Editor's note: Shay Stewart-Bouley wrote this as a possible alternative for her Diverse-City column this week. We ran her first column, but wanted to share this second viewpoint with you as well!
_by Shay Stewart-Bouley
You might be expecting me to gloat over the results of the
presidential election. But I'm not going to. Hell, this is a "blue" state; most
of y'all voted for Barack Obama just like I did. Besides, I'm not big into
gloating anyway. I'm more of a "let's stop slapping each other on the backs and
get to work trying to save our country from destruction" kind of gal.
Maybe I'll gloat if things are markedly better in four years and
we find that not only has Obama more than proved his mettle but he soundly
defeats his next Republican challenger as well.
No, while I'm giddy with joy that we've finally broken the racial
brick ceiling in the presidency, I am far from feeling smug about the election
results. Because for one thing, it's not like Obama has an overwhelming
mandate. Sure, he snagged two-thirds of the electoral college votes, but in the
popular vote, he got about 53 percent. A win is a win is a win, of course, but
that popular vote reminds me that plenty of people (46 percent of them in fact)
still didn't want that black man in the White House, for whatever reason.
Whether race, or the fear he will convert the nation into a socialist
dictatorship, or that he will hand out abortions on every street corner, or
that he will outlaw religion and guns, or that he is a secret terrorist - or for
whatever reason - nearly half the nation still wanted John McCain and Sarah "You
Betcha" Palin to lead us into the future.
Obama does have a mandate. And he doesn't. He still has to find
out how to unite the nation behind the cause of fixing what ails us, socially,
economically, and medically.
It should be noted that not only do we have a Democrat back in
the White House (well, he'll move in mid-January, anyway), but the Senate and
House will both be controlled by the Dems as well.
On the one hand, this looks good to someone like me. Everyone
should be pretty much on the same page. Congress won't be trying to block (or
impeach) Obama at every turn. Things might actually get done for a change.
Or maybe not. Or worse yet, what if bad things get done?
The rational part of my brain looks at what has become of our
country, especially with the recent economic meltdown, and tells me: The
Democrats couldn't possibly do any worse than the George W. Bush administration
did. But I never would have thought someone could have found a part of the
barrel this far down after the Clinton years brought us back to a more solid
fiscal foundation, so there's that pessimistic part of me that wonders if we're
really scraping the bottom yet - or are anywhere near it.
I fear that now that they don't have any serious opposition, the
Democrats may get complacent. Even with all the crises facing us, will they
simply wallow in the power they now have and get all giddy with excitement, and
forget that they actually need to save all of us from disaster?
It doesn't seem likely, but stranger things have happened, like
Dubya getting elected - twice. And Sarah Palin being elevated to the spotlight.
And Fox News calling itself "fair and balanced." Not to mention the notion that
Paris Hilton has any kind of career.
I'm a big fan of diversity. There still is some diversity in our
national legislature, so it's not like the Dems are unchecked, but with
majorities in both houses and control of the White House, I am a little
worried.
Not simply because the Dems may fumble their opportunity, but
because even if they try their damnedest and make the best possible choices,
things may still end up going to hell in a handbasket, and then the other side
(who got us in this mess to begin with) can say, "See, they can't handle it
even when they hold all the cards."
Shay Stewart-Bouley can be reached at diversecity_phoenix@yahoo.com.
