Long-time reader Nick Bognar writes:
Wow, four hundred reactions to your professor, and yet the most important presidential election of the last hundred years doesn't merit a blog entry. Bigot.
Really Nick? More important than 1932? More important than 1968? The election was important surely, but let's not indulge in CNN-style hackery that throws all historical perspective out the window in the name of making current events more "exciting." God I hate that crap.
I wrote about my experience at the polls on election day. You want more? Okay, I'm excited to have a President who gives a good speech, but a little afraid that people, myself included, are going to end up disappointed and more cynical than ever.
It makes me warm inside that creationists everywhere are frustrated and angry and quoting Bible verses in their efforts to cope with the "scary direction our nation is headed in."
And I remember talking to a black coworker named Maurice last January, and how he said that white people would never let a black man be President ever. I wish he hadn't quit so I could engage him in a "See-my race-isn't-so-bad-after-all" conversation, even though I still kind of believe that my race might be that bad, in spite of who our President is about to be.
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4 comments:
You're my new Hero. EVERY time we vote, its part of history. Yup, that's us voters. History Makers.
You remind me of my sister with bringing up dates in history. Loves it...she's a history major at Mason.
Wow, way to flesh that out.
I didn't say the most important PRESIDENT in the last hundred years, I said the most important ELECTION, son!
I think there's a great argument to be made that Americans voting a black man into the White House -especially a black man that wasn't ushered in under the GOP umbrella like Colin Powell would've been- makes this absolutely the most important election of the past hundred years.
How Obama does as president remains to be seen. There have been plenty of smart folks who have been elected and have been completely useless in office. But as recently as 50 years ago, black people couldn't sit in the same part of the bus as you and I. This is a country where for generations, black people were owned as property and made no wages for the work they did.
I'm not obtuse enough to say that racism is the problem that it once was- thankfully, we're making progress. But to see a black man in this nation's highest office is absolutely significant.
Do you remember eight years ago when Bush fixed the results in Florida and squeaked Al Gore out? Do you remember four years ago when the same Bush spread horrible rumors via the Swift Boat vets and an aggressive phone bank campaign that smeared John Kerry and may very well have cost him the election? I was ready to believe that this was a country that no longer held democratic elections. And since the Bush/Gore election was the first one I ever voted in, I felt like I'd been mathematically eliminated from one of the world's greatest privileges (aside from oral sex and hearing the sound you make when I tickle you, not to be enjoyed together). So in this election, spitting distance from the fixed elections of the past decade, and a generation or two away from the Civil Rights movement, the system and our wisdom allowed for us to pick the best candidate despite the country's increasing fixation on moral issues and despite the fact that he is a black man.
Yeah, dude. That's a pretty huge election. It's important as hell. Obviously your blog doesn't bear the responsibility of a news outlet, but after you took us to the polls through your blog, I figured you'd see us the rest of the way there.
Bigot.
NB
Jesus, Nick, that's quite the editorial. I was just saying that no matter how important the election might be I don't like the whole "Instant History" thing, though it is unarguably appropriate on at least one level in this situation. I still think it's a little early to bust out the grandiose statements about the last hundred years. Wait and see how he does, and then go into that other great historical irritation, the hypothetical, "What if this had gone differently?!?" game. It's already fun with the 2000 election.
And also- dude, you are way too partisan. I try to keep my blog a place where people of all political backgrounds can feel at home. Please keep your divisive partisan politics out of this sanctuary of the moderate and sane.
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