Yes We Can!

The most important thing first: HE WON!! Barack Obama is our next president! News doesn’t get much better than that. After eight years of having a clueless frat-boy and his evil henchman running ruining the country, we finally have an intelligent president who can actually speak well, with real ideas and integrity and a hope for uniting our country and making it better for all Americans. Not to mention he is the first African-American president we have ever had. I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime and I am so glad that I did. We have come a long way from when slavery was the norm and blacks couldn’t even vote. I am proud to have voted for Obama. Yes we can!!!

Of course, we still have a little further to go, as evidenced by the unfortunate passage of Proposition 8 here in California. About 52% of the voters have allowed discrimination to be written into our state constitution by taking away the right for same-sex couples to marry. Some 17,000 18,000 of these couples have already married and they harmed no one. Let me repeat that. They harmed no one! But with heavy support from the Mormons and the Catholics, Prop 8 supporters succeeded in taking away marriage rights from millions of Californians. It is shameful that people would eliminate those rights, in this day and age. These gay people are our friends, family, co-workers, and fellow citizens. They are everywhere and they are no better or worse than anyone else. We have no right to tell them they have fewer rights because they happen to be gay. This battle will surface again, you can bet on it. It will keep surfacing until there is equality for all.

On the plus side (and there is plenty of plus side), in our Sunshine State of California, Prop 2 was approved, giving more humane conditions to farm animals before they are killed for food. At least they will be able to stand up, stretch, and turn around now. Of course, if you really want to help animals, you won’t eat them. But this is a good and much-needed measure anyway. Also, Prop 4 was defeated (once again). This was about parental notification for minors to have abortions. It seems sensible until you realize they will just go elsewhere to have it, or if they do tell their parents then some will be abused or beaten. They keep putting this on the ballot and we keep voting it down.

Now, back to the national level. Restrictive anti-choice measure were defeated in several states. The country is pro-choice, thankfully. Homophobic same-sex marriage bills passed in a couple other states too, as some people are not yet ready to give the same rights to gay people as they themselves have. But we are getting there. Young people voted heavily to allow gay marriage and they are the future. Meanwhile, in the very important congressional races, we (Democrats) gained at least five six Senate seats with four three more still to be decided. Hopefully some of those will go our way too. And we gained around 20 House seats at least, with a number of races still undecided, so that figure may grow. We also got a gain of one governorship. Those congressional changes should hopefully make it easier for President-Elect Obama (love the sound of that) to get his proposals turned into law. Fewer obstructionist Republicans and an Obama electoral landslide should combine to help to bring about the change that we need. It may be slower than we want, but it is coming.

Leverage those impressive gains with the HUGE Obama victory and you have what I would call a stunning mandate for change. The Republican corruption and lies of the last eight Bush/Cheney years are just about over and a new day is dawning. It won’t be easy, and Obama himself has said that same thing many times. But we CAN change the priorities in this country, we CAN build the middle class instead of the upper, we CAN take care of all our people and not just the Fortune 500 companies, we CAN use our military in smart ways instead of attacking countries that were never a threat to us, we CAN save our environment instead of letting people and companies damage the planet, we CAN keep our people healthy no matter who they are, we CAN gain back the respect that the rest of the world used to have for us, we CAN make a better America. YES WE CAN!!!