musings of a different kind

The news of Barack Obama's election to the highest office in the USA has been out for less than 24 hours now and the response the world over has been overwhelmingly positive. It is not only the rest of the world, but a majority of the Americans as well who are celebrating not merely the end of the Bush era, but the beginning of what will hopefully be a time of rebuilding and renewal. As one black comedian succinctly put it, I'm sure many Americans are smiling inwardly while asking themselves - "Damn, did we just elect a black guy to the white house?"

I for one, am relieved that the enormous political circus surrounding the campaigns and this election is finally over. I'm happy that America has indeed voted for the better man this time around. For the past several months, there have been numerous political ads on TV (which I have done my best to avoid). There has been so much discussion on all kinds of trivial (and a few non trivial) issues in the media. I was hoping for an Obama win not merely because of the symbolic significance of having the first non white american president, but also because this is a turbulent time in American politics, and turbulent times call for a rational mind at the helm.

I am mentioning rationality because that has been a hallmark of the Obama campaign, in complete contrast to the trainwreck that the McCain campaign had become in the weeks following the selection of Sarah Palin. The McCain campaign was starting to look childish, vindictive and too eager to engage in mudslinging and FUD tactics. The Obama campaign did occasionally hit back at the incessant republican attacks, but did it in a way that was much classier and more effective.

Of course, now that the republican menace has been temporarily repulsed, the democrats have quite a bit of work to do. They have inherited a huge mess from the republicans. The economy is in tatters, American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is bleeding this anaemic economy dry and the political landscape does not look like it can generate solutions. Obama's administration is in for a hellish first few months on the job. While I'm not overly optimistic about the ability of one man to clean up such a huge mess, I hope Obama can somehow generate the political will to at least get started on solutions to such problems.

One wonders what the future of the republican party is going to be. Is it going to be taken over completely by the evangelical nutcases and the extreme right wing bigots who seem to love and embrace Sarah Palin's idiocy without reservation? Will the moderate republicans (if they still have any voice within the party) actually be able to reclaim it before it metamorphoses into the american fascist theocratic party? Will the neoconservatives who have championed a lot of the extremism of the last eight years finally be routed? Will the party undergo a period of deep introspection and emerge from it like a butterfly after pupation?

I do not know the answer to these questions and I cannot forecast anything about the future of the Republicans, but the Americans probably know deep down that the fight isn't really over. There is some hushed talk in many circles about Sarah Palin running for president in 2012. Although I think she represents the worst of both America and the Republican party, I think Americans are finally ready to reject her brand of narrow divisive politics as completely and thoroughly in 2012 as they have done today. Americans can be happy that their democracy is at least not in as much danger as it appeared to be in. There is a new hope in the air. A hope that the divisiveness and the ugly partisanship of politics in the past two decades of America's polity is coming to a close, to be replaced by a system which finally works for the people. The future of American democracy just appears a little brighter than yesterday, and I'm optimistic that it will stay that way.