Soft Landing for Democracy

It’s a big night for the USA. America is on the verge of curing a deep cynicism which has coated me like an oily secretion since George W. Bush won a majority of our vote in 2004. At this moment, watching an old wooden television, I’m looking at an American flag with only 42 stars on it. It was my grandfathers. Maybe his grandfather gave it to him; and maybe I should buy a flat-screen TV because living with vintage memorabilia everywhere is starting to freak me out, and I’m starting to wonder whether modernity is really not so bad. I hear a voice, like a deep comforting voice, like a combination of the voices of James Earl Jones and Anderson Cooper. I hear a voice. “Barack Obama.” I hear more voices, drowning out the sarcasm and disbelief of Bill O’Reilly. “Barack Obama, Barack Obama.” I hear thousands voices, of people waiting to celebrate his election in Grant Park Chicago, “OBAMA. OBAMA. OBAMA.” I hear the victorious, passionate premonition of Reverend Jeremiah Wright when he roared: “Barack Hussein Obama!!” Have we had the premonition for years that we were moving in the wrong direction, that America was a force for pain and suffering around the world, with our culture of consumption, resource wasting extravagance, and aggressive exportation of a mindless, presumptive way of life. I have not been a proud American. But here we are, preparing to celebrate a new Age, preparing to view our fellow Americans in a new way, to feel a new connection to our Country. Tomorrow we will meet the citizens of the rest of the world with fresh eyes, without the defensive posture of the past, instantly ready to make them understand that we do not support the crimes of our government, the horrors on which our Nation were built: the slavery, the genocide, the patriarchy, and violence. Obama does represent change. Everything changes. Thomas Jefferson, one of the geniuses of American history, and of the world, is sitting up in Heaven (yes he was forgiven for being a slave owning liberal Christian who had to keep his copy of the Koran under his bed) looking down on us, and it has just suddenly dawned on him that we were not totally hopeless after all. He is looking down and imagining that our remarkable Constitution, which he did so much to create, may finally be bringing good tidings, and its gifts may be ready for long overdue delivery, as we, Americans, have taken the moment in our hands and elected the future. Barack Hussein Obama will be our President. I’m going to celebrate this moment with some fellow human beings, with a bunch of happy, future looking Americans. What a wonderful moment to be standing in a crowd of our countrymen, in Times Square, on Hollywood Boulevard, or on the sidewalk in Main Street USA. What a moment to be standing anywhere, even in the grass alone, in the midst of the great wide open. This is a moment when a man’s confidence in his species can be restored, a moment when we can say goodbye to the past, to the blame, the repetitive mistakes, the selfishness, the mindlessness, the destruction and presumption. Let’s take a moment to collectively wave at what is behind us as we look in the rearview mirror and say goodbye. Ooh, I see a little George Bush in the rearview mirror. Bye George.