11.05.08
My Comment After the Elections
So I just finished reading and watching a bunch of the Presidential election aftermath news on the net. The Obama victory was evidently a landslide, so I don’t expect to see any surprises on Dec 15 when the electoral college makes the official vote to put Obama in the White House. If there was, then it would be too obvious that something was amiss.
This election was definitely historic for various reasons, and the crowds that it drew not only just here in the U.S., but all around the world was incredible. I watched people celebrating Obama’s victory in Japan, China, Kenya, and various states in the U.S. “Peace” noodles were being sold in Japan. I know that a lot of bets were won in the U.K. totaling millions of pounds. I admit that I felt a bit misty-eyed myself watching all this because I know that personally I have hoped that there would be more peace in the world, something that I did not feel confident McCain was even interested in bringing, but only continuing the old torch of brandishing the power of the U.S. Seeing so many people express the seemingly same sentiment as I has made me realize that I was not alone, and it actually did surprise me a bit. I realize that the U.S. certainly doesn’t control all the evil in the world, but at times I have felt that it had brought or allowed more evil, either by meddling or turning a blind eye. Now we can only watch and wait to see if President Obama will make good on his promises to restore alliances with foreign nations and rebuild the U.S.’s reputation for being a land of freedom, hope, and opportunity.
There are so many issues to deal with as Obama enters his first term, that I’m sure it will take time to see any significant change. One commentator who supported McCain on the news felt that Obama’s victory would end in depression in four years. However, I think that in fairness, as Peter DeFazio, Ron Paul, and others have already claimed, this recent massive bailout that was already enacted recently will only delay the inevitable depression. So I personally don’t think Obama would be the one to blame for an impending depression. But let’s see what he does with world trade agreements and how that might additionally impact our economy.
I do want to comment on McCains concession speech. I thought he was very gracious, and I was actually very surprised. His campaign had so much smearing going on, that this felt like a complete about face. During so much of his campaign I felt antagonized by his claims, and while it’s true that both parties stretch and bent the truths a bit, I just felt McCain’s party was way overboard. I don’t even want to talk about Palin, but my feelings about her got worse as time went on. But watching McCain’s concession speech, I finally felt kindness and unity and really, really appreciated how he encouraged his supporters that we have to be united and continue to strive for what is good. After his speech one woman commented in the spirit of supporting our new President that she will keep in mind that, “In God We Trust.” That sentiment resonated well with me. That was more the American spirit that I had thought was such a great thing about America. Growing up as a child, I had thought America was this wonderful place that espoused Christian values. My parents loved America, and any car my parents bought were American built. I remember one letter my dad wrote to his brother was to encourage him to come here to America. “The oranges,” my dad wrote, “are just rolling on the ground here.” Oranges were special in the Philippines at the time, and to say food was just rolling on the floor was a sign of abundance. But as I grew older and read and learned about U.S. history and the continuing corruption in our government, I had become severely cynical. And while watching McCain’s campaign, that cynicism was only magnified by the twisting of truth. What I saw of Palin was even worse, because some claims she made was not even just twisting of truth, but either she wasn’t paying attention, not understanding what was being said, or just outright lying. To add insult to injury she campaigned wearing her Christianity on her sleeve, while at the same time lying to millions of people. She kept misquoting and misrepresenting Obama’s previous votes on taxes, and Obama’s proposed tax plan to the point of unrecognition. Whether his tax proposal was good or not was not even the question for me, but that she was misrepresenting them so that the claims were not understood properly. It had become not just twisting, but just plain false. This had to be corrected several times on fact checks. During one interview she claimed that she didn’t pay any attention to polls, but when that prank call she got caught on from Canada was aired, she told the radio commentator that she had a lot of confidence that they could win because, “the POLLS” were showing the numbers tightening. So on public T.V. she claimed that she didn’t pay attention to polls, but on what she thought was a private phone conversation she claims she “did” pay attention to polls. How does that behavior favorably support how people view Christians? As far as I can see it only magnifies hypocracy and fuels the growing resentment towards Christians. How could I trust someone like that? I can’t. From the beginning of her campaign she championed transparency, but shortly after the beginning I felt that she was not as transparent as she claimed.
But now that the voting has passed, the next thing in store is to see how all this pans out. As Obama said on his acceptance speech, “We should proceed with humility and/or humbleness.” I think that was a paraphrase, but that was the idea. So far, I think that’s a good start because God has warned us in the Bible that, “Pride comes before a fall.” If we are to respect God and His teachings, we should put aside our pride and proceed with humbleness and humility. I pray that God will turn Obama’s heart to uphold goodness, and fairness, and freedom for us and all Christians and other faiths so that we can live our lives peacefully.
Marlakins
