The Election/Bread for the City/Assorted Musings

So the election was pretty much incredible. I personally didn't have much at stake in it until Palin was nominated, but I'll talk about that later. My room hosted the floor election party, which was a wild success. When Obama won, it was hard not to get caught up in the fervor that caught the campus in a state of rapture. I'm a Red Sox fan, and Obama was almost as cool as the '04 World Series win. But I was actually there, in DC, celebrating, instead of sitting at home in Tennessee with my family. Actually showing up to yell in front of the White House was incredible. Love or hate Bush or the election, it was historic, and being there in front of the White House was one of the most moving, fascinating experiences of my life. To see a people whose trust in the nation and government has been crushed singing God Bless America and the national anthem was a genuinely inspiring moment. I can say that I've always been proud of my country, even when I don't like how a political process ends. George Bush was my president, Barack Obama is my president.

One thing I can say about the outcome is that I would still be proud of my country if Sarah Palin were vice president. Though the hatred I have of that woman runs deeper than the blackest pits of Hell, she would still be my vice president. One thing that I see in the right now is the discombobulation of the left during and after the 2004 election. I've seen conservatives falling into the same traps liberals did with the "not my president" shirt fad with Bush. I see a party where Sarah Palin has become the "intellectual elite." This was a party that used to stand for causes I believe in, particularly small government. Conservatives like to say that Bush betrayed the party, but this is part of a long-standing evolution of the Republican Party into a socially conservative, economically liberal populist party. And don't expect this to change anytime soon. So far, with the distancing of the academic community from the Republican Party, I don't see anywhere the party can go. If the Libertarian Party were to temper most of (if not all) of its views, it could seize on this chance as the party of the future. But for now, until the 9/11 Truthers, isolationists, and conspiracy theorists get out of the game, nothing will happen on that front. For now, expect a Democratic majority that will not lose its grip on power until corruption sets in like it did to the Republicans in 2006.

Anyway, I want to agree with the vast consensus that Bread for the City was probably our coolest visit so far. It was just a pretty moving trip. I felt like I saw a nonprofit that was really making change, not issuing broad-based policy initiatives with no substance. It was in the community working and representing its interests. It doesn't change my perspective on the vast majority of NGOs, but I saw how they can do good. It may not change the world like a lot seek to, but it went a long way toward improving the lives of the community it lived in, and that's something to be proud of.

I thought this was a fairly interesting twist on the Russian-Georgian conflict and its newfound ethnic conflict. Possible re-emergence of tensions?