It Had to Happen

I don’t pretend to be eloquent enough to provide any useful comment on the historic nature of what has happened tonight, neither the dramatic acceptance speech of our new president-elect, nor the gracious concession speech of the man who was defeated.

All I can say is that I have the strong feeling that Barack Obama’s victory was just plain necessary. We needed his election not only to galvanize this country, but to send a powerful message to the rest of the world that things are finally different here.

Our challenge is to be realistic about what this election means. By himself, Barack Obama cannot dig us out of the pit into which we have sunk. He can wave his wand, but it’s doubtful the Red Sea is going to part. The nation’s voters have expressed enormous confidence in him. But he puts his pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us; he will make mistakes, and many of us may find ourselves upset with him from time to time, just as we have been with his predecessors. Circumstances may prevent him from delivering on his campaign promises. Sure, he may get us out of the war in Iraq, but may have to plunge us deeper into the war in Afghanistan. All we can expect is that he brings his personal qualities and intellect to bear on the problems we face going forward.

But it’s fair to say that the big difference is that from here on in, we’re going to be paying attention. For the first time in a long time, this will be a participatory democracy. And just like Barack Obama’s election, this is a necessary development. We can no longer allow the special interests, whether they be lobbyists or PACs or corporations or associations, to lead us and our representatives in Washington around by the nose. We can no longer live narrow, comfortable little lives, assuming that someone has our back. Barack Obama isn’t going to save us by himself, and it would be unfair for us to seek that of  him.  What we can reasonably hope for from him, however,  is leadership.

There, now I’ve said it.