truth

So, it’s all over now.  The election is done with.  I can stop pretending to listen to people preaching the merits of their candidate (why do they waste their time with people who can’t vote?).  I think some of the most annoying people in the world have got to be the ones that tell minors who the best president would be.

So Barack Obama is the president.  It’s a rather weighted thought: it’s very final, very concrete.  It’s been written in stone.  January has come and gone, and we have a new head of state.

Having a new president is really a much bigger deal than you can comprehend in a minute or two.   People think, “Oh yeah, president, that’s a big job, that must be hard,” but it doesn’t really always click exactly how much impact this one person has on your life.

Or that’s how it used to be, anyway.  After eight years of Bush, the country is suddenly much more aware of how much of a mess the president can make of things.  People are scared of another Bush, and that’s essentially why McCain lost.  He seems too much like Bush, even though they’re not really all that much alike.  He’s old, he’s white, he’s a Republican, he’s associated with the Christian right – McCain was screwed from the outset.

And on the other side of things, Barack Obama’s like the freaking anti-Bush.  He’s young, he’s black, he’s a democrat, he’s highly liberal on social issues – people who didn’t like Bush almost had an obligation to vote for him.

Barack Obama has done something that hasn’t been done in American politics in a very long time, maybe not since FDR.  He truly energized the voting populace.  He rallied young Americans who might not have cared enough to vote otherwise.  He has brought the country to a level of hope that it hasn’t been anywhere near for a lot more than just the Bush years.  And now he’s won.  He has a chance to make real changes, like he’s promised.  He’s got the chance to lift the country off its knees.

But he has a chance do something other than that as well.  Things don’t always go peachy, especially not in the world of American politics.  If Obama can’t deliver on the promises he’s made, then I can foresee an America in the not so distant future that truly has no hope.  The Senator from Illinois has brought the nation to a great height, but in doing so, he risks a very dangerous drop.  If he fails in his attempt, or if his ideas just don’t work, or he’s corrupted by the powers that be, or if he was just another politician to begin with, and things don’t change the way he’s gotten people to believe, then we’re looking at a very gloomy American future.  Every one of us must be aware of the reality of the situation, and not let ourselves be given hope that can be crushed very easily.  We are on a very thin line right now in America, between strained civilization and utter chaos, and every American should remember where that line lies.

All this is not to say that I have no faith in Obama’s ability to lead the nation.  He seems to be a capable and sincere person, and while I take issues with many policies of his, you can’t have everything, least of all a perfect president.  I hope that he will get the country back on its feet.

But we would all do well to consider what will happen if he doesn’t.