From a major party to a divided and Regional party. I wasn’t at all surprised by the generosity of spirit reflected in McCain’s speech last night, but it immediately made me wonder: what awful character deficiency made McCain put his campaign in the hands of such human filth as Karl Rove, William Kristol, Adolph Guiliani, Charlie Black, and the rest of the thugs whose jobs consist of whipping the authoritarians of the Republican base into a foaming-at-the-mouth racist mob.
America rejected their rethoric language. And I for one will not simply forget how The Republican party and; McCain supporters so quickly went to calling areas of the country un-American, hinted the PRESIDENT ELECT was friends with terrorists, and sought to label different views on tax policy as unacceptable, terrifying socialism.
Mistakes has been made and opting for money over love; lies over truth; status over service; and power over wisdom. He wanted everything he felt his name and status was about, but he overlooked the honor and service they were really about in favor of superficialities. There comes a point where all that catches up with you, where there is no going back, and no salvaging what you've done. The ancient Greeks would say McCain made the kind of mistake the Fates don't forgive. But his real tragedy is that he will never realize that until way too late.
Though McCain is touted as a "maverick" who knows how to reach across party lines and evince a degree of clarity and sane non-partisanship in American politics, there was little evidence of that during his campaign, including his concession speech where loud "boos" and nasty comments came out of the crowd. In contrast, members of the Obama rally kindly applauded McCain and his campaign efforts. The difference in each crowd's reaction made it clear to me what kind of campaign each candidate has run and how vastly different the country would be under each administration.
Obama has proven that he is the better man to help end the nation's divisive and petty habits, a potential he's shown by pulling more young people to the polls than ever; a millions of middle-aged voters who never thought they would go for this untried and unestablished candidate; and even the most small-minded among us who saw some potential in his cool, intelligent approach to the nation's troubles. Well changes has been made.
The Republican party suffered greatly last night and will likely not win another election until it undergoes a vast transformation. The era of the culture war must come to an end: it must win back its intellectual establishment -- the articulate urban "elites" who helped to build the party's ideology, like William F. Buckely -- and show itself as a party with strong socially conservative values while remaining articulate and sympathetic to every citizen's ills, as was the case during the Eisenhower administration half a century ago. It must also distance itself from self-aggrandizing zealots who espouse racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and sexist propaganda that do nothing but alienate more potential supporters. Only then will their journey continue. Now it's time to take a deep breath, stop looking back, and move forward. McCain did the best he could with what he had to work with - end of story. Another page of History open and another one closed. Amen.
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