Last week Americans made a big choice. They chose who they want to represent their country for the next four years. Slightly more important than ‘Ranch or Italian’, me thinks.
However, this decision doesn’t have the instant gratification others do. It’s like the country has been given that toy they always wanted for Christmas. They know they’ve got it, they can see it right there under the tree but they can’t open it until January 20th. Until then they only have the old one, with a wonky wheel. It used to be fun but since it ran into that brick wall (Iraq? The economy? Take your pick.) it has never been the same.
And let’s not forget that there are a lot of people who didn’t want the new toy at all. The Deep South and of course, Alaska wanted Mr. Potato head with the special military attachments and Barbie doll wife. They can’t quite understand why all of a sudden everyone else preferred basketball.
The obsession with the new toy has led a newly election starved media to leap on the idea that Obama’s presidency will lead the country to unity. Suddenly, with this half Kenyan, half Kansas, Christian/Muslim, moderate/socialist cultural icon, demigod at the helm America will somehow become a homogenous mush of goodness. We’ll all be having hippy love-ins by March.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that just a few weeks ago there were stump speeches that referenced a ‘real’ America and by inference a ‘fake’ one.
These two Americas seem to lead separate lives like divorced parents living in the same house. They continuingly argue over the kids but neither has the nerve to simply leave. Each has their own population base, their own demographics and their own interpretation of the constitution. Their capital cities of New York and Wasilla are as far apart geographically as they are in ideology and yet their histories have been entwined together since the very beginning.
Those capitalist idealists of the South must have been pissed when that boat load of freedom loving do gooders landed. They even got the Indians on their side simply by starving half to death.
Nowadays, it appears easy to know which America you’re in. Small town = ‘real’, city = ‘fake’, farm = ‘real’, organic farm = ‘fake’, check shirt, trucker hat and own teeth = ‘fake’, check shirt, trucker hat and no teeth = ‘real’.
Being in California I thought I was safely in ‘fake’ America (my other favorite places being New York and Chicago, I’m clearly on that side of the divide). However, then Prop 8 passed. The state known throughout the world as the land of the liberal, home of the hippy, has passed an amendment to its constitution denying loving couples (who just happen to like kissing people of the same sex) the right to tie the knot. Florida? Of course. Arizona? Obviously, but California? A persons gaydar would breakdown from overuse in San Francisco and don’t even get started on Hollywood…There isn’t a state that loves queens more, except, well, us.
The irony is that it was partly the new Black and Hispanic vote, brought out by Obama’s nomination that were to blame. Young voters from all communities voted overwhelmingly no on 8. Older minority and immigrant citizens went democrat but are also staunchly Christian/Catholic and voted to pass the measure.
The lesson here is that even with an inspirational leader voted in by a high majority and winning in states that haven’t turned blue since the heady days of LBJ, division still rules. It’s just that the players have swopped.
Hope only really lies in changing not only policy but people’s minds.
See The Daily Show's take on this here.
