The day America came of age
(Canscene) — Mr. President-elect my heart goes with you on the four-year journey you and your supporters have made.
During the recent US presidential campaign, I was very much aware that many churches and other puritanical supporters of hellfire and brimstone hold so great a power over voters. One has only to view objectively the recent spate of documentary films on the subject, to be convinced that here is a clear and present danger to democratic institutions and their adherents.
Now, as I celebrate your victory with millions of other North Americans, I caution you and your followers to look on the nature of your enemies.
The zealots of the Bible Belt won’t go away. Over the next four years they’ll do everything they can to smear Obama as a “liberal” and a “socialist.”
I look at their blind beliefs with a shudder. Judging from the activities of these people, I believe their actions, left unchallenged, could lead to drastic measures. Such ideological movements all lead to enslavement of free thought and create terror in the name of God. That’s why the Taliban thrives.
I believe statistics will eventually show that the youth vote influenced to the outcome of November Fourth.
Mr.President-elect, our two nations, as individual political entities must not forget that we are North Americans, too. You can help us, we can help you.
The role that youth played in this election will certainly be studied by many learned commentators but whatever happens we need to know how to make our own Canadian youth get off its collective butt.
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November 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I’m glad Obama was elected, too, but I am only cautiously optimistic about the amount of change he will be able to effect. After all, nearly half of the voters wanted to “raise McCain” and Obama’s style is to reconcile opposing factions. There will be compromises that will be hard to stomach.
If Obama survives physically, he must still wrestle with the interests of Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex” and regulate a rapacious financial sector. Can his administration do it? We’ll see.
Add the fact that building takes longer than destroying. The Bush Administration bombed and dismantled an awful lot in eight sad, inglorious years. It will take longer than that to restore what was lost.
Nevertheless, it is good thing that an effort to clean up the mess can now begin. Obama may possess the intelligence and the character to set the U.S. on a better path, and I certainly wish him well in the attempt.