accomplished. It's impossible to expect that Obama will restore everything that went wrong in four years. He is still human. He can pick up the pieces but to wash everything away in that short of time, people shouldn't expect it. The most he can do is to steer the country into the right direction. A positive way to think about it is we've survived Bush, we can survive anyone.
Just because we have FINALLY got an African-American into power, doesn't mean an end to many problems. Racism still exists and 2007 is a painful reminder of how race relations still have some more work ahead. There's still turmoil in the Middle East. Wall Street still hasn't recovered and it will take more than four years to completely restore the economy. We're over a trillion in debt. Russia is starting to get a little too hostile towards us.
Obama inherited Bush's legacy. As much as anyone would like to, we can't erase Bush's legacy or write it off as an eight year mistake. We can't forget the guy has ever been in office. Bush's legacy will be with us for many years to come. All we can do is pick up the mess, embrace the past, and begin again.
There are positives. There have been a few stories that tell Europe is starting to warm to America again. This, of course, might be priminary presumption. Of course, this means that now we'll have to give up our arrogant America jokes but it's a willable sacrifice. We voted in someone I thought would take another fifty years to accomplish. The White House is being restructured. Change is ahead, for better or worse.
I hope all goes well. I want things to get better. We do still have plenty of problems to solve, but maybe, and this is a big maybe, politics won't have to be one of those worries. Whatever faces us ahead, we'll make it. We'll be okay. With Obama, the future's open with opportunities.