Two For Tuesday.

Yesterday the American people sent a decisive message to its government. We are done with your bullshit (for now, that is... until, you know, the democrats get the country back on a paying basis again and we all sink back into complacency and intolerance). Sorry about that last bit. Old habits die hard. [ahem]

For me, last night was the first time--in nearly eight years--that I felt that I might be able to be proud that I am an American. I haven't felt proud for so, so long. It is a beautiful and blessed feeling, and I do not take it for granted even as I bask in its glow. I truly believe that Barack Obama and his supporters triumphed over hate and fear, and that with a democrat-led senate and a democrat-led executive branch we may finally begin to climb back out of the abyss we allowed ourselves to be dragged into.

I realize that there are some people who worry about the loss of a number of moderate republicans in yesterday's election. A number of news sources I've read (chief among them the New York Times and the Washington Post) have noted that the republican base will now shift even further to the right. I cannot help but see that as a positive development, however. No longer will those bastards be able to hide behind a moderate fiscal conservative front. Everyone is going to see them for what they are: narrow-minded, hate-mongering, monsters. Yeah, I said monsters. And that's exactly what I meant.

Let we not forget that these are the people who refused halloween candy to the children of Obama supporters, who actually pinned their hopes for this election on racism and discrimination, who tried to disenfranchise mortgage-crisis victims at the voter polls among other things, and who sunk to the depths of insinuating that Obama = Osama = terrorist.

For the record, Obama is a city in Japan. So I guess Obama's really a Japanese man in disguise (which I guess just means that we finally know who exactly to blame for Pearl Harbor). Folks in Obama City are tremendously proud today. They held a city-wide celebration in honor of the election results.

For me, though, this Daily Show clip will always be the most nostalgic and delightful of the bunch. I was watching when Jon Stewart made the announcement that dropped almost decade of tension from my shoulders.

( Click here for the embed. )

And also, because I did declare a "two" for Tuesday. In a personal milestone that I am still excited over, my adviser, K., let me drive her car yesterday. It was dark, and she didn't know the way very well, and I took over from there--eliciting comments like, "oh, you drive fast, my dear!" and "okay, I'm not even going to look while you merge..." along the way.

So. Totally. Awesome.

But Before We All Get Too Pumped.

I do have to say, though, that as a native Californian, I am horribly, horribly ashamed to find that Proposition 8 appears to have passed.

It makes me doubt that Americans truly want change. We undoubtedly want economic change, but some of us seem to be permanently stuck in monster-mode. (For the record, I don't really think these people are monsters, but I do think religion has made them somewhat feeble-minded. But religion does that to everyone, so...)

I really hope that the "No on Prop. 8" campaign can limp to a narrow victory here, but I greatly fear that equal-rights just took another huge hit. I mean, if we can't get that kind of equality in California, of all places, things look horrible for the parts of this country that are still living in the dark ages.

On the bright side, however, Prop. 4--the abortion law--was defeated, as were all the other abortion initiatives on the ballot this year, including that totally ridiculous one in Colorado.