One thing is clear from this election, while Amerika may finally be outgrowing racism....the religionism and gynophobia are alive and well. Homophobia still reigns supreme in the "land of the free".

No revolutionary movement ever succeeded until it finally confronted, once and for all, the stranglehold of religion on politics. Up until today I had to hold my tongue about who I was voting for because I also head up a religious movement myself, a very much minority one. I could not pull the lever for Obama but before some random idiot calls me a racist again, I did pull it for someone I felt I could vote for Cynthia McKinney. I would not vote for a democrat but did vote for working families (same candidates) because impeachment of the worst president in US history should have been on the table......and I'll think long and hard before I vote for a national level dem ever again.

I could not forget the mysogyny of the primaries...I remain very very uneasy about the Messiah jokes Obama embraced......and the passage of every single anti GLB issue concurrent with Obama's victory is not lost on me. Anyone who thinks those lost battles won't be used to postpone indefinately ENDA, is fooling themselves.

"It's just not time yet"......prepare to hear this.

Cynthia McKinney on the scandal of 5000 people being murdered by Einsatzgruppen and the the bodies buried in the swamps after Katrina.

Nice one, Cathryn.

The rest of your comment I agree with wholeheartedly, which makes your actions even more... puzzling... to me.

Mattilda, I totally understand your skepticism. You're always the Leftist voice of reason around this joint. Enjoy the rest of your book tour!

I....agree with Mattilda *The Shivering Starts*.

Forgive me for thinking that this will just be another Clinton repeat.

As I was watching the coverage last night I was feeling very conflicting emotions. I happened to be sick, and, though I was unable to share the historic evening with an entertaining group in person, I was able it to spend it with a great group of people online.

I was excited by President Obama’s win. I do believe it is historic. I do believe that it is game changing. I also believe very shortly everyone will be disappointed because change never occurs overnight. I was excited because American history tells me this can be a time of great accomplishments, and that same history tells me that it is the policies of liberal Democrats that can make those positive changes.

I was excited about the Democratic capturing of the House and Senate. We need the government working together now. I was excited because while Obama’s redrawing of the campaign map through his sweeping victory sends a message, capturing the House and Senate makes that message far clearer. I was excited because much of the work I hope to see done requires a strong, power-wielding Democratic party. I’m apprehensive because while I know in my heart they won’t go as far as I desire my fear is that they won’t be proactive enough. I worry both that we will lose these gains in two years through their inaction and that we will lose these gains by their failure to sell their policies to the American people.

I was excited because the GOP appears to currently be in shambles. The party, from the outside, appears to be divided as to their future. A significant portion of the party leadership appears to want to return to a William F. Buckleyesque [awkward I know] course. Another faction seems to want to stay the course with an anti-elitism, pro-fundamentalism agenda headed by Palin. And I find that promising not only for the internal dissent, but because I firmly believe the GOP is about to start dismantling Palin’s career as their thanks for the disloyalty she showed McCain during the race. I was excited because while they may still be a minority the growing number of liberal evangelicals not only helps split their vote, but also helps send the message to everyone else that God is not a Republican.

Then there were the state initiatives. As the 2008 race drug on, I became convinced our community was going to do well in these races. Arizona and Arkansas appeared to me to be questionable, but I was happy about the message that Florida and California were going to send. While Connecticut was important, I didn’t think it was clearly connected to gay rights in the mainstream public’s mind to be classed with the other four. The closer we got to the election the bleaker the outlook got. As I spent the night watching these initiatives, I never really got a chance for HOPE. As Obama made his historic, nation altering addresss, I was both teary eyed and sick at my stomach. Those who granted me the privilege of spending the evening with them seemed much the same.

I have been looking forward to this morning for four years now. First with Hillary in mind, and then with Obama. But there is no joy in Mudville for me this morning. I am managing to retain some hopefulness, but my faith in mankind continues to weaken.

Californians were capable of coming together for the defense of chickens, but not for their gay neighbors. Oprah did a whole show on Prop 2, but there wasn’t enough time in that hour to even mention 8. Arkansans would rather see children raised by the state than in a loving gay home. Arizonans and Floridians …you know what, just fuck them all. There’s no use preaching to choir and right now it sure doesn’t seem like anyone else is listening.

