Thoughts on Obama's Inauguration

I’m sure that today, January 20, 2009, will turn out to have been a peak day for blogging.  After all, we watched the inauguration of the first American President to have Afro-American heritage and some nearly uncountable number of people made the effort to be there.  Many of us also celebrated the end of an administration that to we believed to have taken us in horribly wrong directions on many fronts.  The world as a whole seemed to breath a sigh of relief that there was a new possibility from the Super Power who had fallen so far in their view.  We heard a speech from Obama that was much colored by realism about the very difficult situation in which we find ourselves on this historic day.  There was a lot to think about at this important moment in history.

 

As a dedicated political moderate, my reactions to this day are complex.  This is the first time in my 36 years of voting that I am so invested in the incoming office holder.  This is the first election in which I made financial contributions.  This is the first election for which I planted a sign in the yard, applied a bumper sticker, wore a button or made some calls for the campaign.   This is really the first time I voted “for” someone for President instead of “against” a less desirable alternative.

 

Over the next 4, or hopefully 8, years I won’t have the easy-out of thinking, “at least I didn’t vote for this guy!”  When mistakes, defeats and disappointments come for Obama, as they inevitably will, I will have to acknowledge that this was my candidate and that I understood that there are no perfect choices.

 

Still, I am optimistic.   Based on his speeches and books I have long had the impression that Obama is a pragmatist and by instinct a centrist.  I don’t think that anyone who has watched either the campaign or the transition could rationally argue that Obama is the classical, Liberal ideologue that he was painted in the campaign.  I don’t get the impression that he is an ideologue at all.   Perhaps I am reading my own hopes into Obama, as many are, but I really don’t expect to be proven wrong.

 

In his speech today Obama called for an end to the “endless” partisan battles that have so plagued our system.   I sincerely wish that is how it will play out, but I am not that optimistic.  I believe “post-partisanship” is what a great majority of Americans want, particularly in this time of great difficulty, but it is not what has defined the political lives of most current office holders or the politically energized folks on both extremes of the political spectrum.  I fully expect to see Obama caught in the middle between groups on both the Left and Right who will still be trying to exploit the fears and resentments that have so long fueled their careers and campaign coffers.

 

What remains to be seen is whether there will arise a sufficient Congressional Center that will abandon Party dictates and join Obama in a pragmatic agenda.  There are, perhaps, some new members who have come in as part of an Obama-driven change.  Sadly, I don’t think there are that many of those.  Perhaps there are some longer term members who have wanted to be able to vote their conscience and cross traditional lines, but have not had the practical ability to do so until now.  I will certainly be writing to all my representatives to encourage that path.  We will have to see what happens.

 

The Obama victory was so improbable that it did not have the chance to bring along a group of similarly minded candidates.  There are perhaps now some people who would never have considered running for political office in the past who now might run based on the example of Obama.  I don’t know when that group could, if ever, break into our ossified, polarized, two party system.  Could political outsiders run as “Obama Independents?”  Perhaps in some districts, but the deck would be stacked against them.  I will be actively looking for new voting options, but living in Southern California, I’ll be surprised if I get local examples.

 

This is why my feelings are mixed today.  I believe that we managed to elect a remarkable individual who will tend to govern from the middle.  I think he will have an uphill battle, but that if he is sufficiently skillful at garnering public support he may be able to overcome some of the dogmas and make an opening for the long-term road to a different political dynamic in this country.  That is a goal that I would like to continue to support. 

 

So I have made my blog entry into the vast virtual sea of such digital offerings on the twentieth day of January in the year 2009.  I plan to look back at this in 2, 4 and 8 years.  For now, I wish Barak Obama and his family the best and I will be praying for their protection and guidance.