Without-Feathers.com

For the Win

November 5, 2008
Life, Politics

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For the first time in many, many years, I woke up today feeling proud to be an American.

Man, does that feel good.

I have been deeply interested in politics since I was a child, but for the past ten years, that interest has been slowly and systematically beaten out of me. It started with the Monica Lewinsky affair, which showed Bill Clinton’s total disrespect for his office and his supporters. Then came the 2000 presidential fiasco, which shook my faith in the election system so badly that I still refuse to believe any pre-election polls or celebrate until all the results are in. Two years later, just one week before the first senate election in which I was finally going to be old enough to vote, Paul Wellstone—one of my political and personal heroes—died in a plane crash. By the time of Kerry’s defeat in 2004, I was so emotionally numb when it came to politics that I just stopped paying attention altogether. Not the best response, probably, but I simply couldn’t follow politics anymore if I wanted to survive another Bush term with my sanity intact.

A week ago, I was remembering that post-Kerry numbness, and deciding whether or not to call up my doctor and make an appointment for the day after the election, so I could start taking Prozac right away if McCain won. Today, I am feeling the highest high I have felt in years, and it’s all natural. Obama’s not God, he’s not the Messiah, things are not going to be perfect, and certainly not right away. But for the first time in what feels like forever, I have hope for my country.

In closing, I want to applaud McCain, who put aside the snarky attacks—for good, I hope—and gave a gracious and gentlemanly concession speech. (His supporters, however, were another matter; booing every other thing your former candidate says is rude to the winner and to him. Have some manners, people.) Whether they voted for Obama or McCain, I hope my fellow Americans rest easy in the fact that our country made history last night, and that the world indisputably sees us in a different light today. We are all made of awesome, my friends.

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