From TPM Reader MT …
I’m a white, middle-aged grandmother living in a blue state. I have a nice house, a good job, and a happy family; I’m not on the no-fly list, and haven’t lost anyone (yet) in Iraq. I’d expect my emotional involvement with this presidential inauguration to be pretty much on par with what it’s been my whole life: interest, anticipation, maybe a little hope that the new guy will do well for us (whether or not I voted for him).
And yet — ever since election day, I am moved almost to tears when I watch others talking about the incoming president! This feels light years removed from a run-of-the-mill event; what it feels most like to me is the moon landing in 1969. I have that same sense of wonder that this heretofore-impossible thing is actually going to happen, the same undercurrent of dread that something will go wrong, and the same almost-giddy feeling that this could be the beginning of real change for the country.
Just like in 1969, I will have to watch live — I have to experience it along with the rest of the world, in real time.
From TPM Reader GN …
Last year, on St. Patrick’s day I was at a party hosted by a guy who’s super-hero is Rush Limbaugh, and his son-in-law’s hero is Bill O’Reilly. Why was I there? They’re family…ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
Anyway, on St. Patty’s day last year, the conversation turned to politics and they were all talking about the contenders and I said “don’t worry, Obama loves everyone…even you”. They then began guffawing about Obama’s chances and I challenged them to a bet: $50 that Obama is the next president.
They then shunned me and left me to chat with the women in the kitchen, while “the adults” talked politics and football in the living room. It was a bit of an uneasy situation, but everyone present knew just what kind of asses these guys could be.
I haven’t spoken to either since.
But I did get a check in the mail from one of them today.
From TPM Reader EL …
Frankly, I’m tired of the hero-worship mentality, some of it, I’m afraid, of self-design by Obama himself. If you want to be compared to Lincoln, then govern like him, which is to say, produce the results and earn the comparison after the fact. The retracing of the train route for no transportation purpose is sheer showmanship. Too much self-glorification clothed in the facade of humility. We progressives should not be in a hero-worshiping swoon reminiscent of right-wing Bush worshipers. The proof is in the pudding, and it’s still cooking on the stove. A sound and a fury whose significance is yet to be seen. A spectacle paid for by Wall Street…follow the money.
From TPM Reader DT
I walked out from teaching my first American politics course on November 22, 1963 at the University of North Carolina to be greeted by a mixture of cheers and cries. We have come a long way from that day but since then I had at times thought that I had chosen the wrong profession. I chose politics in the early ’60s because I saw hope for the future. Since then it oftentimes has seemed that we have been on a down hill slide. I grew up in Tennessee with the memory of a KKK burning on my front lawn because my father was a civil rights attorney. The question of social justice has been at the forefront of my life since then. As I retire from teaching I feel pride and hope for the first time since the beginning of my career. Because I teach black politics I can tell you with some assurance that Obama has it. He has what it takes to begin to fulfill America’s promise. I am once again optimistic about the future.
From TPM Reader SR …
I’ve had an odd sense of disorientation, lately, like the waves hitting the boat are coming from so many directions that I can’t get my sea legs under me.
Partly, its a sense of anti-climax. As Frank Rich noted back in July, Obama has basically been acting-president for months now. He has had the policy initiative and has been the public face of America since the Kuwait/Europe trip. So now, it feels a lot like I’m invited to a big over-the-top formal wedding for a couple who have been living together for years. Another disorienting wave is the sense that so many of us fought to get this guy elected because we had a shared vision that he could get the wheels back onto the tracks, but now, instead, he is going to have to clean up a gawdawful train wreck. It took too just a little too long. As I’ve watched the weight of the responsibility for management of that disaster palpably bear down on him, I’ve actually felt sorry for my part in doing it to him. And then I thank God its not McCain.
Still, driving home last night, I was laughing again at the way some BBC reporters on “The World” trill the r’s and seemingly put an apostrophe after the “O” so that his name comes out “Barrrrrik O’Bama.” It’s almost like his election is so disorienting to them that they subconsciously transpose him into a more comprehensible frame: an Irishman. at once exotic and foreign, yet entirely familiar to an Englishman or a Scot. Then, suddenly, for what seemed like the thousandth time, I was whipsawed by that topsy-turvy feeling of unreality that hits when you realize that next Tuesday afternoon, a black man with a distinctly un-European name will be President of the United States, and the country’s basically okay with that. It choked me up again, so I guess there’s a still a good chance I’ll get a little weepy on Tuesday, after all.
From TPM Reader CW …
As a woman looking to her 70th birthday in the fall of this year…and one who has become blog/politics obsessed during the NIGHTMARE of the BUSH years…even the events of today had me brushing away tears! To watch an intelligent, caring man who, IMHO, GETS IT after the Legacy tour and Farewell Speech of the pathetic man slithering out of Washington next Tuesday…makes me once again PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! Let’s all keep those sleeves rolled up and join him in the overwhelming task of cleaning up the pile of “debris” that will be left behind for him.
TPM Reader LS …
My thoughts on the inauguration include apprehension and fear. The more I hear of the festivities, the balls, the tickets, the insiders having a party, the more I dread the outcome. My life is bleak in comparison, there was another series of layoffs at my husband’s employer. He wasn’t one of them. The hair salon is empty on Saturday morning, the sales racks are clogged with discounted clothes. Our healthcare costs have increased, again, and the prospect of raises is slight. I’m constantly searching for ways to cut our grocery bills, but fail.
The Obamas seem to live in a very different world, with private schools and realms of performers flocking to the inauguration.
From TPM Reader AH …
George Bush was sworn in just before my 13th birthday, and is really the only president I’ve ever known (aside from my passing awareness of Lewinsky-era Clinton). I’ve never known a world in which government could be trusted, or where I really thought the president’s administration had noble aims. I think the Bush administration has bred a deep cynicism in people my age who’ve never known better. Now, a few weeks before my 21st birthday, Obama’s inauguration means that, for the first time in my life, I’ll be able to believe in government, and feel like it’s actually my government. For the first time I can remember, government can be, as it should be, a force for good and decency.
From TPM Reader ES …
Personally, I celebrated on the night of Nov. 4th. Since then, things seem to have significantly deteriorated, from the economy to the Gaza strip. The transition might have been smooth and orderly, but I cannot help but think that we already lost precious time and a few opportunities to start undoing some of the most catastrophic policies of the past 8 years. I do feel that the extended celebrations, while certainly cathartic for the nation, are nonetheless an unwelcome distraction. I feel the President-elect should have taken the reins much, much earlier – say, a week after the election.
We’re late already. So please, get to work. Now.