Look Around, Change has Already Come

Pundits are already pontificating about when this great change will come to America, how will our lives be better in an Obama nation. Was it the chaos of the election season? The worry about minutia like filibusters and senate seat counts?. What has stopped people from seeing that Change has already come?

The United States of America is stronger, greater today than it was two years ago.

Hillary Rodham Clinton gave us a gift. America can go to its daughters, can look them in the eye and say "There are NO limits to where hard work can take you." Less than 100 years ago, women lacked fundamental rights in this nation. In the 88 years since the nineteenth amendment women have fought through incredible opposition to take their place as equal citizens. Today, we still have misogyny, we still have double standards, we still have sexism. But in today's America we've proven that despite the obstacles there is NO door shut to our women.

On Tuesday, we had unprecedented voter turnout. Demographics that have shown apathy to the electoral process in the past showed up and took a hand in their nation's future. Some of these will take home the message of John McCain and Barack Obama, the message that every American has a duty to their country. Will they become active in local goverment? Join the armed forces? Donate their time and money to charity? If even the smallest fraction take up the mantle of service to their nation, America has gotten a good deal richer.

Today, we are 138 years from the fifteenth amendment. We are 112 years from Plessy v. Ferguson. Only 54 years from Brown v. Board of Education. But in 2008, a black man is our president-elect. How did we get so far, so fast? America's unique progressive nature drove the civil rights movement, the same nature that has made us world leaders. THAT is change we can believe in.

President-elect Obama ran a brilliant campaign, and changed the face of fundraising forever. We saw an unprecedented volume of small contributions. Obama's campaign is owned by more people, touched by more hands, than any other. Do I think having a president so beholden to public sentiment is the best case? Not really. But I will take a president owned by the many over one owned by the few ANY day of the week.

The Republican Party will retool itself in the coming years. I believe the independant voters of America rejected social conservatism on Tuesday. And I sincerely hope that fiscal conservatives return to the fore to vie for my vote. Stronger Republicans will drive stronger Democrats, and the fierce competition between them will give us a more efficient and accountable government.

The changes I've mentioned are not blue state changes or red state changes, but benefits for all Americans. I sit today in a stronger nation than I did two years ago, and in 2010, I believe I'll be able to say the exact same thing.