This morning in the shower, I was thinking about a letter I wanted to write to President Obama. (I write a lot of letters to my representatives in government.) Then I reprimanded myself, "He's not your president yet. You already have a president." However, in that moment, I realized this is the most important change for me this week. After seven years of non-representative government, I finally have a president again.
Early on in his administration, George W. Bush made it clear that those who did not stand with him on policy were dead to him. "You're either for us, or you're against us." Peace activists and liberals were beneath his concern. Those he deemed terrorists were below subhuman and not covered by human rights conventions. Those in same-sex marriages, of course, needed to be written out of the constitution.
When we learned of the secret torture prisons and the wire tapping, my Republican friends couldn't understand why I was so upset. Those measures are only for bad guys. But this president didn't believe he was president of all of us -- and I knew I was one of the non-constituents.
Under the Bush administration, I could easily imagine a future in which homosexuals or peace activists or any number of un-Americans were rounded up. With Bush it wasn't really much of a leap, particularly since it was clear he didn't think he was my president. "You're either with us, or you're against us."
That's why Obama's acceptance speech brought tears to my eyes. He seems to really believe that the President of the United States of America represents all of the states. I know I'll disagree with him on policy, but I also know he'll be my President, and not just president of the "real Americans." Compare Bush's assertion that you're either with us or against us to this paragraph from Obama's acceptance speech on November 4th:
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
Come January 9th, for the first time in eight years, we will all have a president again.