A couple quick thoughts regarding the election.
I spent election night in Dakar at a bar we volunteers, I'm pretty sure, keep in business. They were gracious enough to keep the place open until nearly 6 am to see all of the coverage, from the first precinct results to Obama's acceptance speech. About 3 am or so, I was delirious with fatigue, and almost called it a night, but I'm glad I didn't. The excitement, especially during the rally at Grant Park, was palpable even across an ocean. The Senegalese people watching the returns with us, even though their English wasn't good enough to keep up with exactly what was going on, were nearly as excited as we were. I want to return later to what an Obama presidency means, both to me personally and from a nerdier policy perspective, but I will say now that witnessing Obama's victory was emotional. Not a single person I was with was unaffected by it, even those present whose absentee ballots were marked for McCain. Regardless of one's political affiliation, we can agree that, in electing Obama, we've accomplished something special as Americans.
As I've mentioned before, people here in Senegal, as is the case with many across Africa, are quite pleased to see Obama headed for the White House. The day after the election, when I got back home, I got a half dozen calls of congratulations, all from Senegalese friends. People have takent to calling me Atoumane (the Senegalse name I've adopted) Obama. Six baby boys born last Wednesday in my town are named Barack, and I'm sure more are coming.
People see me walking around town and yell, "Oui, nous pouvons!" Yes, we can!
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Leffel you are well informed and you know a lot about politics. But, you still know nothing about killer whales and zoo books. I'm just saying!
ReplyDeleteLeffel.
ReplyDeletea few things.
1. I didn't vote for a single Republican this election. Mainly because there were only 4 races in my district, and because of disillusionment with the GOP (the Patriot act) And new found believe that voting for the lesser of 2 evils is still a vote for evil. The decision: 2 Democrats (Chandler vs. a no name Rep, Chandler is at least a social conservative; and of course Bob Damron). President- Chuck Baldwin from the Constitution party. And finally for the US Senate Race I was forced to write in a vote for John Daugherty, Lunsford and McConnell are jokes of human beings.
As for Obama. I really hope he can do good things for this nation, especially with foreign relations and economics, but I also think he can make both of those things worse with a few wrong moves. But I could care less if the world hates us and we're all poor when compared to social issues.
Finally, this election proved two things to me.
1. Even though I believe in the electoral college (though whoever loses always hates it, Reps this year, Dems in '04 and '00), the stranglehold that democrats and republicans have on our politics and media is disgusting. There were 5 people running for President. Only 2 were given any media recognition, and only 2 were allowed to debate. Granted the other 3 had no real chance of being elected, but I strongly feel that both parties were actively trying to keep the other candidates completely hidden as to not ruin there chances (Dems trying to hush Nader and the ultra liberals (even though its really hard to be more left than Obama), and the GOP blocking the Constitution party because they would lose real conservatives and Religious votes)(this also brings up the point that the GOP tried to give Nader a lot of spotlight in '00 and '04, especially since they didn't have any other conservative opposition).
2. While the National media has given much attention to the fact that this election is groundbreaking in race relations, I feel that this election has only shown that America is more divided racially than ever. Over 90% nation wide, 98% in many places. That's the percentage blacks voted for Obama. Ridiculous, how can anyone make a point that race relations is growing when almost 20% of the national population is actively segregating themselves by simply voting on race and not on issues.
It's now very late and I'm really sleepy. We'll debate when ya back in December, miss ya man.
-Bubba
corrections:
ReplyDelete95% Nationwide, and only 13 percent of the total election.