I was pretty happy about the fact that the guy I voted for won the election (Kim still won't tell me who she voted for). I was one of the few who were happy around these parts. I have not gloated at all. In fact I have not once brought up the election results with anyone. As a show of my relief that the election is over, I took the Obama '08 magnet off my car. All that's left is an oval shaped clean spot.
A few days after the election, Kim was at a church activity. One of our friends came up to Kim and said they would like to talk to me to help them find the "silver lining" in the results of the election. He knew how I had voted. We invited them over for dinner this past Sunday.
I really appreciated the olive leaf that he was offering, and his sincere offering to try to understand my democratic viewpoint. He says he doesn't know very many democrats. Nobody in Idaho knows very many.
I wasn't really sure what to say to him. We discussed republican and democratic philosophy. We talked about pure socialism and pure capitalism, the spectrum that lies between, where on that spectrum we have been and where we could expect to be in the future. He was concerned that his boss would have to lay off workers because the business makes over 250k/yr. I was glad that the years of bully boy foreign policy (quoting Bishop Desmond Tutu) appear to be over. We were both concerned that maybe Joe Biden will turn out to be a Democrat version of the jerk VP we've had for the last 8 years. We were both upset about the way the Iraq fiasco went down. We were both glad we get to be part of history seeing the first African American US President.
We found that we had some core philosophical differences, we also found that we had a lot of common views.
I've come to think that the silver lining is this...we live in a free country. We're free to share and express our views, disagree openly with authority, and vote the way we see fit. We enjoy the protection of an inspired Constitution and we've just been witness to the miracle of democracy played out on a grand stage. I'm glad I was here to see it - and that my guy won:)
1 comment:
Good thoughts. Sometimes in the midst of the hubbub we forget what a miracle our democracy is.
I'm disgusted with Sean Hannity's post election attitude. Calling himself a "conservative in exile" implies a severe lack of ability to support the democratic process.
I wish people like that would move to Europe.
Post a Comment