Local election reaction: a buzzkill
Last Tuesday night, having reveled in the beautiful blue metamorphosis of my home state of Virginia (due in part to my absentee ballot); having listened to my mom, through a cascade of tears, say “We did it, we did it” over and over, in dreamy disbelief; having watched Obama’s victory speech in almost complete silence, muted by the sheer weight of the moment; having received exultant text messages from friends rallying in San Francisco, Portland and Richmond, and those in D.C. driving straight to The White House, propelled by a desire to embrace history not just spiritually, but physically; having received what is surely the greatest birthday present of my lifetime; I made the epic mistake of heading downtown to put my finger on the pulse of Milledgeville.
Its lifeline killed my buzz.
Outside Amici, a belligerent drunk was being cited for an open container. (Had he been a jubilant drunk, I would have sympathized.) Inside, an acoustic band played and people listened as if it were any other Tuesday.
Onstage at Buffington’s, another band. The frontman thanked everyone for coming out, saying to laughter, “I was afraid you all might get caught up in The Rapture.” (Haha! Yes, why would anyone want to experience a once-in-a-generation cultural milestone, when they can watch you cover Sublime?)
Inside The Brick, where I landed for the night, all televisions were tuned into “Faux” News. Seconds after I claimed a barstool, the girl to my left tapped me on the shoulder and said excitedly, “We’re gonna boo Obama on three!”
My reply: “You’re talking to the wrong person.”
The boos rained down nonetheless, coming from every corner to dampen my euphoria.
In one booth, I overheard a group of GCSU students laughing hysterically at the concept of “spreading the wealth around,” seemingly unaware that America’s taxes have been set on a progressive scale since before World War I, and that the money the government collects does not go solely or straight into the pockets of those “lazy” welfare families, but is in fact used to pay for education (including student loans), defense, Social Security, health care, hospitals, roads, schools, and just about every other service our government provides to its people.
In short, our government has always spread the wealth around. It’s a good thing.
Moments later, while arguing with a valiant, dreadlocked liberal, one of the guys in the booth reached down real deep and pulled out of his ass that Obama is a smoker, and that because African-Americans are particularly susceptible to heart disease, Obama is more of a health risk than McCain would have been.
This one I hadn’t heard before.
(I guess I can dignify it with a response, but only a parenthetical one: Obama used to smoke seven or eight cigarettes a day. He quit to run for President, took up the gum, and now bums a smoke once every few months or so. He is only 47 years old, works out and plays basketball on a regular basis, and by all accounts is in excellent health. Satisfied?)
Last, in the lines of defense for the losing ticket, the booth girls-who were anti-hair plug and anti-Botox, and who voted accordingly-pointed out that “Sarah Palin is way hotter than Joe Biden.”
This one I will not dignify with a response.
Later on, after the booth had gone home, a talkative, affable man at the bar told me-sincerely and without solicitation-that Obama wasn’t a Christian. He expressed concern with how the new President’s lack of faith (the right faith, anyway) might affect the laws around here. I didn’t know what to say, so I just excused myself to the bathroom, shaking my head along the way.
As the night wound down, I realized that agents of ignorance had ambushed my celebration, leaving behind very little of the bliss with which they are typically associated. By last call, no amount of Sweet Tea Vodka could soothe the lingering bitterness.
The next day wasn’t much better.
Via Times Talk and text messages, I learned some of the reasons people hadn’t voted Obama: One had seen a right-wing propaganda video that so contorted his views on abortion as to show Obama essentially slipping a cyanide pill into a newborn baby’s mouth; another told me that she didn’t want her taxes to go up. I explained to her that unless she made $200,000 a year, her taxes weren’t going up, and might even go down.
Her reply: “Oh. Go Obama!”
Much more discouraging than the misinformed defeated, though, were the intolerant victors: Three state propositions banning gay marriage all passed; the last of which, in California, was largely a result of minority voters who had turned out in droves to vote for Obama. With a single, brutally ironic ballot, African- and Hispanic-Americans tore down one civil rights barrier, only to erect another.
In the days since the election, I have been repeatedly overwhelmed by some of the reactions to Obama’s victory, both in America and around the world. My favorite headline on Nov. 5, without question, came from the London Sun, which ran in enormous print above an enormous picture of our new President: ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.
I share their sentiment with all my heart, and I’m ecstatic over Obama’s victory, but in taking stock of how far we’ve come, I can’t help but notice how far we have yet to go.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Nov 14 2008. Filed under Opinion.
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