November 4, 2008

I broke into tears at 11pm EST on November 4, 2008 when the networks declared Barack Obama the next president of the United States....... I don't think I was the only one to do so. What happened this election is a seminal moment in American history and we were all part of it.

For me though, the election was also something very personal. Twenty years ago when we adopted my bi-racial daughter, and again three years later when we adopted our bi-racial son, it was an act of faith that Mia and Leo would grow up in an America that was more tolerant than the one into which they were born. Last night affirmed that act of faith. We live in a country that can learn and grown and the agents of intolerance are receding. Yes, they're still among us, but it's getting harder and harder to find them.

I spent election day in New Hampshire helping to get out the vote for Obama. One of the areas in the Lakes Region where I canvassed was very rural. Think "Deliverance goes to New England" with cars up on blocks, half-sided houses, and lots of junk strewn about the yard. At one house there was an older guy, straight out of central casting. He was wearing a beater t-shirt and jeans. When I said I was from the Obama campaign and wanted to make sure he got to the polls, he told me "I've already voted. And I've got somethin' for ya. It's down in the Winnebago."

OK, I'm up in back-woods New Hampshire and some old redneck is going to his trailer to get something for me. I had two thoughts. It was either a cake to take back to the volunteers, or he was going to shoot me for being a Massachusetts liberal coming up to tell him how to vote. When he handed me a bumper sticker that said "Freedom Isn't Free" I realized just how much this country had changed.

In an earlier blog, I suggested that deep in his heart, John McCain was uncomfortable with the campaign he was running and the people it was attracting. Last night's concession speech makes me to hopeful that the old Mac is back, the one who, in 2004, John Kerry considered putting on the Democratic ticket. He'll go back to the Senate and not have to kowtow to the right wing anymore. I see a Clinton-McCain bill in our future.

But yesterday's vote was a long time coming. One of the smart things about maybe the smartest campaign we'll ever see, is that Obama knew it was going to take the American people awhile to get accustomed to a black man as president.

The Huxtables were America's favorite sitcom family for over a decade. Tiger Woods, Denzel Washington, Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey are among the most popular people in the country.....actually Oprah is one of the most powerful too. Not most popular Black People. Simply most popular and they became popular because they're all really good at what they do, and they've been doing it for a long time. This really is a meritocracy. As Republican strategist Stuart Stevens said in a NY Times story about the campaign, "If a house is on fire, the owner does not care what color the fireman is."

Winston Churchill said (I paraphrase) "Americans always do the right thing.....after they've exhausted all other possibilities." Yesterday, after 8 years of total incompetence, we hired the right guy for the job. Volunteering for the Obama campaign showed me that these folks know how to get things done. From the on-line phone banks to the daily text messages and emails from Michelle, Joe, David Plouffe and Barack (yes, they always addressed me by name and signed with just their first names), the campaign engaged their supporters in ways never seen before.

We'll need that spirit of "community organizing" because winning was just the first step. Barack Obama treated his supporters as collaborators; we were asked to work for the greater good and to sacrifice for a common goal. I hope they stay in campaign mode and keep communicating with us....all of us. The president needs to ask Americans to sacrifice to make the country and the world better. And as we learned on November 8th, if you respect us enough to ask us to do the right thing, the American people will.........eventually.