Post-election euphoria

[pameladean]

I went out for a quick walk today. It's cold but sunny, and there's an abundance of leaves, all plastered on the sidewalks and streets by recent rains like an elementary-school art project for giants -- linden, maple, oak, lilac, ash, euonymus, locust, and elm.

People have not taken down their Obama signs. They make me smile whenever I see them. Lots of people didn't take down their Kerry signs in 2004, either, and there was a bit of a fuss by Bush people about why didn't we get over it already. People didn't take down their Gore signs in 2000, for that matter, but given the hideous weeks of uncertainty that followed the election and the outrageous behavior of various officials culminating in the betrayal by the Supreme Court, that's hardly surprising. We're getting that in miniature here in Minnesota, with Norm Coleman implying that the only only honorable thing for Al Franken to do is to step aside, and then filing umpty-eleven lawsuits to -- wait for it -- prevent the votes from being counted. If I had a Franken sign I'd light it up with neon.

If I had an Obama sign, I'd probably have taken it right in to cherish it.

I still really can't believe we won. And I think we all won, even people who don't think they did. I'm still reading the Making Light thread on the outcome of the election. I can't read much at a time because I keep bursting into tears.

I just read an article -- I think it was in the online edition of the Washington Post, but I am really supposed to be working on my chapter, so I won't look for the link -- that said the Obama campaign had collected a few dozen experts in various fields to make a list of that subset of the horrific actions of the Bush Administration (the newspaper didn't put it that way) that could be reversed immediately. So they're going to lift restrictions on stem cell research, smash up the global gag rule, and let California decide how many noxious emissions cars can foul up its air with. Oh, and they're actually going to follow the recommendations of the EPA task force with regard to carbon dioxide. Amazing.

What still makes me lie awake sometimes, aside from the war, which really can't have anything done about it quickly, is the torture. I imagine they're still doing it, for no good reason and to no good purpose. I hope that can be stopped as swiftly as these lesser crimes.

Chapter 1 has 13 pages at the moment, but seems greedy for more.

Pamela

Comments

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I still really can't believe we won. And I think we all won, even people who don't think they did

Yes. Oh, yes.

In some ways this feels even better, for me, now -- because I was so racked with anxiety right up to and _during_ the election (right up til PA went blue, I think) -- now it's like, "Dear God, all that hope and hard work and faith and wearing out shoe leather totally worked." It's beyond inspiring.

Amen on the torture, too -- I think both he and McCain promised they'd close Gitmo at least? That has to happen SOON.

[pameladean]

Yes, they both did. I would just like them to send the word down the line to QUIT IT RIGHT NOW. They can't close Guantanamo immediately; the U.S. has made a complete mess of things and it will be hard to sort out. But they can stop behaving like total barbarians in the interim.

P.

[rosefox]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27628719/

"Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

"A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition."

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Seems like an executive order about torture could pretty much do the job; I don't see why it's unusually difficult (beyond the usual problems getting people to obey changed rules).

Closing Gitmo, as people say, can't be done instantly. We probably have people there that *shouldn't* be released, and we have people that can't just be deported "home" without subjecting them to severe problems.

[pameladean]

Whoops, I see that I transposed the number of executive orders and the number of advisors. Thanks for the link! I guess I'd better edit the entry.

P.

[pameladean]

I wish they'd mentioned that, then. Maybe they think it will rock the boat too much in the intervening time.

And yeah, I'm not so naive as to think they can just fling open the doors of Guantanamo and give everybody a plane ticket.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

We sorta won...there's work again against that nasty Prop 8, alas.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

You do know what "utopia" means (or is derived from), right?

There's *always* more work.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

This is true.

I should say, for the first time in eight years, we've got a strong hope of being able to do good work.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I did not know, so I looked it up.

[pameladean]

I was thinking of the presidential level. Minnesota will be disgraced by another two years of Michele Bachmann, who thinks preventing gay marriage is the most important issue facing us; and who knows what will happen with that snake Coleman. And Prop 8 is horrific, as are the other anti-gay measures passed in various states. *snarl* But I think the atmosphere will be much cleaner just the same.

