I got a pretty strong complaint from a buddy about my previous diary. His complaint was basically about why I cared about what Matthews thought about what had happened in the election. The event was what was worth remarking upon, not the response/reading of the event.
What I meant was, however, that it is important that people are responding to this election in such an affective manner. What kinds of celebration are, actually, called for here?
For Matthews, it’s worth celebrating that the US has elected an African-American. This feeling has anecdotally permeated all of my encounters with Obama supporters since Ohio was called. There’s a lot of "it shows a lot that in 40 years..." and the like that I hear from, generally, white yuppie types–including both baby boomers and young hipsters. There’s a lot of self-congratulation, like, "See? We proved we’re not racist! And for our second trick, we’re going to make Crash Best Picture!"
But, look, the point wasn’t to make some kind of gesture about race with this election. The point was to stop the GOP brand of corrupt misgovernance (which is why I think it’s important to realize how full of FAIL Bush’s reëlection was).
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