However, I keep coming back to an image I saw on the TV screen last night. After Obama’s win was announced last night, they started videoing scenes of jubilant black crowds. Exclusively black crowds for several minutes. Pictures of young people screaming, dancing cheering, crying. People celebrating the enormous victory. People who’s faith in fairness just grew in unimaginable ways. It wasn’t those pictures that captured my attention. It was a shot of an old, white-haired, black man just standing in the middle of a crowd. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t speaking. I didn’t see him blinking. He was having a completely different experience than all the cheering younger people. What he was seeing was deeper, too deep to elicit mere cheers.

I am reminded this morning that my community belongs not to that younger generation, but to his.

After the 2004 election, I decided I'd come up with a slogan to express how I felt about things: "Vote Democrat, because false hope is better than no hope at all."

At the time, I truly believed every portion of it. Especially with Kerry as the candidate, I could see nothing but false hope, but I still couldn't give into the alternative of no hope.

I wanted to use that slogan this year, but with Obama becoming the democratic candidate, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm feeling hope that I honestly don't think is false, or at least not entirely. I'm prepared for some problems and some disappointments, but I imagine that I'll also see several things I didn't think were possible. For the moment, I'm still holding onto my hope, false or not. But I've got a gnawing feeling in my gut that you're right.

Wow, this post reeks of White privilege to me. Who the hell are you to sit on your sanctimonious high-horse, saying there will be no difference. Say that to the millions of those of us who are not white and saw one of us as President this morning.

Will he be perfect? Of course not. But it is only egotistical Whiteness that allows you to sit there and say what you do....

Mattilda, that’s a good post. But I take issue with your comment “On the positive side, at least Obama isn't talking about nuking Iran. Yet.”Sorry but it’s a done deal.

Joe Biden will play Cheney for Obama in the Middle East wars, backed up now by Gates, Bush’s current war minister and Colin Powell, war criminal. All three are long time members of the exclusive “Borders Are For Sissies” Club.
For them, and Obama, peace in the Middle East means a piece of Palestine, a slice of Syria, a bunch of Iraq, A piece of Pakistan, and Afghanistan for dessert.

A few weeks ago at a Seattle Democratic fundraiser Biden said:

"Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy… Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
"And he's gonna need help… Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10242008.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn02102007.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/abulhawa09182008.html

Mattilda, that’s a good post. But I take issue with your comment “On the positive side, at least Obama isn't talking about nuking Iran. Yet.”Sorry but it’s a done deal.

Joe Biden will play Cheney for Obama in the Middle East wars, backed up now by Gates, Bush’s current war minister and Colin Powell, war criminal. All three are long time members of the exclusive “Borders Are For Sissies” Club.
For them, and Obama, peace in the Middle East means a piece of Palestine, a slice of Syria, a bunch of Iraq, A piece of Pakistan, and Afghanistan for dessert.

A few weeks ago at a Seattle Democratic fundraiser Biden said:

"Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy… Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
"And he's gonna need help… Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right.”

I work in the repair department at a major telecommunications company. This is not residential, but business and corporate telecommunications . . . the big stuff. When dealing with some of my customers who want to know why things always break down, I tell them, "Human beings are inherently flawed and everything they touch is flawed. Stuff will break."

I have a job because people are flawed and things they build are also flawed in some way. If ALL humans are flawed, then they will make mistakes and disappoint. The choice this time was between a person far more flawed then the other person. Obama will make mistakes and will disappoint us. He's only human. But, he will disappoint us far less then McCain would have.

"You make it seem like people celebrating right now have had the wool pulled over their eyes."

Or worse. Some Democrats obviously knew that they were voting for a bigot – “god's in the mix" – and a President who'll impose poverty and austerity to pay the debts of the retarded rich and enlarge and expand the war in the Middle East.

I read you remarks and I think you knew that on some level but you voted for it anyway based on the delusion that ‘progressives’ or liberals can reform the Democratic party. Such support is unprincipled.

Chris,

That's below the belt. A lot of people of colour, including African-Americans, aren't enthused about the Obama election. It's unfair to charge someone with "white privilege" just because they're white (as far as we can tell) and critical of the president-elect. Take a look at the pages of Black Agenda Report (blackagendareport.com) or the sharp work of Adolph Reed. But most of all, let's not use race as the default/fallback point of critique. I think Mattilda's position, shared by many, deserves more attention than that. And using race in this slipshod way takes away from the very real ways in which race does matter.

You're right. Absolutely no hope to do the right thing should be placed in Obama now. It's time to pull him to the left as hard as we can.