P.

[pameladean]

Erewhon!

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes, o yes!

[guppiecat]

A great many issues have to let the pendulum of public opinion swing with wild abandon before people are willing to look at the issue and go "duh, there's the solution".

I think that progressive marriage (I refuse to call it "gay marriage", because that limits the global issue to a specific hot button) will pass everywhere in 15 to 20 years. I think that it's actually a good thing that Prop 8 passed, because it indicates the wild swing over to the "restrict natural rights" side, and while it sucks for the people it impacts now, it sets the stage for eventual nation-wide acceptance.

Once an issue hits this level of public discussion, there is always a backlash, and things never stay there. We just have to get through this turmoil, and that's just a waiting game.

Besides, have you noticed how the conservative side is effectively saying "they can live together, they can have sex, they can have marriage rights, they just can't call it 'marriage'". That's indicative of HUGE amounts of progress. We (as a society) are not publicly advocating lynching or even quiet disapproval. It's down to a semantic argument. That's worth a small amount of joy right there.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

I brought my Obama sign in the first day after the election and put it in the porch window. Oddly that night our other two signs were stolen the Ellison and Clark. Others around us still have their up and no one has messed with them. Our Franken sign was always just the card stock version in the window. I'm leaving it there for a long time.

free sticker!

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

http://pol.moveon.org/shepstickers/?id=15088-11461054-hOXfK9x&t=4

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Shades of "The Omega Glory". "'Mah-rij' is our worship word. You will not use it!" They seem to be a bit unclear about what it actually means.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Heck, them feeling they have to get such things passed is a sign of great progress.

[pameladean]

That's very weird about your Clark and Ellison signs.

You're reminding me of how people, at least around here, took in their Wellstone signs and put them on porches, where they'd show but not be subject to wind and weather. At least this is a happier occasion than that.

And thanks for the link about the stickers. I got email from Move-On about them but hadn't actually gotten it together to do anything. Now I have.

P.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

The election prediction sites I watched underestimated Obama's electoral vote, though they did predict he would probably get over 300.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Either that, or resurrecting the House Un-American Activities Committee . . .

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

Our Obama sign is still up. It actually only went up the day before the election. I was volunteering in the office and they had a few left so I asked for one and they gave it to me. Our "private school" neighbors had a McCain/Palin sign up for weeks but it was down on Wednesday the 5th.

I thought of taking my sign in right away and preserving it for posterity but then I thought it would just fall apart so I might as well enjoy it on my lawn. Yay for our side!

Keep those pages coming!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

As I've said elsewhere, I am not euphoric. How could so many hundreds of thousands of people have voted for Obama and Coleman? Obama and Bachmann? Obama and Paulsen? I sense no mandate on the direction of the government given how many downballot Republicans were elected. I AM cheered by the passage of the Land, Water, Legacy constitutional amendment, but I just am so unsure of what people are thinking and wanting as shown by their votes for these utterly wretched candidates.

K.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

It's a process, and it takes time. And work - there are no silver bullets.

I share your disappointment about some of those who won, in the face of challenges from those much better qualified (IMNSHO).

And I'm totally perplexed at how over 45% of the voters could vote for those corrupt, unprincipled, dishonest people.

[arkuat]

I thought you'd like to know that today Strawberry Creek MM, after a month of seasoning, added our name to the list of organizations endorsing the National Religious Coalition against Torture's recommendation addressed to the White House. I'm not going to go dig it out of my backpack or go look up the link (nrcat.org?), but the gist of it was to prohibit US use of any interrogation techniques that we would object to being used against US soldiers.

(I must say, it is so nice to feel *comfortable* using "we" in that sense again, after more than five years for me.)

Basically it says, okay, Mr. President, you can allow waterboarding if you want to go on record saying that you accept that captured American POWs will be subject to waterboarding. It's not much (NRCAT is an organization with broadly spread roots), but it's a start. And if it actually gets applied to CIA covert operations, then it would be more than a start; it would be progress.