It dawned on me this morning that John McCain’s campaign and the fervor it inspired was really not much different in tone and tenor than Hillary Clinton’s losing bid as she pushed through to Puerto Rico.
I don’t blame them for their attempts. That is the type of election they had been raised to run. They are a different generation. I can’t blame their supporters either. It is human nature to support your guy or gal to the death. We’re Americans after all – damn the torpedoes and all that. Like Senator Clinton, Senator McCain was gracious and magnanimous in defeat, vowing to get behind President Obama to deliver immediate solutions to our many pressing problems.
If that John or Hillary had ran for president, we might be celebrating a very different first today.
It also occurred to me that I had never been happier to be wrong in my guesses at the total margin of victory or the inability of polling to measure the American electorate. Both of those illogical ideas failed to materialize. Barack won a narrow, those decisive, victory in the popular vote. Despite the huge margin in the electoral college, a 5% popular vote victory says a lot about the character of our nation.
We are neither liberal nor conservative. We are a median nation. We like our revolutions to be neat and tidy things. We were born in blood and fire. Our Founders waged that war, so we wouldn’t have to. The peaceful transition of power we witnessed last night is proof that their concept still works and is still worth fighting for. The margin of victory represents the pendulum stopping in the true center of American ideals, which is just to the left or just to right, but certainly not the extremes that landslide victories usher in.
Think about it. If the democratic party had gained a filibuster proof majority last night would that have made us less or more polarized as a nation? We are still seeing calls for John McCain’s head this morning and the guy lost! I finally understand the objections Hillary’s supporters had about the insistence of her being used as a measuring stick for John McCain in the general election. The Raging Left can be a vindictive bunch. Just as bad as the Rapture Right.
Last night’s election marginalized both groups and ensured that Barack just might be able to achieve the ambitious goals he has set for us as a nation.
This a fine, pertinent post. Yesterday’s election was a rejection of neoconservativism and Rove-era divisiveness, not conservativism in general. (After all there has been no greater, more forceful opponent than Pat Buchanan of our past quarter-century’s dragon-hunting crusades.) And no heads should roll to herald Obama. Would someone please tell Rachel Maddow that he is not the “progressive president”, but just “the president”.
As your fellow Repubican once said: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds… to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Thanks for the kind words, SF. I think moderates progressives will have their work cut out for them in keeping the Raging Left and the Rapture Right in their respective places while the adults clean up their mess.
Love the quote! Lincoln was the inspiration I used as I jumped off the fence this year and joined the republican party, despite having never voted for a republican before. My goal now that the general election is done is to convince classically conservative voters, on the left and right, to join the GOP and help force out the zealots in the coming primary elections.
I am convinced that 11 percent average turnout in the primaries presents a great opportunity to completely change the face of both parties to better represent the two divergent sides of a progressive and sustainable nation.