The Beauty of Democracy

I don't think anyone will be surprised when I say I didn't care much for George Bush. To me, the primary job of the President is to communicate; to bring Americans together, to uplift us, to persuade us, to remind us of our responsibilities, to tell us what's going on, and to sometimes give us the bad news. In this respect, G.W. was just abysmal. Some say he's a good man who just doesn't speak well, and that may be true. But to me, an inarticulate President is by definition a failure. In this respect, I even think Ronald Reagan was a pretty good president. Though I don't agree with a lot of what he did and said, he was a strong leader and an excellent communicator. I'm an unrepentant (Bill) Clintonite. He was a lot of things, some good and some bad, but damn he gave good speech. Hillary is probably more qualified to be President than Barack Obama, and is certainly more qualified than Bill was in 1992, but she doesn't make me want to stand up and say "Amen!" the way Bill did - or Barack does.

Anyway, the beauty part... The beautiful part is that all these people (well, except for Reagan 'cause he's dead, k?) can stand together on the same dais in support of our newly elected President and our country. George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton and they are now good friends. Al Gore lost to... ok, let's skip that one. Biden lost to Clinton, who lost to Obama, but they will both be part of his administration. No one did a last-minute power grab and refused to step down. There was no military coup, no riots (at least not this time), nor shots fired. Partisan hacks mostly held their tongues. Like clockwork, at the appointed time, on the appointed day, power passed peacefully from the President we chose before to the one we chose this time. This is what America is all about - that we can have real and important differences and still live with each other. That we know that what unites us is a lot stronger than what divides us.

The older I get, the more significant this stuff is. Watching the machinery of democracy in action today was awesome and humbling, and gives me hope for humanity.

On a lighter note, I got to thinking about my sister's comments on the commie-propaganda-style Obama posters. That style has been popular lately for all kinds of things, but it's odd that no one seemed to put it together that the wrong message might be sent. Then again, maybe that was the message. Anyway, here are some semi-amusing knockoffs...