Change Can Unite Us
As seen in the Oregon Daily Emerald!
Here we are, then – after over a year of mudslinging, bile, lies, angry preachers, medical records, secret Muslim ties, POW camps, plumbers, and pit bulls, it’s finally over. No longer will volunteers harass us with voter registration inquiries and we won’t have to see that damn clip of Tina Fey dressed as Sarah Palin holding a flute anymore. With all the class and decorum of a fight in a middle school girls’ bathroom, we the people have exercised the democratic process, and now finally can go back to what we were doing before. Say what you will about England, but they didn’t have to put up with this crap from King George.
Some of you probably won’t be thrilled with the outcome of the election, but at least take solace in the fact that the whole sordid affair is finally behind us. An election, like puberty, is a highly important period of change, and just like puberty, it’s a highly unpleasant experience we’d all prefer to forget once it’s over. It makes sense that this election, which hinged so heavily on change, was a nasty one. There has been little debate that change is necessary; the point of contention has been which candidate is best poised to offer it. To those of you disappointed with this outcome, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
The United States presidency is most definitely a winding road. For the past hundred years or so, the Democrats and Republicans have been passing control of the White House back and forth at roughly ten to twenty year intervals. Knowing this brings a certain fatalistic quality to every election; history has proven that whichever party wins will be unseated in a matter of years, only to return eight to sixteen years after that. That’s the beauty of our two party system: sooner or later, everybody gets a chance to drive the America Bus.
I’m sorry, Republicans. Although I am a bleeding heart liberal, I can sympathize with your cause – my roommate, ex girlfriend, and godparents are all Republicans. Thanks to them, I understand the validity of small government and fiscal responsibility. I feel your pain at having lost such an important election, but in defense of the Democrats, your party has been driving the bus for the past eight years and it’s about time somebody else got a chance to try it. To be honest, Bush hasn’t been driving the America Bus so much as he’s been repeatedly crashing it, and as much as we’d all like to just forget his misrepresentation of the Republican Party and start again with a clean slate, that’s clearly impossible. Your time to shine will come again, and hopefully that guy will represent your party with the intelligence and leadership it deserves. The next Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt could be waiting in the wings to take the GOP’s reins.
What we have to remember is that no one candidate can reunite America alone; we all have to help out. Don’t get off the bus just because you disagree with the driver – wait long enough to see if he’s going where you want to go. Keep this in mind if you’re down in the dumps about what happened yesterday. Whoever won the election has to get the bus up and running again before he starts to drive it, and I think that’s something we can all agree with.
Here we are, then – after over a year of mudslinging, bile, lies, angry preachers, medical records, secret Muslim ties, POW camps, plumbers, and pit bulls, it’s finally over. No longer will volunteers harass us with voter registration inquiries and we won’t have to see that damn clip of Tina Fey dressed as Sarah Palin holding a flute anymore. With all the class and decorum of a fight in a middle school girls’ bathroom, we the people have exercised the democratic process, and now finally can go back to what we were doing before. Say what you will about England, but they didn’t have to put up with this crap from King George.
Some of you probably won’t be thrilled with the outcome of the election, but at least take solace in the fact that the whole sordid affair is finally behind us. An election, like puberty, is a highly important period of change, and just like puberty, it’s a highly unpleasant experience we’d all prefer to forget once it’s over. It makes sense that this election, which hinged so heavily on change, was a nasty one. There has been little debate that change is necessary; the point of contention has been which candidate is best poised to offer it. To those of you disappointed with this outcome, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
The United States presidency is most definitely a winding road. For the past hundred years or so, the Democrats and Republicans have been passing control of the White House back and forth at roughly ten to twenty year intervals. Knowing this brings a certain fatalistic quality to every election; history has proven that whichever party wins will be unseated in a matter of years, only to return eight to sixteen years after that. That’s the beauty of our two party system: sooner or later, everybody gets a chance to drive the America Bus.
I’m sorry, Republicans. Although I am a bleeding heart liberal, I can sympathize with your cause – my roommate, ex girlfriend, and godparents are all Republicans. Thanks to them, I understand the validity of small government and fiscal responsibility. I feel your pain at having lost such an important election, but in defense of the Democrats, your party has been driving the bus for the past eight years and it’s about time somebody else got a chance to try it. To be honest, Bush hasn’t been driving the America Bus so much as he’s been repeatedly crashing it, and as much as we’d all like to just forget his misrepresentation of the Republican Party and start again with a clean slate, that’s clearly impossible. Your time to shine will come again, and hopefully that guy will represent your party with the intelligence and leadership it deserves. The next Abraham Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt could be waiting in the wings to take the GOP’s reins.
What we have to remember is that no one candidate can reunite America alone; we all have to help out. Don’t get off the bus just because you disagree with the driver – wait long enough to see if he’s going where you want to go. Keep this in mind if you’re down in the dumps about what happened yesterday. Whoever won the election has to get the bus up and running again before he starts to drive it, and I think that’s something we can all agree with.