Initially following the announcement at 11 p.m. Tuesday that Barack Obama was officially the 44th President of the United States, I have to admit I was in a state of shock. For some reason, in spite of the polls, in spite of his poorly run campaign, and in spite of what I was hearing from many of my acquaintances, I honestly thought that John McCain, a man who had seemed for so long leading up to the Republican primaries the least likely choice for my party’s candidacy, would manage to some how pull out another come-from-behind win. And yet, as I watched euphoric crowds around the country celebrating what is easily the most historic moment of the last half-century, the truth slowly crept up on me: America was changed forever.
I will be honest—disappointment and anger were all I felt at first. How could this man, this young, inexperienced senator from Illinois who was to me so obviously unqualified for the job, so straight-ticketed in what little voting record he had, and whose platform so contrasted with mine succeed against the experience of a Vietnam War hero who had proven so many times before that he had wisdom and discernment in difficult times and could reach across the aisle to work for the country’s common good?
And then I watched McCain’s concession speech, and those feelings began to subside. I realized that if McCain (at least publically) could wish Senator Obama the best, graciously step aside, and call Republicans to join together in support of the future president, that seemed fair enough for me to do as well. After waiting through an hour of punditry and a much too close close-up Charles Krauthammer on Fox News, Obama’s speech came, and I realized what all the fuss was about. He is an astounding orator, and as the electrifying address came to a close, my friends (most of which voted for McCain) sat in front of the T.V. in silent awe. I finally broke it, saying, “that was an amazing speech.” Everyone agreed.
I have come to grips with the loss, but regardless, the fact is that this election was still just that for me and rest of the ~47% of Americans who voted for John McCain. In spite of this, I have chosen to look for a silver lining beyond the simple excitement and anticipation of a new presidency, and I think I have found at least two points for which conservatives can cheer.
The first point is that the election was nowhere near a blowout. Though more decisive than the last two elections, it was not even close to the margin of Clinton’s victory over Bob Dole in 1996, and does not remotely compare to Reagan’s smashing of Walter Mondale in 1984 (I recognize that was a Republican win, but it still shows how big the gap can be). More importantly, the Democrats were prevented from achieving the three-fifths majority necessary for cloture in the Senate, which is really a positive for the democratic process as a whole. No party should be so in power as to gain control of the executive and legislative branches with freedom to push through legislation without the challenge of filibuster, Democrat or Republican.
The other important victory is on the social side of the conservative platform. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was put up for vote and passed in California (Proposal 8), Arizona, and Florida, the only three states to pose the question this election. This is, of course, a big (but not necessarily huge) issue for a lot of conservatives, particularly the “religious right” that has been such a strong power base of the Republican Party since the minor Christian revival of the 1980s. I think that this might hint a little at the nature of Democratic victories across the country; namely, that traditionally conservative and right-leaning moderate voters chose to vote Democrat in this election as much because of an aversion to the Republican Party as an organization as they did because of some newly-found identification with the major tenants of liberalism. When it comes to certain social issues, even in strongly left-leaning states like California, people still tend to be more traditional than they may seem or are presented as being. Americans who may not have a problem even with civil unions (like me, though I identify myself as a religious right-er) still will not make the jump to same-sex marriage. In any event, this is a victory for conservatism.
Regardless of which candidate you voted for, if you aren’t a skinhead, you can probably agree that Tuesday was a huge turning point for this country. As Obama pointed out, only one glass ceiling remains in America. I might not agree with president-elect Obama on very much politically, but I still plan to and hope all conservatives will give him the one thing that every new president deserves: a chance.
