And Now the Hard Work Begins

I have been so excited, so moved over the past twenty-four hours, that I managed to ignore the fact that I was coming down with a serious cold -- one of the benefits of working with little kids, they have germs to spare and I wasn't paying attention as they unloaded some for me to carry home. But aside from that I was too euphoric to write anything to post today. Then I found a piece on Huffington Post written by John Cusack and he said so well what I was thinking and feeling today that I decided to post it here.

Real Shock and Awe

More powerful than was imaginable, we are almost in a state of collective shock/awe. The promise -- Antigone before the king comes to mind -- wonderfully hard to process. He looked as a man with providence; the opposite mirror of Bush. There was humility inside it. He was even careful not to get too frenzied -- gave a soft landing. Sober, reflective, determined... emotional beyond words.

The world looked to America... we showed our best. For one night at least, the world was sane. The planet sighs in relief and deserves a righteous party. We have beaten back the worst in ourselves, the old and inevitable forces of cynicism and greed. No more patriotic primates to rule the roost.

Real change will take sacrifice, vigilance and will. The bailout of Wall Street, the wars and the final gorge of the right wing must be stopped now, a return to Keynesian balance. Bottom up instead of top down. Real value -- and the gold standard that every human has value -- be awarded respect, dignity and opportunity -- The currency of grace. A wave of renewal and possibility. And now the real work begins.

There was also this, posted by Paul Krugman

November 5, 2008, 8:25 am
The monster years

Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”

Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.