Change I want to believe in.

To paraphrase Gerald Ford (something you won’t see happen here very often), our long national nightmare is almost over.

Part One of the national nightmare ended last night.  The election season, I mean.  Finally.  And not a moment too soon.  No more smear ads.  No more endless pundicizing about pointless minutiae.  No more mentions of William Ayres, who can hopefully now go back to a quiet life as a college professor.  No more Jeremiah Wright, who can now go on to plug a book that few people will read before he disappears into obscurity. 

No more Sarah Palin, who will hopefully just go away.  Although I will miss seeing so much of Tina Fey.

Part Two of the national nightmare ends in a couple months, when the Bush-Cheney regime finally gets tossed on the dustbin of history.

I want to believe that last night also means that we have finally transcended our history of race hatred and white supremacy in this country, but I’m too smart to believe that.  In spite of Senator Obama’s desire to have it not be so, this race was largely about race, and it showed in so many ways that we have a very long way to go before we finally can get over all that, if we ever will.  Senator McCain was gracious and dignified in defeat last night.  It’s just too bad he couldn’t have behaved more like that throughout the rest of his campaign.  Between himself, his running mate, his official and unofficial surrogates, and his mouthpieces in the Conservative Corporate Media, McCain’s campaign was marked by some of the most reprehensible race-baiting I’ve seen in my lifetime.  Between that and the use of “Muslim” as a slur by many of his supporters, McCain showed through his campaign tactics that he may not be the honorable man he so desperately wants us to believe he is.  Maybe someday he will look back on all of that and find a way to rehabilitate himself, and maybe he’ll try to make amends for the serious damage he and his cohorts have done to our national psyche.

Maybe not.  The Republicans are going to go even  farther to the Right to combat Obama’s agenda.  They have already shown us their true colors.    People of good will must be ready and prepared for this.  You betcha.

Today’s meme on Corporate Conservative Talk Radio consists of two main talking points to explain their defeat, it appears.  (I just had  to listen in, not to gloat, but to prepare for the arguments I’d soon be hearing from my conservative friends.)  

One: The media did it.  See, according to these guys, the Librul Meedeeah brainwashed almost 64 million people  into voting for a radical socialist closet Muslim, and the voters who voted for Obama (you know, those non-patriotic non-real Americans) were all just too stupid to know what they were doing.  It was all smoke and mirrors and “marketing” and packaging.  We were all duped.  And the implication, of course, one that they will all deny, is that the “stupid” voters to whom they refer are the ones who don’t look like them.  You know, like those scruffy college kids.  The newly registered voters.  Immigrants.  “Minorities.”  You know: black people. 

Today at the gym, I saw a bit of the Fox Noise coverage of last night’s big rally and the tag underneath the video said “Black Americans rejoice over Obama victory.”

And all the faces in the shot were white.  Every.  Single.  One.

(A part of this rant, at least for the two radio entertainers to whom I tuned in, was insulting Obama voters by saying they were “victims” of the public education system.  You know, the one I’m part of.  Most of us realize, of course, that if the public schools did do a better job of teaching American and world history, economics, comparative religion, and critical thinking skills, they’d all be out of a job.)

Two: The GOP lost because they weren’t conservative enough.  This is funny coming from folks who eight months ago could not stand  the idea of John McCain becoming their standard bearer, who then flocked to kiss his ring after he was nominated and then fawned all over his rabidly reactionary running mate.  I mean, sweet jeezoo, short of coming out on stage while goose-stepping, how much further Right could they have gone?  No right to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest or the “health” of the mother (remember that one?).  Unlimited access to firearms.  Tax cuts for the wealthy.  Corporate subsidies.  Drill, baby, drill.  Nuclear weapons and nuclear power.  Bombs, not diplomacy.  Not a mention of poverty.  More war.  More money for war.  More restrictions of constitutional rights.  Corporate health care for those lucky enough to be able to afford it.  Anti-public schools.  Anti-gay.  Anti-poor.  Anti-anybody but a certain kind of Christian.  Good grief.  It was as if Rush Limbaugh himself wrote the McCain platform.

Oh, well.  Let them sort out their issues.  Maybe they can call in Dr. Laura for an intervention.  In the meantime, the grownups have work to do.

Lord knows there’s a load of that.

Barack Obama has gotten his mandate.  He’s got a Democratic Congress.  He’s got the faith and backing of millions of Americans who support and believe in him.  So now it’s time to see the promise of change made real by action.

Talk, no matter how inspirin’ and highfalutin’, is still cheap. 

Now it’s time, to quote my older son, to “man up.”

To paraphrase Albert Einstein (another name you don’t get me throwing around very often), the same people who made the mess that Obama has inherited will not be the ones he can trust to help him clean it up.  I don’t want to see a lot of Senators or House members or dinosauric Democratic party bigwigs being given Cabinet positions.  I want to see thoughtful, progressive minds and thoughtful, progressive activists in those spots.  I want to see someone like Jim Hightower as Secretary of Agriculture.  I want to see Tammy Duckworth as the head of Veterans’ Affairs.  I want to see Robert Kennedy, Jr., as head of the EPA.  I want to see someone who has actually spent time in a public school classroom as a public school teacher  as Secretary of Education.  Part of the appeal of Barack Obama is his story, his LIFE experience.  He needs to surround himself with those who have those kinds of experiences, for real, not just in theory.

But that’s for tomorrow.  Today is a good day to kick back and celebrate and listen to lots of U2.

This morning, one of my students came in beaming, wearing one of her Obama t-shirts.  I’ll call her A.  All this fall, A. had an Obama shirt for each day of the week, I think, and she was just floating down the hall today.  I gave her a terrorist fist jab as she came over to give me a hug.  She asked me if I had watched last night (!!!).  She asked me if I cried.  No, I told her.  I did  do a LOT of laughing and cheering and high-fiving with Mrs. Agitator and my sons.

I told her that I did, however, get choked up at one point very late in the evening.  I was switching back and forth all night between the coverage on CBS News and MSNBC.  CBS had a crew at Spelman College, a historically Black college, I told her.  A. immediately brightened up (even more) and she told me that that’s where she wants to go to school someday, which I find cool beyond words for a kid her age to say.  The CBS crew had been watching the students and professors and administrators all night long, showing us their reactions as each Obama win was announced.  The kids were in a frenzy by 11:00 pm.  I told A. that when the announcement came that Obama had gone past 270 electoral votes, the kids just went crazy, laughing and screaming and crying all at the same time. 

I told her that it was something that I never thought I’d ever see in my lifetime.  Which is true.

“I knew I’d  see it,” she told me.

That’s  the faith that Barack Obama holds in his hands right now.  The undying, pure faith of a 14-year-old girl.  Who now sees her faith made real.

Here’s hoping he remembers that starting tomorrow. 

And that he acts upon it.