Transition

I have noticed that word used a lot this past week, particularly since the outcome of the election. Political focus has been primarily the changeover of power from President Bush to now President-Elect Obama. Amongst the general populace, we see a different transition, that for the first time in our country’s history we have elected an African-American as President.

By virtue of being elected Obama has already changed the course of history, and there is already speculation that his ascendancy will help alter the course of race relations. While I didn’t vote for him, I can’t dispute this belief and personally I hope those speculations prove true. The closeted, small-minded thinking that has dominated American culture should have died off a century ago, never mind that it should never have existed in the first place.

But I wonder…

Should all these speculations prove true, can you really only give credit to Obama? Let me put it another way. Would Obama have been elected as the first African American President if the majority of people didn’t have a deep seated dislike for President Bush, his policies, and by extension the Republican Party?

Whether it was by accident or by repeatedly pissing people off over the last 8 years, President Bush really helped pave the way for this kind of milestone event. If that statement has some of you scratching your head, I’ll try to explain it.

That old, small-minded thinking I mentioned earlier is a by-product of the status quo and an overly strict adherence to cultural traditions. It’s indisputable that some of the early foundations of this country were less stellar, and that our past as a culture is checkered with some bad behavior. While I believe some traditions need to be preserved, there are a few that should be allowed to breathe a last dying breathe. Blind adherence to tradition often leads to status quo thinking, which has a way of impeding progress. It’s what gave birth to so many knucklehead issues that are still argued today and it’s what would have likely kept Obama from the oval office in any other election.

Deviation from the status quo typically only comes when we are dragged to it because the current situation is just not acceptable. Eight years of a failed Republican administration with the potential for eight more, led to a desire for change so strong that adherence to status quo thinking and tradition was finally ignored. I believe that’s what happened here, and in this particular case I think it was long overdue.

I think the leader of Americans should see himself as a representation of ALL Americans, regardless of color, gender, etc. While Obama is an African American, it’s not something I observed him actively campaigning on and I don’t think he approaches the oval office with the thought in mind of what his ethnicity is, but what his citizenship is. If that holds to be true, then we are all very fortunate.

While there are certainly those who are not happy with the election’s outcome, I have to say it could have been a lot worse. It’s possible that desperation for change could have led to the election of a feather duster.

Now that I think about it; that’s what happened eight years ago…

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