I know it's been a whole month since 'That One' fist-bumped his way to becoming 44th President of the United States, and for that reason alone this post may seem pointless. I am certainly far too late to capitalise on the hype of the election or its aftermath; even Palin is fading away from the public attention.
I do, however, want to add my two cents to the many comments in the media trying to put this election in the context of history.
I had a something of an epiphany while watching Brave New Films' video "Fox Attacks Obama Like Kerry".
Turns out it's not just this time. Fox, and the right in general, have been at it before. They tried to label Kerry as 'French', suggested he disrespected the military by throwing away his medals (It was part of a Vietnam Veterans Against the War protest), and mysteriously, 'research' came out (2004) that Kerry was THE most liberal senator in America. How familiar.
The reason I'm going over this like it's new to me is that a lot of it is new to me. Karl Rove's hate-filled messages apparently didn't get through the BBC filter, and so I thought the US chose Bush in '04 solely on merit. How naive of me.
The main difference between the 2004 and 2008 elections, apart from the economy, was the justification the winning candidate gave for voting. Bush's '04 message was all about fear; vote for me or terrorists will strike again, the libs can't protect you.
Obama, on the other hand, gave a positive message: not 'vote for me, the other side can't protect you' - that was the GOP message. Again. Instead, he offered a simple message, one that I feel many conservatives haven't fully understood yet: Change.
It's very vague, and may mean different things to different people, but here's my take. It's not about a change of party or a change of policy or even a return to following the Constitution (although all three would be welcome), it's about getting away from the paranoid fear society has lived in since 9/11.
Fear has been everywhere: in the media, especially the speeches of Bush (remember, for example, the 'mushroom cloud' reference pre-Iraq War?) I recently saw O'Reilly comment on how the Mumbai attacks "are vivid warnings that if the Muslims could, they would, slaughter every single American citizen".
The point here isn't that Islamofascists are not dangerous, they are, the point is that we (the West, and especially America) have allowed the far right (there I said it, Bush/Cheney were far right) to use that fear to further their agenda. Patriot Act/Unitary Exceutive Authority, anyone?
In 2004, people voted with their eyes shut by fear and propaganda, when Kerry may have been a good choice for President, certainly better than 'W'.
In 2008, however, people voted for Change instead of fear. They wanted a President who would talk to Muslim nations rather than blow them up one by one. More people wanted to focus on real economic issues because of the recession, and fewer wanted to talk about Bill Ayers or the Keating Five. More people wanted to MoveOn, dare I say.
That is what the majority of US voters hopes will Change.
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