Things are definitely leaning Obama's way, as expected, though with states being called on 1% or 2% of precincts, there's plenty of room for ugly surprises. With that in mind, I'd like to share something I picked up from a friend of a friend's blog. It's a little vow for McCain supporters (here selected):
I hereby vow that if Obama wins:
I hereby vow that if Obama wins:
- I will remove my McCain campaign bumper stickers shortly after he is sworn in. I will not leave them on my bumper until Obama leaves office.
- I will never refer to the election as "stolen" or a "coup d'etat". Massive voting problems should prompt future reforms, not invalidate the election. No matter how dirty the election, he will still be my President.
- I will never own a "days until Obama is out of office" countdown calendar.
- I will never pass on every verbal stumble as proof he is a moron, or buy books or calendars asserting such. Caveat: Joe Biden is fair game.
- I will not adopt a cutesy insulting nickname for Obama and use that whenever referring to him in order to avoid calling him the President of the United States.
- I will never call Obama "Hitler" or a "Nazi". Similarly, no pictures or photos will ever be digitally altered to give him a Hitler mustache.
- If any organization affiliated with Obama is enriched due to the direction of the country under Obama, I will not insist that Obama's motivations are wholly to enrich that organization.
- If Obama makes reasonable, logical statements that are backed up by the information known at the time, but these facts prove to be incorrect, I will not call him a liar.
- I will admonish any right-wing blog which dismisses Michelle Obama for being a woman, or which photo manipulates her image in a sleazy way. I will not adopt any kind of rude nickname for her, or hold her up for mockery for anything unrelated to political statements which she makes.
- Obama's daughters are totally off-limits. If they do something stupid, I will admonish any blogs which gossip about them. Their parents are in politics; they aren't.
- I will not demand Obama's resignation or impeachment for making decisions that are consistent with being President.
- Obama will take office while the War on Terror is still going on, and unless he is even dumber than he appears to be I can only assume he will take some steps to fight terrorism, regardless of what actions he takes in the current fronts of the war (Iraq and Afghanistan). I will not assume that Obama's every action in this is a malicious move towards oppressing the American people.
- If Obama, too, fails to capture Osama bin Laden, I will not assume he is not trying.
- Obama's judges, U.N. representatives, cabinet officials, diplomats, etc. are his to appoint. If elected, he is the President and he does not have to appoint people who are ideologically acceptable to Republicans.
- I will never threaten to move to Canada because Obama is taking our country to Hell in a handbasket.
- Should things ever become so dire under Obama's Presidency that I would have to leave the land that I love to flee to Australia, I will not threaten to do so. I will move and then verify my change of residency with a photo of me in front of that weird horseshoe crab opera house or the big rock.
Of course, the whole thrust of this piece is that we need to be gracious in defeat, and constructive in our time in the wilderness; for the sake of a nation that we love. This is why I honestly hope that McCain does not pull off a narrow electoral victory; if he's going to do it, let it be decisive — if not, concede graciously. Because I honestly don't know if America as I know and love her will survive another presidency conceived in such ill will. And for what it's worth, should McCain pull off the impossible, it'd be nice of our left-leaning friends to consider a corollary set of vows. But that's really wishful thinking.
3 comments:
C'mon, give us more credit than that. I don't expect you to hold me accountable for the DailyKos crowd any more than I hold you responsible for Obama bucks. Recognize them as the 10% of Obama voters who make 80% of the noise online. And probably 95% of the noise that gets linked from right-leaning blogs.
Also, I won't make some of those pledges. I will make fun of Obama gaffes if they are indeed funny, and I can make fun of any missteps Michelle Obama makes.
But I was looking on wikipedia today and remarking just how abnormally close the 2000 and 2004 elections were. At least a solid win will give the minority party time to redefine who they will be in the election cycles to come, which I think is ultimately good for American democracy.
I do give you more credit than that, believe me. I didn't read this piece as a wholesale indictment of Democratic behavior during the Bush years at all, and you'll see my selections from the original specifically cut down on what was present of that sentiment in the original.
My own take on it was as an admonishment to conservatives to avoid the temptation of falling into the same sort of mindset of precisely those 10% you mention, of simply becoming Bizarro Kos. Because there are probably well more than 10% of McCain voters are feeling some pretty uncharitable thoughts right now, and some of those feelings always will out. But we as conservatives should be on each others' cases, to police each other and keep that number to the barest fringe possible. One of the saddening things of the last administration was the way certain once-respectable liberals ended up slouching into the fever swamps. I want to see as little "Obama Derangement Syndrome" as possible. We think Obama lacks the experience and wisdom for the presidency? Then he in particular needs the service of a loyal opposition. I sincerely hope that Obama turns out to be a great American president; I hope that the Republican Party in opposition employs the skills and grace to guide, admonish, and support him in becoming one.
Yeah, and this is pretty much exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. People. Stop. Please.
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